The final item of business today is the members' business debate on motion number 441 in the name of Rhoda Grant on Scottish local coastal partnerships. This debate will be concluded without any questions being put and I would be grateful if those members who wish to speak could please press the request to speak buttons now. I call on Rhoda Grant to open the debate. Seven minutes please. We are privileged here in Scotland to live in a country with magnificent and varied coastline. We have mountain sweeping down to the sea, spectacular cliffs and rocky headlines, beaches of silver and golden sand, salt marshes, estuaries and macher filled with wildlife, hundreds of harbours big and small. Our coastal waters provide a living for our inshore fishermen and for our boat operators offering marine wildlife tours to view whales, dolphins, basking sharks, sails and seabirds. There are international yachtsmen and women sailing our coast. There are weekend sailors and canoeists and cruise liners. There are lifeline ferries and cargo ships, oil industry supply vessels, tankers and indeed oil rigs themselves coming in for maintenance. We also have offshore wind turbines and soon we hope wave and tidal energy devices. All are using our ports, harbours and coastal waters. It is easy to see how our coast and inshore waters can come under pressure, how there can be conflicts of interest between users, how marine and coastal wildlife habitats could be threatened and how our beaches might be degraded. Members will be aware of the legislation and European directives that protect our marine environment. That was as a result of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit calling for better management of the world's seas and coasts, which led to the EC's fifth action plan call for integrated coastal zone management. The Scottish Wildlife Trust also held seminars back in 1992 and 1993, which encouraged the idea of wide stakeholder engagement. Projects were set up under SNH's focus on firsts initiative, which gathered and identified data on resources, uses, issues and the needs of our firsts. That will also serve as a baseline for future target setting. Without marine planning, building strong links and stakeholder networks was paramount for delivering integrated coastal zone management through discussion and conflict resolution. Integrated coastal zone management is a cyclical process that needs at least 15 years to deliver, so we are now seeing the results from early management plans. Networks have been built up by our coastal partnerships, and I welcome them to the Parliament this evening. We have got representatives from our great firsts, the Solway, the Clyde, the Forth, the Tay and the Murray Firth, as well as East Grampian coast and the Hebrides. In this debate, we celebrate the work that they do in promoting their coastal areas economically and culturally, while always seeking to protect biodiversity. Their role in encouraging schools and community groups to be aware of their coastal environment is also vitally important. The Highlands and Islands have three of those partnerships, the Clyde, the Hebrides and the Murray Firth. The Murray Firth is the largest of the Firths, stretching from Duncan's Bay Head to Fraserborough. A special area of conservation lies to the west of a line between Helmsdale and Lossymouth, and you find its seafood in the best restaurants in the Mediterranean. The Firth is also famous for its oil platform construction yards and still supplies the oil industry and maintains rigs. It has championship golf links, magnificent beaches, such as Dornoch and Nairn, countless fishing harbors, especially along the Murray and Aberdeenshire coast. It has havens for migrating birds in its home to the internationally renowned Murray Firth dolphins. According to recent research that is instigated by the Murray Firth partnership, the dolphins bring in around £5 million to the local economy and tourist revenue alone. What is the role of the Murray Firth partnership and other coastal partnerships? The Murray Firth partnership is a voluntary organisation. It promotes dialogue between competing interests so that the first natural, economic and social resources are kept in good order. Some examples of what the partnership does will help to illustrate its work. It brought the dolphin cruise boat operators together with SNH to provide accreditation for boats working in the SAC. It can access funding and, indeed, it can access some funding. It hopes to enlarge this initiative to create a wildlife smart programme together with East Grampian and TASG partnerships to promote sustainable marine wildlife watching along the east coast. Lately, the Murray Firth partnership has been promoting locally called caught fish and shell fish through the sea here project. Fishermen, fishmongers, chefs, restaurateurs and retailers have been brought together to promote local seafood, which often goes abroad. If that is successful, local fishermen have a stable local market, and local people will have the benefits of fresh local shell fish and sea fish. In the heritage field, it recently promoted the Gansi project, which gathered together examples of traditional Gansis and patterns from bygone years and promoted interest in new ways of using those patterns, which was taken up by a London fashion house. The exhibition has toured the UK and there has been interest too from across the North Sea, particularly from the Netherlands as well. Most importantly, Presiding Officer, for integrated coastal zone management, the Murray Firth partnership has recently been working on a matrix for the interaction between all users of the Firth. This has been at the behest of the Scottish Government to pave the way for marine planning partnerships. They tell me that this has been a fascinating exercise, results of which can be seen on their website. It is the kind of data that will be needed for successful marine planning that will be rolled out over the next few years. The advent of local marine planning partnership means that coastal partnerships will have an uncertain future, not knowing what role of any they will have. Coastal partnerships have done so much to promote the proper and sustainable use of our coasts. It would be a great pity for the knowledge and expertise that they have built up over many years to be lost. I would therefore urge the cabinet secretary to tell us what the Scottish Government's thinking is about their future role and how we can capitalise on their experience in the future. Many thanks. We now turn to the open debate. Speeches of Four Minutes, please. I call Check Brody to be followed by Malcolm Chisholm. First of all, I thank Rhoda Grant for bringing forward this debate this afternoon. In Scotland, the coast and seas are the sources of many of our foods, our wildlife, our energy, our minerals, our transport, our tourism and, above all, I believe, our history. It is hard to believe today, but it is 22 years since the Rio Earth Summit and 21 years since the launch of the Focus on Firths initiative. At that summit in 1972, 172 Governments participated with 116 of them sending heads of government or state, and some 2,400 representatives of non-governmental organisations were also there. The Kyoto protocol was also agreed that year following the Climate Change Convention. A lesser-known convention on biological diversity was also agreed at the Earth Summit. The convention, of course, had three main goals—conservation instead of biological diversity, sustainable use of its components and fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from genetic resources. Scotland's response, as I said, was the Focus on Firths initiative, which was established soon thereafter with the establishment of seven local coastal partnerships. The mainland of Scotland has 6,160 miles of coastline. When you include the aisles, that increases to some 10,250 miles, which represents 42 per cent of the circumference of the globe. Scotland, with that range, is a special place for biodiversity. In fact, as the coastal partnership website says, it is not only special for the sheer number of species, it supports but also for its complex mosaic of habitats and scenery that make up our rich and varied landscape. Approximately 90,000 species of animal plant and microbes live in Scotland, supported by many habitats and varied landscape from mountains and moorland through rivers, forests, etc. to the gateways of our coasts and seas. It is part of our lifeblood. The seven local coastal partnerships in Scotland have many projects in action at the moment, from the coastal care projects in the Hebrides to adopting a Beechden Grampian to the Firth of Clyde Forum, working on the waterfront regeneration in the Clyde and the fourth coastal litter project. The Marine Scotland Bill was introduced in the Scottish Parliament on 30 April 2009, a bill that sought to create a new legislative and management framework for the marine environment. That included a new system of marine planning, a revised system of licensing marine activities and powers to establish marine protected areas. Marine Scotland, the body, was created ahead of the introduction of the bill as a directorate of the Scottish Government and helped to deliver many of the provisions in the bill. As of 24 July this year, 30 