Blog on the Learig

  17 August 2026 Bourton-on-the-Water is a beautiful village in the rural Cotswolds. But it has been having problems. Too many visitors are coming to admire its beauty and embrace its charm. Busloads of them. And the small town of some 4,000 people have got fed up. They have been protesting. It hasn’t been an aggressive protest like the Spanish with their water pistols firing at unsuspecting holiday-makers. No! They decided to have a picnic on the banks of the River Windrush, a shallow, clear water river running through the town. It is straddled by low-lying stone bridges. In this protest the townsfolk were simply trying to reclaim their green and river from the tourists. From 10am until 4pm, the town is far too busy for the townsfolk to enjoy their own amenity. So they made what the Sunday Times described as ‘Britain’s first (awfully polite) overtourism protest’. We visited Bourton-on-the-Water in 2024. Fortunately, no-one was protesting our arrival. We had spent the morni...

  16 August 2026 – A Prayer for Sunday Lord, in the light of the sun and the gift of the day – let us rise in Your love. In the company of friends gathered together as a church – let us rise in Your love. In sadness and sorrow and the things which affect us deeply – let us rise in Your love. In endings and beginnings and the promise of new life in both – let us rise in Your love. In the company of the risen Christ and all the saints who have gone before us – let us rise in Your love through Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord.

  15 August 2026 Gen Z or Generation Z or Zoomers are the members of the population who were born between 1997 and 2012. They are known to be ‘digital natives’ because they were brought up with the smartphone and social media. Theos has been interviewing thirty of them. Madeleine Davies reported the findings in the Church Times. The group comprised thirty people   who had begun attending an Anglican church for the first time in the five years since the Covid-19 pandemic began. Almost all the interviewees expressed the view that Generation Z was ‘spiritually curious'. Unlike their parents and grandparents, questions about God interested them. Four interesting things. Firstly, the breadth of the Church of England was seen as a strength. Some were drawn to high church liturgy. Some were drawn to evangelical preaching. What put some people off, others relished and found stimulating. Secondly, Christianity was appealing precisely because it offers an alternative to modern s...

  14 August 2026 On Wednesday, we saw a screening of one of the world’s most celebrated films, ‘Andrei Rublev’. It was directed by the Russian, Andrei Tarkovsky. He made seven films in his lifetime and they are all rated very highly. He was one of the greatest directors in the history of cinema. This year marks the sixtieth anniversary of the film hence the showing at the DCA in Dundee. It was long – three hours. It is loosely based on the life of Russia’s most famous icon-writer, Andrei Rublev, an Orthodox Christian and a monk. At the time of its production, Russia was an intensely atheist state and had laws governing what was permissible in the cinema. Tarkovsky’s film was heavily censored because of its Christian content. When it was shown in Cannes it won an award and in America it was shortened for commercial reasons. There are two graphic moments. The first is the attack of the Tartars. Their brutality is vividly portrayed especially when they break down the door of t...

  13 August 2026 In his essay on ‘The Firstborn’, Laurie Lee celebrates the birth of his daughter. ‘If I could teach her anything at all … I’d like it to be acceptance and a holy relish for life. To accept with gladness the fact of being a woman – when she’ll find all nature to be on her side.’ To relish life is to take delight in it, to find joy in it, to treasure it, to   remember it, to seize the day and to live every day as if it were our last. It is to see life not as an accident nor a right but as a mysterious gift which has been bestowed upon us. He wants his new born daughter ‘To know the natural intimacy of living close to the seasons, where they are still the gods in possession; to feel the quick earth stir when she treads upon it, to take the smokeless wind in her mouth, to watch the green year turn, lambs drop and stagger, birds hatch, grass grow and seed …’ But Laurie Lee not only talks about relishing life, he qualifies this relish with the word ‘holy’. T...

  12 August 2026 We went to the V and A in Dundee recently and saw an exhibition of around 28 architectural models of assorted Maggie’s   Centres throughout the country. I remember the one at the gatehouse to the Western General in Glasgow which is probably not there anymore. The centres were conceived by Maggie Jencks who suffered from cancer. She wanted to create a welcoming environment for cancer patients, their families and friends where they could gather together, talk, sit quietly or simply be in a peaceful, unhurried place. Although each centre has been beautifully and distinctively designed by different architects, there is one feature which is common to both – the kitchen table. It is described as ‘the literal and symbolic heart of every Maggie’s Centre’. There are no reception desks, no uniforms, no formality. People are drawn towards the kitchen table where the kettle is always on and people can have a cup of tea and drink at their leisure. It is a deliberat...