Blog on the Learig

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August 25, 2026

26 August 2026 We have made astonishing provision for our members ‘that when the Kirk doth convene and sing, they may be the more able with common hearts and voyces to praise God’. There have been two editions of the Church Hymnary and at least five supplements. It is our crowning glory. Whereas CH3 was framed by the liturgy, CH4 preferred the creed. Whereas CH3 was criticised for not incorporating hymns from ‘Songs from the Seventies’ and ‘Hymns for a Day’, CH4 had built its compilation on the back of ‘Songs of God’s People’ and more especially, ‘Common Ground’. The latter introduced us to folk music and songs from other parts of the world. The compilers of the fifth supplement, ‘God Welcomes All’ selected 200 songs from 10,000. A third are Scottish and mostly 21 st century with dementia, laughter, Blue Christmas and God at the margins in the Topical Index. Whereas the Roman Catholics were intimately involved with ‘Common Ground’, the...

August 24, 2026

25 August 2026 Looking through the past forty years of reports to the General Assembly, I was interested to observe the demise of what we used to call ‘Pubic Worship and Aids to Devotion’. In 1984 it became the ‘Panel on Worship’. In 2006, it was combined with Doctrine and was subsumed into ‘Mission and Discipleship Council’. In 2012, neither the term ‘Doctrine’ nor ‘Worship‘ appeared in the Assembly Reports. They were now hidden in what was called ‘Faith Expressions’. Whereas the Assembly was quick to notice the downgrading of Doctrine and restored its visibility in time for same-sex relationships, this didn’t happen with Worship. Subsequently, it disappeared into the Faith Nurture Forum under ‘Resourcing Worship’ and then into ‘Faith Action Programme Leadership Team’. In 2026, for the first time in four decades, there is to be a Task Group set up ‘to explore liturgical renewal and develop new liturgical resources for the Church’. A wor...

August 23, 2026

24 August 2026 In Colossians 3;12-17, St. Paul imagines the church to be like a circle in which gifts are distributed to everyone and everyone has a responsibility to contribute to the harmony within the church. ‘Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.’ says St. Paul. These clothes are not dependent on income nor ideology nor religion. But they are freely available to anyone and everyone. But that’s not all. ‘Be tolerant and forgiving.’ How else will we create a space where people are going to trust one another? There has to be give and take, patience and understanding, a forgiving and forgetting to create balance. And. almost as a little afterthought, St. Paul concludes, ‘Add love.’ It’s like the final ingredient which the baker has almost forgotten to add to make her cake rise, give it bounce, bring it to life! Without it, things would fall apart because this ingredient ‘binds all things together in perfect unity’. This binding ...

August 22, 2026

23 August 2026 Robert W. Hovda wrote a beautiful book about presiding in liturgy. It was called, ‘Strong, Loving and Wise’. Every assembly of people needs a presider. The people assembled for worship is no exception. The presider’s office is unrelated to worldly categories of superiority or inferiority. ‘It can seem to be, that, since everyone is a minister, no one should have a specific ministerial office with concrete authority and accountability.’ writes Hovda. This is a problem which has grown out of the desire for greater participation in our worship. The office of presider belongs to the Church and not to the minister. ‘The presider facilitates, discreetly yields the focus to the one who is operating at a particular moment, guides, prompts when necessary, leads the congregation in attending to the action …’ The presence of the presider should be discreet, hardly noticed, but providing a calm and reassuring conduct of worship. When words are used, Hovda sugges...

August 21, 2026

22 August 2026 Our public libraries have been under threat for some time. As a result, library staff have had to work quite hard to recruit new readers to safeguard the service. They have been working with young children and their parents and have transformed the library. Consider these two initiatives. The one is called 'Rhyme Time'. It’s a session for under five year olds and their parents. The children sing and dance, learn new rhymes and meet other families in the process. This is a social occasion as well as an introduction to books. The other is called the ‘Summer Reading Challenge’. This is for older children. It involves them in determining how many books they are going to read in the summer holidays. Their progress is mapped out with stickers and certificates. But they are competing against themselves. It’s not just young people who have been made welcome in the library. There are groups for older people too. And as well as computers, you can borrow equipment...

August 20, 2026

21 August 2026 The most dramatic liturgical changes have taken place within the Roman Catholic Church since Vatican II. Not only was the orientation of the priest and the language of the liturgy changed but the importance of the Word and its relationship to the Sacrament was celebrated. ‘In the services a richer, more varied and more appropriate reading of Holy Scripture should be introduced.’ said the Sacrosanctum Concilium. In addition, ’The ministry of preaching is to be performed properly and with greatfidelity.’ This new emphasis led to the production of a three year lectionary replacing an annual cycle which didn’t include the Old Testament. The American Presbyterians incorporated a version of this lectionary into their ‘Worship Book’ (1970). By contrast our ‘Book of Common Order’ (1979) contained a two year lectionary created by the Joint Liturgical Group. By the time Common Order (1994) was produced, we had embraced the three year cycle too. The ‘International Com...