Humanist celebrant Mandy Evans Ewing leads Time For Reflection at Scottish Parliament
November 4, 2025
We were proud to see one of our celebrants, Mandy Evans Ewing, deliver Time for Reflection in the Scottish Parliament on 4 November 2025. Mandy is the third humanist in 2025 to address MSPs at the weekly segment.
In her address to the Scottish Parliament, Mandy reflected on turning 60 and used the changing of the seasons as a metaphor for personal and collective growth. She urged listeners to embrace change, let go of what no longer serves them, and be mindful of the energy they bring into the world. Her message centred on choosing peace, compassion, and love over power and fear, and recognising our shared connection within the “Web of Life.”
The first law of thermodynamics states that no energy gets created in the universe, and none is destroyed, it just changes form. Everything we can examine contains an energy of vibration. All these vibrations co-exist at the same time. It is to this vibration that everything and every person is connected, whether we are aware of it or not. The droplets that glisten on the spider’s web in the garden remind me that our existence means we inherently belong to the Web of Life and to our one human family.
Mandy is one of the longest-serving Celebrants in Scotland and has been a Registered Celebrant since spring 2001. She was one of the first twelve to be authorised as a Marriage Celebrant in 2005. She has also been involved in developing Humanist representation in NHS Spiritual Care and is constantly engaged in promoting harmonious relations between people of all beliefs. She lives in the southside of Glasgow in a warm and close-knit community.
Time for Reflection was established in 1999 as a more inclusive alternative to the tradition of daily Anglican prayers. Despite those early aspirations, humanist and non-religious individuals have long been underrepresented in the programme of contributors. So far in the current session of parliament, more than 137 people have addressed MSPs at Time for Reflection. Around two-thirds have been representatives of the Christian faith and only one-quarter had a secular, humanist or non-religious background. In contrast, the last census found a majority of Scots have no religion. This includes 54.3% of people living in the Highlands.
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