The prayer request below was sent to the WRF by Dr. John Nicholls.  Dr. Nicholls is an individual member of the WRF and he is a member of the WRF Board of Directors.  He is currently serving the Lord as Associate Minister ata Free Church of Scotland in Inverness, Scotland. 

Iver Martin, whose article Dr. Nicholls mentions in his request, participated in the WRF/Lausanne Consultation on Global Theological Education in Sao Paulo, Brazil, this past June.This request is posted on the WRF website and is sent to WRF friends with Dr. Nicholls' permission.

Dr. Nicholls may be contacted at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Dear Friends in the United States and the Rest of the World,

As Scotland’s referendum day approaches (Thursday the 18th), I thought you’d be interested to see the article by my good friend Iver Martin, who is minister of Stornoway Free Church and Principal of the Edinburgh Theological Seminary (as the Free Church College is now known).

The link is www.freechurch.org/news/preparing-for-the-independence-referendum

Opinion polls say the vote is likely to be very close – the latest one was 51% against independence and 49% for it.  A poll last week reversed those figures.  The debate is very fierce this week, with all kinds of rumours and allegations of how we’ll be affected, one way or the other.   In our church in Inverness we have members on both sides of the divide, who are strongly active in the campaigns.  I’m due to preach here tomorrow, and we will of course be praying over the referendum.  I value your prayers for that.

Whatever the outcome, there are likely to be significant changes in the way both Scotland and England are governed, since (if independence is rejected) the anti-independence parties in London have promised to quickly bring in a whole raft of new proposals for giving the existing devolved Scottish parliament extra powers over taxes and financial affairs.   That in turn might lead to demands for separate English, Welsh and Northern Irish Parliaments with similar powers.     If, however, the vote goes for independence, there will be a 2-year period of preparation and detailed deliberation, before Scotland becomes a separate country, in 2016. 

The Referendum would be very interesting if this were an ordinary political election, but as it is a vote on making an irreversible and drastic change to our country’s government and status,  it’s quite awesome.    (I guess you folks in the USA must have felt like this in 1776!)      Please pray for Scotland – and England – through this coming week.  As Thomas Chalmers once put it. the great thing we work for is “the Christian good of Scotland”.

God bless and keep you all!

In Christ,

John

PS As we have the option of postal voting, I’ve already voted – but like Iver, I’m not revealing how!