marine protection areas have been designated under the Marine Scotland Act. Those will be incorporated into the national marine plan and represented in the national marine plan interactive alongside existing protective areas. Presiding Officer, Scotland is a rich and diverse country and we have come a long way in the 21 years since the focus on the first initiative was launched. Our coastline will never fail to amaze, never cease to attract tourists and visitors to our shores and never fail to inspire all generations of Scots. Let me close on a quote from the famous Scottish conservationist John Muir. He said, everybody needs beauty as well as bread. Places to play in, places to pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul alike. Scotland's coastline is that beauty. Let's ensure that we continue to protect Muir's legacy. Scotland has seven local coastal partnerships. Much as I love the northern coast that Rhoda Grant was speaking of, I shall understandably concentrate on the fourth estuary forum, which is the local coastal partnership, which covers the coastal area of my constituency as well as much else. The fourth estuary forum takes in a diverse waterway that combines a European birds directive designated special protection area and special areas of conservation for grey seals with a busy commercial shipping area with exports of oil and gas and imports of goods from all over the world to the stretch of water that must maintain a delicate balance between the protection of our natural ecosystems and the commercial industrial needs of the surrounding ports and towns. Membership of the fourth estuary forum is open to all who have an interest in preserving this great natural resource for future generations. They do that by including future generations through projects like Friends of the Fourth that get young people in schools and clubs out into the natural environment. The Friends of the Fourth project follows on from the very successful coastal litter campaign, which ran from 2001 to 2004 in order to raise awareness of marine litter and set up beach cleans to reduce debris. Set up in 2005, they raise awareness and gather information on issues including marine litter, climate change and biodiversity. They supply teachers who may wish to include lessons on beach littering and the impact that it has through useful educational packs. That offers a curriculum-based package giving practical advice on projects that are rewarding and fun. With the help of Friends of the Earth, a regular group is now running at Seafield near Kirkcaldy to clean up the beach there, so that is one important aspect of the fourth estuary forum. One of the themes of the fourth integrated management strategy, moving on to another topic, was to promote access to and enjoyment of the fourth. In 2002, the fourth estuary forum set up a project to look at strategic planning of fourth-wide access for walking, cycling and riding. All seven local authorities, Scottish National Heritage and Pass for All partnership, were involved. The forum commissioned a major feasibility study to look at scoping, demand analysis, marketing and funding of around the fourth route. The study was completed in 2004 and has provided the framework for local authorities and other such as Sustrans to develop routes for access around the fourth. As a result of that, Sustrans has developed the round the fourth cycle route as part of the national cycle network and fourth estuary forum regularly attends the round fourth group to help to promote access to members and the wider community. In doing so, they not only broaden enjoyment of the natural environment but also improve it by supporting active travel and perhaps reducing some of the heavy traffic that can damage coastal ecosystems. The forum has also been proactive in seeking ways to adapt the coastline and protect ecosystems from increasing occurrences of flooding. Their past investigations ran into natural defences, including a 1999 project, co-ordinating with GOIs and Glasgow University to look at potential options for managed realignment along the fourth. After considering the feasibility of various sites, it was concluded that there could be some local protection achieved but flood risk for the wider estuary would not be lessened. There were some valuable discoveries made in the course of the study, however. It was found, for example, that salt marsh and habitat creation could be created by using this technique. Finally, the motion gives me a chance to praise the work of the Water of Leith Conservation Trust, one of the member organisations in the fourth estuary forum. The Water of Leith Conservation Trust was established in 1988 by residents concerned about the river and its future. From small beginnings, this voluntary organisation grew and, in 1997, the trust was successful in obtaining funding, with match funding principally from the City of Edinburgh Council and LEAL, for a £5 million capital project to complete the Water of Leith walkway and renovate the Slateford schoolhouse into the Water of Leith visitor centre. I and many others, of course, am now very delighted to use this walkway on my bike and in walking. I hope that that is also the case for the coastline around the fourth estuary and throughout Scotland. I look forward to further developments along the coastline of my constituency in the coming months and years. I, too, congratulate Rhoda Grant on securing this debate. Like Rhoda, I welcome the opportunity to pay tribute to the good work of local coastal partnerships in my highlands and islands region, such as the Murray Firth Partnership and Coast Hebrides, the Outer Hebrides Coastal Marine Partnership and, indeed, many others across Scotland. There are many positive examples of the different types of work being undertaken by local coastal partnerships. The Murray Firth Partnership runs a dolphin space programme, an accreditation scheme for wildlife tour boat operators, which is an innovative co-operative approach to sustainable wildlife tourism. It's Seafood Sea Here project aims to make local seafood more easily available and increase the amount and quality of seafood offered in local restaurants and shops. On that point, I simply must mention the town of Oben in Argyll and Bute, which now has some of the best shellfish outlets in Europe, unmatched for quality of produce, and I think also excellent for their service as well. I will never make any apology for advertising Scotland's shellfish. Lobsters, crabs, scallops, prawns, they are the best in the world. Coast Hebrides Coastal Care programme aims to restore and protect dunes and soft coasts by undertaking a range of beach and dune management. Restoration and flood protection also has initiatives there. Maramgrass has been transplanted to stabilise blowouts in some of the dunes, and this is vital work as coastal erosion is a real threat to communities in the Western Isles, for example. The motion refers to bringing stakeholders together and broken agreements between different sectoral interests, and that is very important. In preparing for this member's debate, I consulted with representatives of the Clyde Fishermen's Association and it was most encouraging to learn that they felt that their participation in the first of Clyde forum for many years now has been very worthwhile, with the group acting in collaboration and co-operation seeking constructive solutions for the concepts that it supports. They suggested that, unlike some other initiatives, the forum understands intuitively that there needs to be recognition of existing socio-economic patterns which should not be disrupted unless by way of an improvement. As we look to improve the biodiversity and health of our coastal environment, we need to take with us the fishermen and others who currently make their living from our seas and coastline. In many cases, they are the ones with a specific practical understanding, expertise and knowledge about our coastal waters that can help to inform the plans to ensure the sustainability that all of us would like to see. This is a point that I have made repeatedly in this chamber, not least in the debate that we had in March this year on bringing the Clyde up to good environmental status by 2020. To conclude, Presiding Officer, I say that I am running out of time, the Scottish Conservatives recognise the importance of our coastlines in terms of our economy and our biodiversity. We are aware of the positive achievements of Scotland's local coastal partnerships and we hope that the best practice, experience and expertise that has been built up over the last 20 years or more can be maintained and developed as the new regional marine planning partnerships are introduced. Thank you very much Presiding Officer and I do want to congratulate Ryder for a grant that is for bringing this evening's debate. It's amazing what one discovers when one is faced with something that I knew nothing about and I wondered why I knew nothing about it, but this is what happens. I went and explored and found that East Grampian has a coastal partnership about, which I will tell you a little, and if you go to the south end of my constituency you'd then find that there was a Tayus Turi forum. Mercifully, the division between them is precisely where Angus meets Aberdeenshire, which I'm sure