By Robert Dilday
Scots went into voting booths today to decide if they’ll break Scotland’s 300-year-old union with the United Kingdom and become independent, a decision that would have profound implications for both.
The results, which polls indicated were too close to call, likely will be announced tomorrow. But one thing won’t change: the identity of the some 160 Baptist churches in Scotland.
Since 1869, when the Baptist Union of Scotland was created, Baptist congregations there have organized separately from the Baptist Union of Great Britain, which primarily consists of churches in England, and the Baptist Union of Wales. That’s not likely to change, nor would independence affect the churches’ role in society at large.
“If there is a referendum vote in favor of independence, the assurance given by the current Scottish government is for no change to the place of religion and religious observance in the country,” Alan Donaldson, general director of the Baptist Union of Scotland, said in an email Sept. 18.
A few days before the referendum, Donaldson joined other Christian leaders across Scotland calling for prayer about “the referendum and Scotland’s future.”
“What kind of nation do we wish Scotland to be?” they asked in a widely distributed letter. “History shows us over and over again that prayer changes things and that God responds to the prayers of his people.”
Among the signatories were the moderator of the Church of Scotland, the primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church and leaders of several evangelical denominations.
Last Sunday, at the letter writers’ suggestion, churches held a moment of silence just before noon, when many congregations rang bells for a full minute. Yesterday many churches observed a day of prayer and fasting.
In 1707, when England and Scotland adopted the Act of Union, the church “gave spiritual leadership, without taking sides,” the letter said.
“Today, there is the same, if not a greater need for the church in Scotland to give such leadership once again. While the ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ campaigns focus on the political, economic, social, educational and cultural issues, which are of course essential to the debate, as Christians we also care about Scotland’s moral and spiritual climate. We believe that God is the ultimate authority and we have a biblical responsibility to pray for our nation and its leaders at this crucial time.”