Blog on the Learig

  25 April 2026 There is a crisis in the Kirk. We are working together on a radical action plan – and that’s one thing. There is a lack of young people and   families   – and that’s another. But there is a third – and that’s the pastoral care of the people and the parish. The pastoral care of the parish belongs to the minister and the Kirk Session. There is a pastoral dimension to the eldership. Traditionally, the parish is broken up into districts with an elder responsible for the pastoral care. The calling is evident in Peter’s remarks about the eldership. ‘I exhort the elders among you to tend the flock of God that is in your charge, exercising the oversight, not under compulsion but willingly, as God would have you do it – not for sordid gain but eagerly.’ Inevitably some elders are brilliant at this. They have evident gifts of compassion, understanding and wisdom. But others do not and some districts are cared for poorly. As the age profile of the elder incre...

  24 April 2026 We have been watching the series ‘Unchosen’ which is streaming on Netflix. It was all about a sect in the south of England where those who were members were styled ‘the chosen’ and those who did not belong where called ‘the unchosen’. Being chosen is not like being a member. It carries the weight of entitlement. Who makes the choice? Is this God or the leader of the sect or the members. What is the route by which you can become chosen? And in being chosen, you can become unchosen too.   The uncertainty of   this judgement may be   stressful. Although the drama had actors of the calibre of Siobhan Finneran and Christopher Ecclestone, some of the cast   were thinly drawn and the acting of some younger characters was not always convincing. Worryingly, we were told that the drama had been built on the testimonies of people who had belonged to sects. I must say that after six episodes, I was glad to get out of it! The conservative evangelical ...

  23 April 2026 Five years ago, Lord Sewell headed up the ‘Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities’.   Marking this anniversary, Lord Sewell said, ‘Our report set out  clearly that racism still persists and we should confront it wherever it is found.’ He went on to say, ‘But we also said something else: the main drivers of unequal outcomes are class, geography and family stability, not race alone.’   The most startling conclusion to the commission’s report was that white working-class boys from the poorest homes were ‘the forgotten demographic’. The Centre for Social Justice reports that disadvantaged white British boys continue to record some of the lowest results in key exams. By contrast, many poorer pupils from ethnic minority background are now pulling ahead in maths and English. Whereas 65% of all pupils attain the expected standard only 36% of white British boys on free school meals manage it. This compares with 39% of   Black Caribbean, 58% Bla...

  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...