Blog on the Learig

  22 April 2026 The prophet,   Isaiah,   said to the exiles in Babylon. ‘Look to the rock from which you were hewn.’ (Isaiah 51;1) Be inspired by the people who have shaped your kirk, passed on the faith and borne witness to the death and resurrection of Christ. If you want to seek the Lord, the prophet counsels the people of God to look to the rock from which they were hewn,   the quarry from which they were dug. ‘Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you.’ Although they are the ancient of days, they still have the power to inspire ‘for Abraham   was but one when I called him but I blessed him and made him many’. He bore witness to the promise which God made and fulfilled in him. In their exilic desert, the people are counselled to remain faithful to the one who has promised something fair and beautiful – a garden in the desert.   ‘I will bring near my deliverance swiftly, my salvation has gone out and my arms will rule the peoples.’ T...

  21 April 2026 When you think about origins, we begin with the person of Christ and the community of faithful people who became the first Christian Church. They are the ones who ‘devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers’. (Acts 2;42) These are the things which distinguish the church from other human institutions. The first is the teaching of the apostles handed down through the generations. Without teaching, we become indistinguishable from the rest of the world. We morph into secular society. Our ministry is built upon friendship, modelled on the person of Christ. It is measured by immeasurable grace and shaped by the injunction to forget self and follow Christ in kneeling down and washing feet, turning the other cheek, making peace with those whom we have offended and hurt. Like the prophet and his dramatic pictures of the hewn rock and the stone quarry, the desert and its transformation into a garden like Eden...

  20 April 2026 When Samuel Rutherford was minister in Anwoth, he was exiled from his parish because the King imposed Episcopal practices on the Kirk. Rutherford was staunchly Presbyterian. For his refusal he was imprisoned in Aberdeen. He wrote a book about the law and the King, Lex Rex. He   argued that the king ruled only by the consent of the people. His book was condemned and burned outside St. Mary’s College on South Street   where he was still Principal in 1660. ‘Faith is the better of the free air and the sharp winter storm in its face.’ he wrote. ‘Grace withereth without adversity.’ The hidden God was a familiar theme in his writing. ‘Oh how little a portion of God see we.’ he said. ‘We can all see the hewn stone but not the unbuilt house, the ploughed earth but not the flowering lilies. We can see the earth but not heaven. It doesn’t mean that God is not at work!’ Samuel Rutherford, whose part I played momentarily in the Kate Kennedy Procession fifty yea...

  19 April 2026 Yesterday, we were on South Street in St. Andrews to witness the centenary of the Kate Kennedy Procession. It is like a picture book where all the characters which have shaped St. Andrews and our   nation emerge into the daylight. There’s St. Andrew with his cross! Bishop James Kennedy who founded the University arrives in a daffodil bedecked coach with his niece, the Lady Kate. Queen Margaret, Robert the Bruce, Mary Queen of Scots and her nemesis John Knox are all there. There are about 160 characters in the procession and they include men and women, the ancient of days and near contemporaries like Old Tom Morris, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, first graduate in medicine, Sir James Black, Nobel prize-winner who discovered beta blockers. Fifty years ago in 1976, I was in the Procession. I didn’t belong to the Club but in those days the University was smaller and the Kate Kennedy Club needed others to play a part. I became the Revd. Samuel Rutherford for a ...

  18 April 2026 – From My Diary 1996 I was in touch with M, a retired minister who lived in Dunblane. He agreed to conduct morning worship at Logie when I was on holiday. He told me about some work he was doing at Scottish Churches House following the tragedy in Dunblane. The bereaved parents and the parents of injured children meet together on separate nights. They help each other to heal. Interestingly, he said, the bereaved families are doing better. In a sense their situation is more certain. They know what they are dealing with. He expressed concern about the large sums of money pouring into the town. ‘This is not a Garthamlock!’ he said. ‘And some people don’t want the town to become a leisure centre for Central Scotland.’ He   thought that some money could be given to injured children in Cambodia suffering as a consequence of exploding landmines. I had a medical with the Kirk’s physician. His consulting room had been created out of a walk-in cloakroom in the hal...

  17 April 2026 When you think about origins, we begin with the person of Christ and the community of faithful people who became the first Christian Church. They are the ones who ‘devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers’. In the Church of Scotland, our origins begin with the Scottish Reformation and two descriptors which embrace what it means to belong to the Kirk. The first is Reformed. This is the re-formed church which came into being by an act of the Scots Parliament in 1560. Being part of the Reformed Church means that our faith and life is centred upon the Word of God. Whilst tradition plays a part in shaping our day to day life, it is constantly challenged by our devotion and dependence on the Word of God. Preaching the Word is a distinctive characteristic. The other descriptor is Presbyterian. This describes how we are governed.  Our forebears created an alternative to the threefold ministry of ...