Blog on the Learig

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November 19, 2024

20 November 2024 My mother had a unique way off looking at the world. She often said that the second-hand compliment was the best. This is the one which someone tells you that someone else has given you! And after every event, we always had a discussion about what had happened. This was often more fun than the event itself. In the early stages of our marriage, we were living in poor accommodation and had very little furniture – some secondhand furniture belonging to the old baker in Ardrishaig who had died. We were glad of it. Winter came and the house was cold. We resolved to enter the New Year by keeping up our Christmas Tree with its homemade decorations and colourful lights. We enjoyed retreating there and felt comforted by the warm reminder of Christmas and its inherent hope. That tree didn’t come down until seventeen new communicants came to begin their ten weeks’ instruction! It was a real tree and curiously the pine needles hadn’t fallen off! The winter was bitter and

November 18, 2024

19 November 2024 A friend showed me a bulletin from a kirk in which there was an announcement about dogs attending church. This was an update to the existing policy. Instead of having an area in the kirk designated for attending dogs, they had decided instead to have an area for members who didn’t want to sit near dogs. I can see how this has become an issue. When I started my ministry, an elderly member who was blind came to the kirk with his Labrador. People told me about a shepherd who used to come with his sheep dog. Members have brought along dogs occasionally and I did have a wedding recently where bride and groom arrived with a dog each! In London, up market restaurants are making provision for dogs and their owners to enjoy fine dining together. The dogs are allowed to sit on the chairs provided so long as a towel is used to cover them. One dog regularly eats steak off the plate. This must lead to greater informality if not chaos? In this world, restaurateurs are ke

November 17, 2024

18 November 2024 It’s time to think about writing Christmas cards and so we bought our Christmas stamps the other day. The five different denominations feature five cathedrals from different parts of the United Kingdom – Edinburgh, Liverpool, Armagh, Bangor and Westminster, London. The new stamps each feature a cathedral set in a snow-covered landscape. Each one has been painted by the British artist, Judy Joel. I am not sure who has selected the cathedrals but one is Roman Catholic – Westminster Cathedral and four are Episcopal – Church of England, Church of Wales, Church of Ireland and … The fourth Episcopal cathedral is the only one chosen from Scotland. It is St. Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral in Edinburgh. It is an impressive three-spired cathedral built in the nineteenth century by Sir George Gilbert Scott. It is featured on the second class stamp – the ones we bought. Of course, I was disappointed that there was no Presbyterian cathedral selected and, therefore, no

November 16, 2024

17 November 2024 A friend was commenting on my subscription to the ’Church Times’. I have enjoyed it over the years not only for its news about the Anglican Communion but also its varied articles on religious art, liturgy, architecture, literature, historical characters. But, most especially, I value its book reviews which encourage too many purchases! However, I get perennially fed up with the massive publicity given to the bishops in the Church of England and the lack of reference to the way other denominations undertake sensitive issues like Safeguarding and same-sex relationships. To my mind, the Kirk is streets ahead of our sister denomination in both of these areas. A hierarchical church suffers from people aspiring to preferment and those who have made it not respecting the boundaries which are there to control their exercise of power. It is tedious! And, more than that, it seriously distorts the nature of the Church. In recent years, I have gained the impression th

November 15, 2024

16 November 2024 Do you meditate at any point in the day? It has become more fashionable the more we have been introduced to Eastern religions, mindfulness and other therapeutic practices. Spiritual reflection has always been a part of the Christian’s life and prayer a daily occupation. Are there benefits? Everyone benefits from reflecting on their life and actions. Like everything else, it requires balance. You can overthink what you have done and said and become fixated on tiny fragments of conversation or gesture. In prayer, we often look for answers? Has God answered my prayer – yes, no, maybe not now, maybe later and maybe not in the way you expect. Do we always pray expecting to get something? Is that our motivation to gain something that we never had before? Prayer is our entry into the presence of God – and, in many ways, that is sufficient. The mystics want us to persevere in this silent place until we can listen to what God has to say to us. There is no quick fixe

November 14, 2024

15 November 2024 When I was a parish minister, I was sent a copy of the ‘Red Book’ or, more correctly, the ‘Year Book for the Church of Scotland’. In retirement this doesn’t happen and so if I want to read a copy, I have to buy one. For five years, I have resisted the temptation but this autumn, I succumbed. It is the ‘Year Book 2024-25’. It is much changed with fourteen presbyteries instead of forty-eight. This, in itself, is an amazing achievement. In any Red Book, I am always interested to see how my former charges are faring. I was greatly encouraged by one statistic because I am sure it bucks the trend. My first charge was Forth:St. Paul’s. It used to be in the Presbytery of Lanark but is now listed under the Presbytery of Forth Valley and Clydesdale. In the statistical information listed at the back of the book, I noticed that the number of young people under 18 with some connection to the kirk numbered 132! There were only nine other congregations in the Presby