makes life a lot simpler for both. I looked at the partners and I'll start with East Grampian coastal partnership, which was the local councils, the port and harbour authorities, Marine Scotland, Aberdeen University and others, and I thought, well, here's a group of people who clearly have a vested interest in the area, but it must be active partners because I know they've got only one part-time employee and I think he will be hard put to achieve a great deal unless those partners do get involved. The objectives are to support and promote sustainable development, but, and I quote this one specifically, to seek to protect, conserve, enhance and promote the natural and cultural heritage of the East Grampian coast and then to engage stakeholders and everybody else who, of course, who's interested. It seems to me that's a very commendable thing to do, an open-ended thing to do, but something which I wish them well in and clearly will help with them in the future. Given that I'm going to be followed by Dr Elaine Murray, I think we're going to go around the whole of Scotland, Presiding Officer. I would like to give you just a brief tour of the east coast, at least as far as I have it, which starts with Stonehaven in the north, which has not only the harbour and the museum, but, of course, the Hogmany fireball ceremony, which must be absolutely unique and will not be happening anywhere else if only for health and safety reasons. You would take no distance at all to get to Donato Castle, a brief walk to Fowlsea and Nature reserve run by the RSPB, where you not just find birds but butterflies and clifftop flowers. It's still walkable to Inverburby. At that point, you can pick up on a railway track, which I was walking down with my wife only over the weekend. It gets you down to Gerddon, Johnshaven and, with a bit of climbing, probably to St Cyrus, the wonderful beach down there. There are fish festivals, there are fish and chip shops, there are plenty of tea houses and really good exercise to be had, and it's just a wonderful environment, isn't it? Others have mentioned litter. It is a problem on its own, which we have to address in both directions, Presiding Officer, because, as I stood on since our speech on Sunday afternoon, I was looking at bottles that hadn't come in on the tide—they hadn't—but I was also looking at huge hay bales that must have done, because they couldn't have got there any other way. We were scratching our heads as to where they'd come from, but clearly litter comes in both directions. I'm looking forward to the marine spatial planning, which I know is going to be announced very soon. I look forward to the Cabinet Secretary's announcement, I suspect, within very few days. I also welcome our increasing interest in what we do on the foreshore, increasing concerns about planning. I wonder, actually, whether the old course at St Andrews would ever be built if somebody wanted to do it now. Wouldn't it be a special scientific interest place that nobody would ever be allowed to put a golf course onto? I thought I'll leave you with. It all needs to be looked after. Clearly, institutionally, these coastal partnerships are doing their bit, and as I say, I look forward to the draft marine plan to be laid within the next few days. We, as individuals, clearly have to do our bit. We have to make sure that we don't drop the litter. We certainly have the opportunity to go down there and enjoy our countryside, and I really just encourage everybody to do so. If I have the moment, Presiding Officer, I can just make the point that I have back on Chisholm's comments about the water of Leith. I have walked it. Comments about Oban—I have been there, and I've walked most of my own coastline and probably most of the others that other people are going to mention. It's a fabulous opportunity. I guess what does worry is that we don't meet very many people out there, and we really need to broadcast that rather more. Many thanks.  Thank you, Presiding Officer. I, too, would like to congratulate Rhoda Grant on securing this debate on local coastal partnerships. There are over 50 partnerships across the United Kingdom, which make a vital contribution to the management and integration of activities on the coast. However, like Mugham Chisholm and Nigel Don, I intend to concentrate on my own local coastal partnership, which of course is a Solway Firth partnership, turned 20 years old in June, and it was inaugurated by Magnus Magnuson with the initial aim of developing a cross-border marine and coastal strategy, and it became a limited company with charitable status in 2003. The partnership continues to work on both sides of the Solway and therefore has the challenge of operating in two different regulatory and policy frameworks, but rises to that challenge and makes an important contribution to supporting both the local economy and the local environment. Membership is open to all who are interested in coastal issues, whether organisations or individuals. Over the years, it has played many important roles, helping with the recovery from the effects of Footh and Mouth in 2001 in Dumfries and Galloway and Cumbria, co-ordinating Solway fish to the organisation, not the species, establishing the Solway aquatic litter task, or SALT, developing the Solway biosecurity plan and taking action on non-native invasive species, including publishing an identification guide. The partnership has worked with both the UK and the Scottish Governments during the development of marine planning legislation through our Marine Scotland Act and the UK's equivalent, the Marine and Coastal Access Act. It is involved with the North West Insure Fisheries and Conservation Authority in England and the South West Insure Fisheries Group in the Scottish part of the Solway Firth. It has run several successful projects such as Making the Most of the Coast, which was a two-year project completed in the summer. Over this period, it involved over 2,500 people, engaged in 28 education providers from nursery schools to research establishments, worked with over 30 groups and featured in 33 publications. Primary school children were involved in filming a documentary about the sea show. Three awareness-raising films for young people were produced on coastal issues, including risks to coastal heritage, monitoring climate change and marine litter, along with four short films featuring the variety and beauty of the Dumfries and Galloway coast. The Solway Firth partnership has also been involved in co-ordinating work, aiming to reopen the important Solway cockle fishery. The management of this intertidal fishery has been very problematic to say the least over the years. Cockles are economically valuable, but they are also a food source for waders such as Oystercatcher and not that clearly there is a balance between economic and environmental considerations. The partnership has worked with Marine Scotland on developing a sustainable management model, and although their local contractor, which has been taking part in the scientific study with Drew in August, I understand that the Government believes that sufficient information has been gathered to enable the fishery to reopen in September next year. The partnership produces a bi-annual newsletter containing information about a range of coastal issues. November's edition includes an article for example on smuggling on the Solway in the 18th century, an activity that benefits not only from the differences in customs and excise in Scotland and England, but also from the proximity of the Isle of Man, whose rulers imported large quantities of luxury goods, repackaged them and sold them on to the Solway smugglers. People may know that one of the most famous excise men was Robert Burns, indeed, who caught a smuggler at Annan, which prompted him to write The Deals of War with the excise man, which suggests that he was somewhat more sympathetic towards the smuggler than the excise man should have been. When I get back to the Solway fish partnership, first partnership, it also works with local people to promote sustainable enjoyment of the coast through activities such as sea angling, sailing, kayaking, diving, wildlife watching and coastal walking. The inner Solway furth is designated as both a special protection area under the birds directive and a special area of conservation or a natura site. The estuary is an important wetland for overwintering birds such as fellbird, barnacle geese and hoop response and is the most northerly habitat for the rare nathrotac toad for which I am a species champion in Parliament. The role of the Solway furth partnership has been and will continue to be essential to the sustainable development, management and promotion of the Solway. I am grateful to Rhoda Grant for the opportunity to thank members of the partnership for their vital contribution to our region. Many thanks. I now invite Richard Lochhead to respond to the debate. Cabinet secretary, around seven minutes please. Thank you and can I begin by congratulating Rhoda Grant on bringing forward this motion to recognise the important role played by our coastal partnerships over many years. It is quite appropriate to be able to speak in this debate after closing an opening of debate on sea fisheries just beforehand, which was quite relevant to many of the contributions