Easter poem
This poem by Evangeline Paterson simply takes my breath away. The gaps are as the poet wrote them. I suggest you read it aloud observing them. The effect is astonishing. And that will be heaven And that will be heaven at last the first unclouded seeing to stand like the sunflower turned full […]
Dignity
I can do no better than to recommend you listen to Sunday Worship of Feb 22nd. The Archbishop of Canterbury’s Lent book is Rev Desmond Tutu’s ‘In God’s Hands’ and Radio 4 is following that for its Lent theme on Sunday mornings at 8.10. This week the service from St Martin-in-the Fields focussed on the […]
Healing – restoration or transformation?
For today’s blog, I’m indebted to the Revd Lisa Eunson who shared with me a thought from a recent sermon. The question is hers – the rest is my take on it! Is healing about more than the resumption of ‘normal service’? When we suffer in any way -physically, mentally, emotionally, spirituality – it’s human […]
Rural ministry
Rural ministry applies to most charges in this diocese – and indeed to many in the SEC. Even those in towns like Oban, Dunoon or Campbeltown have rural dimensions. The Church Times has a telling piece summarising a report ‘Released for Mission: Growing the rural Church’ from the Rural Affairs Group of the C of […]
‘The Gospel – take it or leave it’
Marion Mackay from St Peter’s Stornoway shared a link this morning which provides considerable food for thought. Diocesan ‘Facebookers’ will have come across it but it’s worth relaying here. The historian A.N. Wilson writes in the Telegraph about the state of Christianity in the world today. He asks how we can interpret phenomena such as […]
Mary Slessor
The blog returns after rather a lengthy seasonal break! Mary Slessor’s name is familiar to me, brought up as I was in the Church of Scotland. We heard about her in Sunday School and I think she was one of the ‘heroines’ featured on the back page of the girls’ comic I read. ‘Girl’ was […]
1982 Liturgy
Scottish Liturgy 1982 PREPARATION Litirdi Albannach 1982DEASACHADH 1 Welcome Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. 1 Fàilte Gràs agus sìth dhuibh o Dhia ar n-athair agus ar Tighearna Iosa Crìosd. Amen. 2 Peaceor at 16 We meet in Christ’s name. Let us share his peace. 2 Sìth Tha […]
How to do Advent?
So many experiences come together at this season. The light decreases as we descend towards the year’s midwinter turning point. The increasing frenzy of the retail season is hard to avoid as it seeks to draw us ever earlier into the whirl. The church’s calendar invites us to prepare for the coming of God in […]
Heroes, sung and unsung
It’s interesting that the 25th anniversary celebrations of the Berlin wall coming down have almost coincided with Remembrance Day on this 100th anniversary year of World War One. About 18 months after the iron curtain crumbled, I visited Germany as the Scottish representative at a European Base Christian Communities gathering. The meeting took place in […]
‘Give to Caesar…
.. that which belongs to Caesar and to God that which belongs to God’. Thus Jesus’ typically cryptic way of handling a trap set for him by the authorities. It has sometimes been used to justify the separation of religion from politics. The press and politicians can be quick to tell bishops to get back […]