Voluntary groups and churches have been involved with the Scottish Parliament since before its inception, through the Constitutional Convention which paved the way for the Parliament. Since then, the extensive system of Cross Party Groups at the Parliament (currently 42) has created a series of forums where civil society and politicians can discuss issues. Parliamentary Committees regularly invite civil society groups to give evidence, and the Executive has a Voluntary Issues Unit. The Scottish Council of Voluntary Organisations has developed an extensive Parliamentary Information and Advice Service, and there is also an informal network of policy and parliamentary officers from the Third Sector in Scotland which meets regularly to discuss engaging with Parliament more effectively. The Scottish Civic Forum brings together a wide range of groups to discuss policy issues; it also has a major project to assess levels of participation in the new political process. There is a broad acceptance that the voluntary sector is involved in policy implementation, and a compact has been agreed with the Executive, setting up standards of good practice in ensuring participation. The Social Justice Committee are currently holding an inquiry into the operation of the voluntary sector in Scotland.

The Scottish Parliament's petition system has been much praised. 241 petitions were sent to the Scottish Parliament in its first year, and a quarter of these were from voluntary groups, including churches. Petitions sent to the Scottish Parliament are dealt with by the Public Petitions Committee, which decides how it should be dealt with and has to ensure that an adequate response is given. Petitions are generally referred to the Committee best equipped to deal with them; they have led to Committee inquiries, public meetings and Parliamentary debates, and are also used in Committee consideration of Bills.

Through Action of Churches Together in Scotland (ACTS), the Scottish Churches established a Parliamentary Office with the remit of enabling the churches to engage effectively with Parliament and policy-making, and this office now provides a wide range of services to the churches and individuals in this area. The Roman Catholic Church, Evangelical Alliance and CARE each have their own Parliamentary Officers, more directly involved in lobbying, alongside the SCPO's enabling role; other faith communities work through the Scottish Inter Faith Council. The Scottish Churches have submitted petitions, given evidence to Parliament committees on a number of occasions, and been represented on groups reviewing policy, eg the group discussing sex education guidelines for Scottish schools.

The National Assembly for Wales was required by the Government of Wales Act to set out proposals to promote the interests of the voluntary sector. This scheme was drawn up in consultation with the Voluntary Sector, and is now a binding document. Among other commitments, there is an acceptance that ministers will meet with representatives from relevant sector groups at least twice a year. The Voluntary Sector Partnership Council has now drawn up a formal standing orders and protocol, and a nomination scheme has been agreed for voluntary sector representatives. The Welsh Council for Voluntary Organisations also has a Voluntary Sector Assembly Centre, which provides briefings on Assembly issues and aims to assist individual voluntary organisations from any part of Wales to make representation to Assembly Members. There are specified Voluntary Sector Liaison Officers in the National Assembly for Wales, with the specific remit of assisting co-operation between the voluntary sector in Wales and the National Assembly. More information on Welsh Voluntary Sector links with the Assembly can be found in the superb briefing "Devolution in Practice - an update" on the WCVO website.

Petitions to the National Assembly for Wales are addressed to the Presiding Officer, but are in practice dealt with by the Table Office. The Presiding Officer must inform the Assembly as soon as possible on receipt of a petition. Petitions are not used as widely in Wales as they have been in Scotland – only 19 petitions had been presented by 29 November 2001. These tended to be submitted by community-based organisation, (often on a single local issue such as council tax), national organisations and individuals.

The Welsh Churches established the "Churches National Assembly Centre", which provides a service to member churches updating them on Assembly activity as well as keeping the churches' viewpoint represented in the Assembly. Recently proposals were made during a meeting between the Welsh First Minister and faith communities that there should be an inter-faith forum established, to meet three times a year containing representatives from all faith communities in Wales and all political parties. There is now an acceptance by the Assembly that the churches should be involved in national life at all levels – eg a circular specified that where an education authority has policy development groups, church representatives should be included on those in recognition of their important role as education providers. The Churches in Wales have been involved in a number of issues, conspicuously including asylum seekers. The Churches Officer is extremely active in attending Assembly meetings and produces briefings on topics of interest to the Churches in Wales.

Northern Ireland is unique in the structures which were contained within the Act establishing the Assembly, designed to ensure that there was a forum for dialogue with sectors outside the Assembly. The establishment of a Civic Forum was enshrined in the Good Friday Agreement, as another balance to the Assembly, and, when the Joint Ministerial Committee was listing the achievements of each devolved legislature, its third sentence concerning Northern Ireland was on the Civic Forum. The Civic Forum has 60 members, 5 of which are nominated by the Churches, and it meets in committees to discuss the work of the Assembly. Members have been nominated from business; agriculture/fisheries; trade union; voluntary/community; churches; culture; arts and sport; victims; community relations and education. The First and Deputy First Ministers are also members. Once nominated, however, members do not represent the group from which they were nominated, they are simply individual members. While this has benefits in encouraging free and open discussion, it has had the negative result that members have no statutory obligation to report to the organisation they come from, and there have been concerns about a lack of information flowing in both directions. The Civic Forum cannot directly affect legislation, but its reports are sent to all Assembly Members.