from members. I enjoyed Rhoda Grant's economic, social and cultural tour of Scotland's coasts, particularly the Moray furth, which I have the privilege of representing part of in this Parliament. I certainly identified with many of the attributes that many members mentioned in relation to the Moray furth, which is a stunning area of Scotland. I just want to echo the comments of others in acknowledging the contribution of those partnerships to the management of our coasts and their seas. Of course, that is a contribution that has helped to shape and influence national policy in this country. Many of the partnerships in the bodies that they represent were directly involved in the wide-ranging discussions that took place and which led to the Marine Scotland Act 2010. Again, some members referred to that, and that legislation is all about protecting many of the features that Rhoda Grant and others mentioned in her speeches. Those partnerships remain important to the on-going implementation of Scotland's marine legislation. The motion highlights the partnership's role in the development of marine planning and the work that it has done to pilot marine regional planning, which has been taking forward now. It is certainly the case that it has helped to pave the way for our new marine planning framework. The debate is timely, as not only are we celebrating the 21st anniversary of the emergence of the local coastal partnerships, but also because the national marine plan will be laid before Parliament later this week. That will be Scotland's first statutory marine plan and will set the framework for sustainable development of our seas. Marine planning seeks to manage the impact of human activity on the marine environment but also recognises and encourages the growth of all the industries that have been mentioned by many members that need and use our waters, such as fishing that has been mentioned by many members, such as oil and gas and renewables and marine tourism and so on. It also gives further weight to the designated marine protected areas and preferred locations for the development of offshore wind and marine renewables. It is right that we take this approach. Our seas, as has been said by many people, are a vast resource for a stunning environment, essential for our climate and our lifestyles, capable of providing food, energy and, of course, enjoyed by tourists more and more, and recreational users alike. Scottish Seas, which we are blessed with, are among the most diverse in the whole of the world, home to many distinctive habitats and iconic species, such as the basking sharks and over 20 species of marine mammals and internationally important bird populations. I thank the cabinet secretary for taking intervention. He has made a lot of Scotland becoming a food and drink nation. Would he agree with me that advertising our quality products from those areas that you are talking about is one of the best ways of doing it? I certainly agree with that. I mentioned in the previous debate how I was in Orkney last week meeting food and drink businesses. Clearly, the nature of Orkney very much defines the image that has helped to sell food and drink from the islands. That is certainly in other parts of Scotland as well. I hope that next year, the year of food and drink 2015, our coastal partnerships and everyone who has an interest in promoting the image of the fantastic natural environment that we have, that spawns of food and drink will find ways of promoting their local produce throughout that important year. It is important that we manage all those resources because they will continue to support our image for food and drink and all the various species that I have mentioned and all the other benefits that we want to be there, not just for generations to come. The national marine plan is going to help us to do that. We have worked hard to develop this over a number of years since the act came into force. That reflects the processes that were necessary to arrive at a plan that achieves a fair and appropriate balance between the economic, environmental and social interests that many members have referred to. First and foremost, it is based on the evidence in Scotland's marine atlas, much of which is available online. If you have not seen it, please consult it. It is online through a system called national marine plan interactive. I encourage schools, MSPs and coastal partnerships to use that system and look at the marine atlas. The marine plan was drawn up after heavy consultation. Marine Scotland hosted over 30 consultation events around Scotland last autumn to take views from local communities. We have worked closely with a range of stakeholders, including the Scottish Coastal Forum, representing the local coastal partnerships and the Marine Strategy Forum. Of course, that engagement with the local stakeholders and the understanding of the local marine environment was a mainstay of coastal partnerships activity throughout their whole existence. The partnerships have provided a forum for local stakeholders to come together and connect directly to the community on issues that affect those communities. Their activities range from the practical, like organising the beach cleans. Again, I have attended some of them in my constituency and other members referred to them, or other activities such as providing wildlife watching guides, SPABA in my constituency, and again other members have mentioned some of those activities in their local areas. Some of those local initiatives, but as well as that, the strategic initiatives, such as developing the sector interactions with each other and addressing some of the issues of conflict between different sectors and different parts of Scotland at the same time. However, the key characteristic of the partnerships has been their ability to bring together a range of interests to consider those common issues and try to find solutions to local issues. Thank you for taking the intervention. I wonder how he envisages the partnerships going forward with the new marine planning set-up that is going to happen. Will they be involved in that? What will their role be? Many of the organisations that are part of the coastal partnerships are also going to be involved in marine planning in different parts of Scotland, the marine regions. As we evolve the marine regions, because clearly we are at a very early stage in the coming years, we will see the evolution of local planning for our seas and the marine regions. We should, as the member suggests, look at ways in which the coastal partnerships have a role to play in that. However, I do not think that it is for ministers to sit in offices and come up with ideas necessarily of how coastal partnerships can play a greater role. I think that we want to ask the coastal partnerships themselves of what role they feel they can play and what support they require from the Government to play that role in the future. I very much encourage that bottom-up approach, because that is the value of the partnerships around Scotland's coasts. There is a lot happening at the moment. Clearly, I expect and hope that local coastal partnerships will continue to champion their members and all the marine industries that they are involved in in their local patches. I want them to do what they can to raise awareness of all the issues that people have been speaking about—the riches of our coastal communities. If there is anything that the Government can do to help that, we are certainly open-minded. However, there are many fine examples around the country of that happening, whether it be the Murray-Forth partnership, working with her neighbours in the East Grampian coastal partnership to raise awareness for the demand for local seafood. Of course, there are plans to develop an East Scotland seafood trail in 2015, which is timely, because that is a year of food and drink. There are many different examples around the country of that co-operation happening, and I really want to continue to encourage that. I believe that the Government's plan to establish marine planning partnerships at a regional level will ensure that the work of the local coastal partnerships is continued and developed. We are working closely with the First of Clyde Forum and Shetland to establish formal marine planning partnerships in those regions, which I referred to earlier, and the experience of the local coastal partnerships, their engagement with local communities, the issues to tackle and the ways of working provide many learning points for the development of the regional marine planning that is going to be taking forward in the coming years. I could talk for a while about many other initiatives that are happening around Scotland involving the partnerships. I do not want to do that. I just want to close by commending the work of our local coastal partnerships. I wish them well for tonight's reception. If I can pop along, I will certainly do that. I look forward to ensuring their commitment to managing our coasts and seas as reflected in our new marine planning regime, and let us continue to celebrate Scotland's coasts and the role that our coastal partnerships play in doing that. Many thanks, cabinet secretary. That concludes your degrants debate on Scottish local coastal partnerships. I now close this meeting of Parliament.


