We were both willing signatories to the statement in the Sunday Herald (advert, August 24) of our conviction that voting Yes in the referendum makes possible a more socially just Scotland.

We are, however, concerned to see a biblical quotation at the foot of the advertisement which seems to imply the authority of Jesus for the above statement. We would like to disassociate ourselves from any such implication.

Our vote and active support for an independent Scotland arises from our judgement as human beings, Christians and Scots. But we have many friends who share these characteristics, but who come to a different conclusion. Not for a moment would we believe they were any less human, Christian or Scottish, or their concern for a better society was any less than ours.

It is one of the healthy aspects of these last few months that (social media excepted) conversations and meetings between people of very different approaches on this issue have, in our view, been conducted in an atmosphere of healthy, robust and respectful debate, not least within the Church. By contrast our history has all too often been bedevilled by those who have claimed divine authority for their culturally or politically conditioned theological statements.

Rev Dr Iain Whyte and Rev Isabel Whyte North Queensferry