There is no single office in Northern Ireland assisting all churches with Assembly relations. All the churches have, however, been active in engaging both with the parties before the establishment of the Assembly and n responding to individual issues. It seems to be widely accepted by political parties that there is a role for the churches to play in policy formulation. This is demonstrated in the area of education: the Protestant denominations and the Roman Catholic Church have been historically involved in the operation of schools. Reflecting this, school boards (there are 5 in Northern Ireland) now have representatives from all denominations, politicians and other individuals. There is a seismic shift now going on in post-primary education in Northern Ireland and all the churches have responded to a wide ranging review. The new collegiate system which is being brought in will impact on the independence of all denominational schools, but is still being welcomed by most within the churches. The churches - separately - contributed to the discussions before the actual drawing up of the Easter Agreement. The Church of Ireland in particular invited representatives of each political party to discuss the future arrangements, and these discussions led to an acknowledgement by the parties that the churches should be involved in the eventual settlement. When a Civic Forum was suggested, the churches were also involved in designing the system. The churches in Northern Ireland have also been heavily involved in the preparation of the Human Rights draft Bill.

The establishment of the Greater London Assembly (GLA) and Mayor has been seen in some circles as a forerunner of other English city local government reformations. The situation in London should therefore be closely watched as the possible testing ground for the rest of England.

The London Mayor has a duty to consider consulting voluntary sector groups before exercising any powers. The Mayor's cabinet (which has a purely advisory role) has one member specifically to advise on the Voluntary Services Council. One of the principal powers open to the mayor is that of making appointments to various bodies, and the current incumbent, Ken Livingstone, has made several from the voluntary sector, including the head of Shelter as the chair of a group working on homelessness. The London Voluntary Service Council has a GLA Liaison Section, which at the moment still seems to be concentrating on informing the voluntary sector in London about the GLA. The Council has also established a Civic Forum, which aims to monitor the Assembly and Mayor effectively, advise them on specialist issues, and encourage cross-sector partnerships. The Forum has members from business, the voluntary sector, and the faith communities. The Council has also established a Third Sector Alliance of voluntary and community groups, which both submits responses on Assembly strategies and is in the process of developing a Compact for London between the Assembly and the voluntary sector. The difficulty is that, although there are so many forums and groups there is very little actual policy being formulated in London, so their impact is necessarily diminished - demonstrated by the fact that one of the major issues in London at the moment is transport, and while there is a London Transport Users Committee which was established with the GLA, the actual power to make provisions on PPP for the London Underground was reserved in the act to the Secretary of State for Transport.

The London Churches Group for Social Action has been established to facilitate church involvement with the Assembly and Mayor. It has a small working group which has sent comments to the GLA on consultations, and has also established links with the Government Office for London and Minister for London. They have submitted responses on the London Development Agency plan, the Mayor's Transport Strategy and the initial ideas for a spatial development strategy. A future submission will be on the Cultural Strategy, a consultation on which is being headed up by the Mayor and a Cultural Strategy Group. There is also a mapping exercise under way aiming to collect information about social action projects which are organised by churches for the benefit of the greater community. Most of the funding for this project will be provided by Greater London Enterprise, which is owned by the London Boroughs. (This demonstrates the need in London to consider the boroughs as well as the Assembly).

The churches in Scotland played a significant part in the process of devolution, with the Kirk's General Assembly, for example, giving support for nearly fifty years to the creation of a Scottish Parliament. Churches are also playing a significant role in the processes currently under way in English regions towards Assemblies. Yet it is not as immediately obvious why this should be so as, for example, it is why churches should be concerned for the poor.

Perhaps the most crucial contribution the churches made to the movement which gave birth to the Scottish Parliament was a theological one, locating the devolution debate in the context of an understanding of sovereignty. In this traditional Scots understanding, which starts from the sovereignty of God, divine sovereignty is seen as entrusted to the "community of the realm" (citizens of Scotland), who may then trust the administration of their affairs, from time to time, to a variety of individuals or institutions. This understanding, which underpinned the "Claim of Right" and the Constitutional Convention, seems far more appropriate to the complexities of power and authority in the globalised world than the inflexible Westminster doctrine of the sovereignty of the Crown in Parliament. It certainly recognises that power and decision-making are to be shared.

The understanding of subsidiarity which is widely used in Europe as a corrective to centralisation of power was developed substantially in the theological thinking of the Roman Catholic Church. Rooted in a Christian view of people and of power, it recognises that decision-making should remain close to those most affected by decisions, linking constitutional issues like devolution to ongoing debates about community empowerment and the respective roles of the state and voluntary bodies in welfare.

Aled Edwards, in his theological perspective on Welsh devolution, speaks of transforming power and of the transforming of power; he recalls that Jesus "looked Pilate in the eye and dared to ask questions about the nature and origins of his use of power". Devolution offers us much more opportunity to look Pilate in the eye, to speak truth to power and to seek the kingdom of God in new ways that invest institutions with God's demand for justice.