Yes, please. You can go ahead. Yes, so my question was why she is something that I sort of learned was, you know, about the Stokewood Church also being in heaven. What I also, I mean, what I wanted to understand was, what, is there any role that, you know, the, at least, you know, that church in heaven would play because I think it, you know, it sometimes, I mean, earlier, I'm just sort of thinking a lot over here. This could be, you know, this could be misinterpreted. And I think it has been misinterpreted, you know, where people, you know, pray to ancestors and, you know, pray that, you know, that they would intercede for them in heaven. Yeah. I understand what is the role of, you know, the church in heaven. Yeah. Thank you, Christopher. Yeah, I know some Christian circles have this concept of praying to the ancestors who were believers. Okay. Why did we say that church is also there in heaven? See, the basis for that is one scripture which is given in our notes is from Ephesians 3, verses 14 and 15. It says, for this reason, I bow my knees to the father of our Lord Jesus Christ from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named. So it's very clear, the whole family in heaven and earth. So there are those who have slept in the Lord, you know, first Thessalonians talks about it. So, yes, we have, I mean, people who have gone ahead of us in heaven. Now, the role which they have right now, see, there are, there is a way of living in heaven, right? And there is an existence with a purpose in heaven. Now, we don't know too many details about it. But one main reason why, one main thing that they would be doing is worshipping God, okay? So they would be worshipping God and whatever other assignments are given to them. Now, we know when we talk about the millennial rule and reign of Christ and, you know, the ages to come and all, there will be roles assigned to every individual. So we don't just have a purpose while we are alive in this physical body. But we also will have a purpose when we move on to, you know, move, like, what do you say, when we go home, we will still have a purpose. So we don't know the details of that. But one thing we can be clear of is that we cannot communicate, right? We cannot reach out to those who have gone ahead of us because we don't see any reference to that in scripture. We are only called to pray to the Lord Jesus. And yeah, we only trust and wait and hope that we will see our loved ones.  We don't see any of that. We just we honor them and we wait and hope that we will see them once again when the Lord Jesus comes back. Does that answer your question? Yes, thank you. Okay, sure. Thank you. Thank you, Christopher. Just add one small point. Yes. Yes, Sam, please go ahead. I think on the contrary, it's dangerous or even prohibit. I'm thinking of Saul calling upon the spirit of Samuel and how that was very wrong in the eyes of the Lord. So that's one.  Sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm not able to recognize one moment. Okay, so yeah, no, I was I said, thank you for adding that point and that example shows how God responds to, you know, these attempts to communicate with the dead and all that. But again, I don't know if we covered this when we talked about deliverance and believers authority. See, spirits of those who are dead. In scripture, we don't see that they can come back. Okay, we just don't see that. So when Saul called upon the spirit of Samuel, most likely it was a demon. Okay, who just took the form of Samuel and appeared like Samuel and communicated with Saul. But whatever, you know, whatever happened, it was displeasing in God's sight. And we as believers, you know, we are not, it's not right to try and communicate with the dead or have any association with the dead. We just honor them and we wait in joyful anticipation that those who have slept in the Lord that they will come back with Jesus during his return. Okay, so let's move forward in our discussion here this morning. We said that the church has a spiritual dimension. So to understand this in the simplest way, we are part of this body in a spiritual sense. Okay, we don't see it, but we are a part of it when we become a believer. So we said that, you know, when we are in Christ Jesus, we become a part of the body of Christ and that this body or this church is eternal. Okay, that this spiritual entity, it comprises of those who are alive here on the earth and those who have gone ahead before us. And we also said that this spiritual entity has a purpose and has been chosen by God to execute his, you know, execute whatever he wants done on the earth. So whether we realize it or not, we are automatically part of this spiritual entity called as the church. Now let's look at the natural dimension. Okay, the things that we can see about the church, the things that we can notice in the physical realm. So the natural dimension of the church, you know, the church really is the household of God. It is called as the household of God. So in this passage here on page number 6, 1 Timothy chapter 3 verses 14 and 15, this is when Paul writes to Timothy. Paul is basically instructing Timothy who is one of the overseers, you know, of the churches that were established by Paul. He's giving him instructions about how to take care of the church in the right way. So he uses this term for the church and he says, I'm writing to you that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and the ground of truth. So he's giving a description of the community of believers that meets at Ephesus and he's using terms like house of God. You should know how to conduct yourself in the house of God. You should know how to conduct yourself in the church of the living God. He says it's the pillar and the ground of truth. So all these descriptors of the community of believers. Now if we didn't have all this in scripture, we would just think, oh yeah, you know, it's a good thing to meet together. It's a good thing to work together, to serve together. So let's just do it. That's about it. No, but the word of God reveals to us the purpose of God in each and every one of these descriptions. We are told that we are the house of God. In other places, the term household of faith is also used. So you understand that it's something like a spiritual family and we will look at it in depth later on because there's one entire topic only on the family of God and what it means. But for now, let's understand that we are a family. Though we come together as a community, it's not just for a gathering. But we are actually a household or the house of God. And who is the head of this house? It is the Lord Jesus. He is the head. So the pattern of life that this house will have will be as per what the head sets. And we must realize that the local church and I will use the term local church. Natural dimension, local church because that is the entity that you and I can see. The people of God, we interact with them and we recognize this natural dimension of the church. And the first part about the natural dimension is that we are the household of God. It's not just a social gathering of some sort or a community of some sort. But we are actually the household of God. And we also saw terms like the church of the living God. So the church of the living God. So all this shows us that God is very interested in the church. And he is central to the church. And the church must have a standard that comes from God, that comes from the Lord Jesus. And we are his very household. And we must not forget that. And this publication that we are using as a textbook, you would recall is also called the house of God. Since the natural dimension, we are the house of God. We are also the church of the living God. We are the physical expression of the spiritual body of Christ. Now for the world, they wouldn't know what the spiritual church is. Where does the spiritual church exist? Now you are saying you are part of the body of Christ. Where is that body? But the local church is that physical body. And that church is able to express and reveal the Lord Jesus in very many ways. Not just to the world, but even to the demonic powers. So we are the expression of God here on earth, the local church. Now for some of us, we will ask this question. So if you say that the local church is an expression of God on the earth. What about all the denominations? Which one of those is a representation and which one of those is not? See, in scripture what we see is that when we are born again, we become a part of the spiritual dimension of the church. Now in this world, we have lots of names describing what we believe and how we do church and all of that. But honestly it doesn't, for God, he is not looking at all that. He is only looking at the fact that you are part of that spiritual church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And thereby you hear on the earth, when we live out that life, we are representing God. We are representing the body of Christ. So he only looks at us as the body of Christ. And we shouldn't divide on the basis of denominations and some sort of sects and so many things. We divide ourselves but to God, he is looking at us as his body. He is looking at us as that one united entity. And we have talked about this earlier and we will talk about it later also. When God looks at the city, he addresses the city-wide church. So that unity among the churches is very, very important. And God doesn't go by denominations the way we do. So local churches must learn to work together, to serve together and move forward with God together. So the local church is the natural expression of God here on the earth. And then a few more things that have been mentioned here in our notes is that we as a local church are the