Chris Ringland

Chris Ringland

Chris joined the Evangelical Alliance as public policy officer for Scotland in 2021. In this role he represents our membership of churches, charities, individuals and families to the Scottish Government and Scottish Parliament, seeking to make Jesus known. He has also completed the Evangelical Alliance's Public Leadership programme. Previously, Chris worked in the Scottish Parliament. He is originally from Northern Ireland and completed degrees in both Geography & Politics and Public Policy in Scotland, and is a massive West Ham United fan (champions of Europe 2023). He is engaged to Eilidh.

Scotland moves closer to tackling commercial sexual exploitation

4 March 2022Thankfully, there may finally be some changes ahead. Over the past few months, momentum has shifted in the Scottish Parliament and these issues are rising up the agenda. Two debates in the parliament (Prostitution Law Reform, 3 November 2021 and Online Pimping, 10 February 2022), have shown how farcical the current legal situation is: “Commercial pimping websites operate openly and legally, and they are fuelling sex trafficking across the country. Those highly lucrative websites make their…

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COP26: Helping churches in Scotland to become net zero

11 October 2021As our policy position on the environment states: “We believe it is part of our commission as Christians to be good stewards of God’s creation. In Genesis, after God created the earth and everything in it, He declared it very good. He invited the people He had created to have ‘dominion’ over it; they were to take responsibility for its care. As followers of Jesus, we should treat the earth with respect because God has entrusted us to take care of it.” Our mandate to care for God’s creation and…

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Public Leader Scotland: Back for our fifth year

24 September 2021Our vision for Public Leadership here at the Evangelical Alliance is to transform our four nations of the UK over the next 30 years through having a generation of Christians leaders living out their public faith by being true salt and light in their work across all sectors. We believe these Christian leaders will bring the transformative power of the gospel to their communities, who complete their work with excellence and will fulfil the great commission – changing culture in the process. Here…

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Churches in Scotland: Physical distancing ends but face masks remain

4 August 2021The First Minister has announced that Scotland will move beyond Level 0 on Monday and remove all but a few COVID-19 legal requirements that have been in place since the UK went into lockdown in March last year. In practice, this will mean that churches can hold worship services with unlimited numbers of people with no need to enact physical distancing between households. These changes have been made possible by both the high uptake of the COVID-19 vaccination in Scotland (93 per cent of the…

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Redeeming the time

24 June 2020In Ephesians 5, Paul, pretty much, does exactly that, as he encourages the church to “look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is” (Ephesians 5:15-17, ESV). I love the NKJV translation of verse 16: “redeeming the time”. Granted, with schools closed and physical distancing measures in place, lockdown has made many busier than usual, perhaps with…

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Scottish Government Route Map: Phase 2 & the Church in Scotland

18 June 2020 The following conditions had to be met to begin Phase 2: The virus must be controlled;The R infection rate must be consistently below 1;The 6 World Health Organisation criteria must be in place (including capacities to test, trace and isolate, preventative measures established in workplaces and the risks of exporting and importing cases from communities with high risks of transmission are managed);Any signs of resurgence will be closely monitored as part of enhanced community surveillance but…

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What today's lockdown easing in Scotland means for your church

28 May 2020In order to enter the first phase, the following conditions had to be met: The virus has not yet been fully contained, and there is a continued risk of overwhelming the NHS capacity without lockdown restrictions continuing;The R infection number has been below 1 for at least 2 weeks prior and the number of infections starting to decline;Sustained reductions in hospital admissions, ICU admissions, and deaths;Testing capacity increased alongside the implementation of digital systems for contact…

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Scottish Government responds to Evangelical Alliance joint letter

20 May 2020We were delighted by the positive response from the Government. Aileen Campbell, cabinet secretary for communities and local government (directly responsible for faith and belief), wrote back to us, thanking Scotland’s faith communities for how they have provided support for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged communities across the nation throughout the pandemic. The cabinet secretary also outlined how the Scottish Government is continuing to engage with faith leaders and communities to…

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Seizing this opportunity to witness in the community

13 May 2020Over the past five years my time has been split between Scotland and Northern Ireland, and this travelling back and forth combined with the coronavirus crisis has given me much food for thought about what a blessing local community is in our lives. Many of us, and within my generation especially, spend much time thinking globally in our, indeed, increasingly globalised world. In so many ways this is a fantastic - we pray for and take part in world mission to fulfil the great commission and…

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Holyrood's response to the coronavirus pandemic

6 April 2020On Wednesday, 1 April, the Scottish Parliament unanimously passed the emergency Coronavirus (Scotland) Bill. Its purpose was primarily to make changes within Holyrood’s devolved powers of housing and justice, and it was introduced, amended and passed within a single day. These are the key changes: Housing The minimum notice period that landlords must give to private and social tenants has been increased to six months for the vast majority of circumstances. This is intended to relieve pressure…

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Public Leader Scotland: Weekend update

6 February 2020The diversity, breadth of experience and potential amongst participants in the room made for an incredibly inspiring weekend as we engaged with guest speakers and prayed together.The newly-appointed UK director of the Evangelical Alliance, Peter Lynas, opened the weekend with a session on engaging culture, showing us how Jesus’ love for the world speaks right into our culture in the west, one which is dominated by the idea of ‘progress’, individualism and consumerism. Using the example of…

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