Campbell McKinnon

 

Reverend Campbell McKinnon’s thoughtful and thought provoking talk focused on change.  To make his point from the outset, he had the good fortune to be able to start with a reference to Jose Mourinho who had just been fired by Manchester United.  While Campbell gave many examples demonstrating change in different ways, one of the best related to his Grandmother born in 1890 before the first heavier than air aircraft flew.  By the time she passed in 1980 man had stepped on the moon and it was common place for people to travel the world in jet airliners.  Change, he said, is a defining characteristic of our time. We live in the era of Post Modernism, a 20th Century French philosophy.  The outcome of which is ‘there is no truth’.  It is now universal that we should tolerate everyone and everything.  The corollary to this is that people no longer commit.  People now ‘drift’ and are less likely to know their neighbours and communities are less cohesive.  One of the consequences being that there is a loss of leadership.  As a result community organisations from golf clubs to BB Companies, Scout and Girl Guide Groups, etc struggle to recruit leaders.  With many such examples Campbell moved on to the question is there life after ‘Post Modernism”?  He addressed the question both philosophically and theologically.  Campbell concluded that most change in recent times is material and worldly.  Perhaps most obviously as change occurs in response to market forces.  However, Campbell believes that there are signs of people looking for more meaningful and spiritual change.  It is his hope for the future that we might find the truth is restored so that we have a better relationship with others and the world.In this turbulent day and age of Trump and Brexit, a worthy hope.  Campbell gave us plenty to reflect on!

Campbell McKinnon