instrument that will execute Christ's purposes. We've already touched on that point and the fact that we represent Christ. Yes, we represent Him, we represent His compassion, we represent His justice, we represent the truth. Out there in the world, there are so many standards that are not right. But the church has to uphold the right standards, the truth. So we represent God in all these ways. And we are the family of God, the family of God here on the earth. So the natural dimension of the church comes across in this way and has all these purposes. That's kind of easy for us to understand. So because the Lord Jesus has instituted the church, and when I use the term the church, I don't necessarily mean a local church. I mean the spiritual dimension primarily. But of course, if we are part of the spiritual dimension, then hopefully we will be part of the natural dimension of the church as well. So when He instituted the church, it was important. It will continue to be important because the church is eternal and that's what we said. So do you think people need to be part of the local church? They may be part of the spiritual church, but is it important for people to be part of a local church? What is your opinion on that? Isn't it enough to be part of the spiritual dimension? Ma'am, we should be part of a local church to fulfill practically the purpose of God. Thank you Rupa. That's an important point there. So we must be part of a local church to practically fulfill the purpose of God. True. What other benefit do we have in being part of the local church? Being part of a local church, we get to learn truth in the Bible. There is a proper interpretation of the Bible verses. We are getting to know the purpose of each man and woman. Yes, thank you Dinesh. We will get to know the true purpose. We will learn God's word. We will grow in God's word. We will have the right interpretation of Scripture if we are part of a local church. Yes, those are also reasons why we should be part of the physical body of Christ. Samuel adds benefits or the intentions of being a part of a local church should be through and through. Because I used the word benefits, we should have the right motivation to be part of the local church. We mustn't be part of the local church to get something out of it in the negative sense. But to be what God wants you to be, you are part of the local church. That's all right. Thank you everyone. We have already come up with several right answers there. For us to live out this Christian life to fulfill the purpose of God, we have to be part of a local body. It cannot be done individually. Now God has a call on each one of our lives and if you notice that call has to do with serving others. That call has to do with working with others. That call has to do with bringing the gospel to somebody. So can this be done alone? It cannot. God intends for us to be part of the body. It's only when we are part of the body that we can use the grace of God which has been given to us. We can bless others. We can learn from others. Our character will be sharpened when we grow together with other people. We will mature in God when we are part of a local church, when we are part of the body. And we see in scripture that there is a passage in Isaiah 65 verse 8. It says, new wine is found in the cluster. So if you want to extract wine, using one grape would be a foolish thought because you would not get enough wine out of it. When you use a cluster of grapes you can extract a sufficient quantity of wine. And wine is representative of the anointing. So while there is an anointing upon individuals, there is something about the anointing on the body of Christ, on the community of believers. So for us to stay away from church for whatever reason and not be involved, it's not biblical at all. And we must make sure that we are part of some local body. Now everybody has their preference. Everybody has the leading of God suggesting to them that they must be part of a certain church. And that's fine. You'll be led by God. But once the Lord leads you, be planted in a church. Psalm 92 verse 13. It says, those who are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. And one nice example which pastor has shared in this chapter is he says, when you look at the parts of the body, they don't float around. At any given point in time, they're all attached and they function together. And that is normal. But if you find the hand floating away to some place and only when you need to write, you somehow get it and attach it and then you do your writing work. Something would be abnormal about that individual. And in the same way, if believers are not part of one community for a long period of time, or rather, if they're not committed, that's the point I'm trying to make. If they're not committed to one local body and every now and then you find people, I'll go to this church this Sunday. I'll go to another church another Sunday. You can't do that for very long because then you will not be planted. And if you're not planted, then how will you grow? How will you mature in the Lord? How will you fulfill God's purpose for your life? So it is important to belong to a local church and to be part of that natural dimension of the church.  I am a member of... Even before you get your membership, I'm a member of all people's church, you're a member of the body of Christ. But God's intention is for every believer to be planted in a local church as well. Okay, Kennedy has added a point here. He says to practice our God-given authority. Wonderful. Yes, so we can also do that. Now, maybe quickly, without taking too much time, would you know of reasons why people don't want to be part of the local body? Believers, there are so many. Okay, so what are some things? Yes, Charles, yes, please. Some of the believers don't want to belong to a local church because they do not want responsibility. They don't want to be identified. They want to remain in the hiding. They don't want to be identified. For instance, maybe they are cohabiting, maybe they eloped with some other people and they know that in case they are individualized, then the local church will rebuke them. So you will say, I am going to this church, then another time is going to this church. He's always moving around during what we call spiritual transhumance. He's just moving. So they are refusing to be responsible. They don't want to be corrected. That's what I think. Okay, okay. Yes, Charles, I think that's true for some people. They don't want to take responsibility. They don't want to be called out for a wrong way of living. That could be the reason why they don't want to get connected with a local church. Avni has added here. She says some past experience. Prabhakar says Christ not represented accurately. Yeah, possible. Maybe they got discouraged. They went to a community and that community was not upholding the truth. So they must have had a disappointing experience and said, okay, I will not be part of any community. I will just live for God on my own. So that could have happened. So yeah, past experience, not representing Christ accurately. Samuel says ego, status, fear of commitment, fear of responsibility, ungodly lives, fear of being judged. Yes. Then poor doctrinal teaching says Kennedy. Avni lack of true revelation of what church truly is. Yes, that's true. The reason believers don't want to be in submission. Okay. Yeah, that's possible. Then Abhishek, church hurt and yeah, correct Abhishek. It's very unfortunate, but you know, when the church hurts you, there's control, manipulation going on. All these negative things. Rose says unresolved offence taken from other believers. Yes. Yeah, that could be a cause too for people not being part of the church. So yeah, we know that all these reasons are there. But you know, we as believers, we can keep this in our hearts. And if we come across individuals who are not willing to commit because of one or more of these reasons, at least we would know, you know, how to approach them and how not to judge them, but see, you know, pray for them and see if there is anything we can say or do or, you know, connect that person to the right leader in church such that, you know, they can overcome their hesitation and be planted in the church. Kiprabhakar has included lack of maturity or understanding. Yes. These are all the reasons why several people do not want to be part of the local church. But we've already said that it is important to be part of the local church. Only then we can fulfill God's purpose. Now let's move forward with the next chapter here. And this chapter emphasizes the mission, the message and the methods that are used by the local church. So the mission of the local church, it's very, very clear. And I told you before his ascension, the Lord Jesus, he told his disciples that they need to go and make disciples. So Matthew 28 verses 18 through 20, the great commission where Jesus tells them to go and make disciples throughout the world. This is the mission of the church and we should never forget it. So why is the church still here on the earth? You know, now that we are born again, we've been saved. We are ready to actually move on to the next, I don't know what to call it, like, you know, we're all fine.  I'm sure most of us will be like, yeah, it's cool. You know, I'd rather be with Lord. Even Paul said that if I'm not here in the body, I am with the Lord. I'm present with the Lord. So we are happy to be with God. But why are we still here? Because God has a purpose. He has a mission for the church and this mission is to preach the gospel. This mission is to bring people to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and we should never forget that. Now as a church, if we are not doing that, then something is wrong. Okay, so the mission of the church, the spiritual church, the local church in the natural dimension, we should be going about preaching the gospel. And by preaching the gospel, what do we intend to do? We want to make disciples, right? So people get saved and then we teach them the word of God. We mentor them, we train them, we equip them, we empower them. And now they become disciples. Or in other words, followers of the Lord Jesus and his teachings, right? And they go ahead and do the same thing. And in this manner, the church begins to grow and it begins to expand and multiply. This is the mission of the church. So the primary purpose of the church and God's strategy is world evangelization and discipleship. So that is the goal of the church and we must never shift it and put something else as the primary purpose. No, world evangelization, that is the mission of the church. Secondly, the message of the church. We began by saying that Jesus said on this rock, I will build my church, the revelation that he is the Messiah. So what do we go around proclaiming as the message of the church? It is the gospel about the Lord Jesus, that he is the Messiah, that he has done the work of redemption and now he has salvation to offer to each and every one of us, right? And so Paul in 1 Corinthians 1, he says that I preach the gospel. It is foolishness to some people. And he says for the Greeks, it doesn't mean anything and for the Jews, is it? Yeah, for the Jews also it doesn't mean anything. But even if they are not accepting of it, I'm proud to preach the gospel. So he knows that the message that has been given to him is a powerful message. Even if people reject it, that is still the key message. Now we cannot change our message for acceptance. Maybe if we change our message, we might have more listeners. But if we do change our message, we will no longer be the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. We will no longer be in line with the purpose that God has for the church. So we should never change the message. The message is the gospel and the gospel is about the Lord Jesus as the Messiah. And we must go ahead and preach this message. I really like the book of Acts. If you read the sermons, Peter stands up and he preaches and Paul wherever he has an opportunity, he talks about the Lord Jesus. He talks about his own personal testimony of how he got, how he encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus. But there is something pure that you will observe about their sermons. Something pure that you will observe about their preaching. Their message is never diluted by other things. They are always preaching Christ. They are always preaching Christ as the Messiah. And no wonder when Peter preached one message, 3,000 people got saved on that day and they were baptized. So the message of the early church was this, the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we too must preserve that and we must never let that get diluted. And that is the primary and the main message that the church has been given. Now, coming to, okay, Christopher says, okay, this was an additional point to our previous discussion. All right, so the message of the church, we said that it is the gospel. Now, in addition to that, in addition to that, we preach the gospel, we bring people, you know, people respond to the gospel and they become believers, they become part of the spiritual body of Christ. Now, they need to be discipled. And when we are discipling the people, here is the next thing that we must be careful about. We must make sure that we teach sound doctrine. We teach sound doctrine. In Acts 20, Paul uses these words. He says, whole counsel of God, for I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God. So in discipling, we must be careful to teach everything that the Lord Jesus has taught us, everything that scripture has to speak to us. And we are terming this as the whole, the whole counsel of God. Now, what would be the opposite of the whole counsel? It would be, you know, it would be like preaching and teaching only parts or some themes in scripture. And I'll just give you one example. Now, if we, if I as a preacher, if I only touch on grace, okay, if I only touch on grace, my message is not wrong. It's not wrong at all, but you know, the same Bible also talks about truth. So while God forgives, God also wants us to walk in righteousness and uphold the truth. So there is those two sides, you know, that two sides to make up for right living. So I cannot emphasize on one and completely forgo the other. When I'm teaching the whole counsel, I would need to teach it in a balanced way so that the people receive it and they apply it also in a balanced way in their lives. And, you know, they are able to represent Christ well and live victoriously and all of that. So whole counsel means making sure that we touch upon everything that is important. Okay. Now, while discipling people, here is the other thing to keep in mind that we must guard against wrong doctrine. In the Word of God, we are told that in the last days, there will be lots of false teachers and false doctrine that will come about. But as a pastor, as a minister of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, in any capacity, we must be careful to protect the people from wrong doctrine. Okay. And one good way of doing this is to know the right doctrine. It's like the example that we use about currency. So if you know the original note really well, you can identify a thousand counterfeits. Okay. So you don't have to do a research on those thousand counterfeits and then, you know, compare it with the original and all of that to recognize the original because that would be, you know, time consuming. But the easiest way is if you spend all your time on the original and you know what the original is, whenever anything false shows up, you will recognize it. You know, and you will not subscribe to that. So same thing with the Word of God. We should preach the gospel. We should preach the whole council of the Word of God to the people so that they are built up in every aspect of their lives. Okay. And we must also make sure that we protect them against wrong doctrine and false teachings. So when this is done, the church can grow in a healthy way. So that would be the message of the church. What are the methods that the church is supposed to use to fulfill its purpose? So there are a couple of pointers in our notes here. The first pointer or the first important thing when we talk about the methods that we're going to use is that it should be pure. Okay. It should not be some form of manipulation or some way of deceiving people. And through that, you know, you're sharing the gospel, you're discipling the people and you're building God's kingdom.  You're preaching the gospel, which is a message of truth and purity. But if we are doing it in impure ways, then how is it that we are serving God and how is it that, you know, we are doing it sincerely? So we must make sure that our method is pure. All right. So some example, there are a couple of scriptures that are given here in our notes. Let me read one of them for you. I'll read a second Corinthians four versus one and two. This is on page 12, the bottom of page 12. It says, therefore, since we have this ministry as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart, but we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness, not handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. So you see that Paul is very careful about doing things the right way. Whether it is preaching the word, he says handling the word of God, you know, correctly. Then he also says doing things in such a way that you are commended by others, right? And even others conscience is not hurt because of what you have done. So we must be very careful about the method that we use. Now, example of this. Yeah, okay, let me just share kind of a silly example from my own ministry. So this one region where we would step out there to share the gospel on the streets because there were lots of colleges and all. So at one point, you know, we were sharing for several weeks and we had to plan something like a gathering where we could bring these young people that we had connected with for fellowship. So I was discussing with pastor and then I was telling him that pastor, let's do this, maybe on a Saturday, on a Saturday, like right after college finishes at one o'clock, most colleges finish at one o'clock and, you know, students are hanging around in that area. How about we have our meeting at 1.30, right? We can give them some something to eat, you know, and that will be a good way of catching these students. And then we will have a meeting for some two hours or three hours and all that. So pastor is like listening to me and he's saying, but Nancy, what will happen to, what if their parents worry and wonder, you know, where our kids, why our kids haven't come home on time today? So I said, no, no, no need to worry about that pastor. I mean, let's, this is the best way. Otherwise, once they go home, we can't catch them.  I mean, at that point, I didn't see anything wrong with it. I was just thinking, man, if we can disciple so many young people in this area, it'll be a great impact, you know, for that particular area. So that is what I was thinking, but I wasn't thinking about the way in which I wanted to do this, but pastor kind of helped me think this through.  Now, there can be things that people do, you know, bigger things that people plan to do. But if it's not done in purity and if it's not done with sincerity, then it will not glorify God. And we must make sure that, you know, we even what Paul wrote here, he said that commended even by the conscience of men. Okay, so even in the sight of men, whatever we do, it must be done in the right way. Okay, so use methods that are pure, not methods which will deceive and manipulate people. Okay, here's the next point. The method should not be offensive. But at the same time, we don't compromise on the message. Okay, so what we're saying here is we should not, the gospel in itself is it can be offensive and people may not accept it readily. That is understood. That is understood. But beyond that, we must be careful not to offend people. Now, here is the next example. Usually in our, you know, in our planning of meetings and things like that. And particularly, you know, our outreach churches when we discuss with them. You know, sometimes when the gatherings happen, they can be very, very loud. They can be very loud. So when people plan on constructing a church building or something like that, we would advise them and say, okay, try to find an area which is non-residential, if possible. And when you set things up there, make sure that, you know, you do the sound arrangement and all in such a way that it's not disturbing the neighborhood. Okay, so we try to be careful about all these things because if we don't do that, people would respond with, you know, they wouldn't like these loud meetings. They wouldn't like Christian people gathering very often and, you know, creating trouble for them on their streets and all of that. So just avoid, don't try to give offence even in this manner. Small little things, you know, when we are careful about that, we can actually continue to preach the message without giving offence to the people. Okay, so I gave you a simple example there, but you could think about this in other ways as well. For example, when we are preaching, now, if I use some statements that put down other religions, the gospel in itself, you know, is not accepted that easily. Now, if I add condemning statements as part of my message, right, what will happen? It will directly offend people and when it directly offends people, people will turn off and that's not the right way to share the gospel message. So these kind of things, you know, we must be careful in whether it is in our preaching or the way we are doing our ministry, just be careful not to offend people. And there are many examples, we'll talk about it, hopefully we'll talk about it later also, how not to offend people while doing the ministry. Okay, then in the method, we must be careful about demonstrating the power of God and working by the spirit of God. Now, we know in the ministry of Jesus, he taught, he preached, he healed, he demonstrated the power of the kingdom. So we are following after that model. So we don't just preach and teach, but we honestly present to the power of God and we demonstrate the kingdom of God. And, you know, that is the right method of serving God. That is the right method that the church has to represent Christ. Then spirit directed, okay. As a church, I mean this is a given, we are not here to do our own thing, but we have to wait on the Lord, we have to receive our instruction and we have to follow what the spirit of God is telling us to do. And once again, a very good example of the spirit directing ministry is in the book of Acts. Okay, and in our notes here, some examples are recorded. There is a time when the Holy Spirit in Acts 8 tells Philip, go near and overtake this chariot. A very small suggestion which Philip receives and he goes and overtakes the chariot and he finds the Ethiopian eunuch in that chariot. Then the event unfolds. He shares the gospel, the eunuch is reading the book of Isaiah and not understanding what it is. But Philip explains and says, hey, you're reading about the Lord Jesus Christ. Okay, and the eunuch responds to the gospel message and accepts the Lord Jesus. But you know what? The direction of the Holy Spirit in this case, it may seem very small and insignificant. After all, Philip heard, overtake that chariot. But who did he find in that chariot? He found an individual of influence that Ethiopian eunuch, he's a treasurer to the Ethiopian king or something like that. And this person is the one who took the gospel to Africa. Okay, and Philip had no clue when God told him to overtake that chariot. But what is Philip doing obeying the instructions of God? And as you're obeying the instructions of God, sometimes we won't realize it will be very simple. God just says, okay, talk to this person or write an email to this person, send a message to this person. We're just following the direction of God. What's happening in the background?  And the last section here, it says strategic. Strategic simply means doing things in a purposeful way, doing things in a timely way. We are doing it in an adaptable way, whatever is relevant for our times and also being very well planned and executing things very well. Because if we do a sloppy job of what God has called us to do, again, that might offend some people. But above all, that's not the best worship that we offer to God, isn't it? Everything must be done extremely well and done with excellence because it is our act of worship and that's the worship of the church. So we also use this point in the way the method that the church uses which is being strategic. And I'm noticing here that we have run out of time. So class, what we'll do is, if you have questions pertaining to what we have discussed in the second session, then please post it on the stream page. I will take it up over there. And if you want to have a discussion, then you could please remember that question and come back with it for the next class. We'll have a short time of discussion and then we'll get into the next chapter here. So yes, thank you everyone and I really hope you are enjoying the subject about the house of God. And God bless, you're free to join your next class. Thank you. Thank you ma'am. Thank you. Bye for now. God bless. Bye. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Bye. Thank you ma'am. Praise God. Thank you.


And I'll talk about this new initiative that we call the List of Out-Countries Universities Consortium on Climate Change, or ALUCCC, LAMP for short, and frame it a little bit in the context of work that we've been doing over many years in IID and then now with ICAD, in support of the List of Out-Countries group. As you probably know that for many years, IID, when I was here before and now under Achala, is supporting the List of Out-Countries in the international negotiations on climate change. We do a lot of capacity building, training, mentoring, support, technical support in the negotiations themselves. We've been doing that for many years. But since we now have an agreement called the Paris Agreement that was agreed a couple of years ago in Paris, we are now shifting the focus to implementing the agreement. No longer just negotiating what goes into an agreement, but how do we implement that? Implement it on the ground. And so in the Paris Agreement, we have a very important article, which is a new article called Article 11 of the Paris Agreement, which is specifically on capacity building. And it was a little bit of a controversial article in the negotiations because the developed countries weren't interested in having it. We, the developing countries, were interested in having it. The difference of opinion came from the fact that developed countries were quite happy to continue to support capacity building the way they have been doing it, which is to fund international consulting companies to fly it into a country, do a workshop, and fly out. This fly-in, fly-out, shop-time capacity building is how half a billion dollars has been spent over the last decade on climate change, so-called capacity building. And we, the developing countries, felt that that wasn't good enough. We needed to build capacity at the national level. And so Article 11 calls for building national capacity-building systems at the country level, in all countries, to develop time-developing, in order to tackle climate change. And no longer just depend on this fly-in, fly-out, short-term, consultancy-driven approach. And in response to that, we, I've been talking to a number of partners from universities in this developed country, because every country, no matter how poor, has a university. Bangladesh has more than 100 universities. They exist. Their job is to build the capacity of their, the leaders of their country for the next generations to come. And some universities are over 1,000 years old, so empires have come and gone, and universities have continued. So they are very sustainable institutions whose job is to do capacity building, but nobody's invested in building their capacity to work on climate change, or very few of them. And so that's what we're focusing on. The Luck Initiative starts with a group of 12 countries and 12 universities from these developed countries. We will reach out to the other countries, 47 total Luck countries, or these developed countries. And it's an official South-South Initiative of Knowledge Exchange of the Lease Developed Countries group with our patron being Gabriel Jumbo, who is the current chair from Ethiopia of the LDC group. We have no funding for this. We've decided to just develop it ourselves, and we have a work plan, which we call a PLAN A and a PLAN B. PLAN A is what we can do with no external funding, and we've started doing that already, exchanging information, developing our young students' programs, et cetera. And a PLAN B, which we would require funding for, which we're trying to raise funding.


Our DNA is made of the same DNA as the tree. The tree breathes what we exhale. When the tree exhales, we need what the tree exhales. So we have a common destiny with the tree.