10 November 2026 I heard that Culross Abbey is being sold for £35,000. Cheap at the price, I would say. This ancient building on top of the hill has been a place of regular worship for some eight centuries. The existing congregation can no longer afford to keep it. A service of closure has passed. It follows the demise of Brechin Cathedral. Once again, the upkeep of the building became too much for a diminishing congregation. The pattern continues in lesser kirks and in other denominations none more so than the Church of England. A few weeks ago, the Dean of Southwell Minster gave a cri de coeur. The fabric of the building has been neglected for some time and the roof is in need of half a million pounds. The Minster does not have the financial resources to keep the building wind and watertight. In my cathedral book, I read that, ‘In the Middle Ages Southwell was one in a group of three outstandingly rich churches distinguished by the title of ‘minster’ in the diocese of Y...
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9 November 2026 We spent a few days in Perthshire to celebrate my birthday. The day was spent walking up the Birks of Aberfeldy on a gloriously autumnal day. We met a man in his eighties walking up the craggy hill with two knee replacements. And another pushing his toddler in a buggy all the way to the top. We got there too! I bought a book written by Mary Beard, popular classicist, about her work as a teacher of classics. She was very eloquent about the subject and made an interesting point in defence of it. Because the classics belong to an age which precedes us all by a very large margin, it belongs to no-one. This makes it possible to explore various aspects of ancient society without carrying any emotional baggage since none of us were involved in these days – warfare, gender, sexuality, freedom of speech etc. The discovery of this book is a celebration of all that is best in independent bookshops! Whilst there, I picked up a little catalogue entitled, ‘Christmas Boo...
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8 November 2026 – Remembrance Carlo Rovelli has written a little book, less than a hundred pages, entitled, ’85 Seconds to Midnight’. It has a subtitle, ‘A physicist’s argument against rearmament’. As you can imagine from the author’s credentials as a celebrated and world-renowned scientist, it is well researched and written. The title is intriguing. It refers to the Doomsday Clock created by the ‘Bulletin of Atomic Scientists’ and is a measure of how close they think we are to a nuclear catastrophe. In 2025, the clock said 89 seconds to midnight. This year it was recalibrated to 85 seconds – the closest it has ever been to our destruction. Clearly, the world is a more dangerous place than it has been for a very long time. Wars proliferate and the consequences are felt globally. The failure to extend the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty between the USA and Russia adds to the uncertainty. In his book, Rovelli makes an interesting point about the development of the nu...
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7 November 2026 The Children’s Society has just published ‘The Good Childhood Report 2026’. It the introduction, they say that their report ‘ demonstrates a strong relationship between belonging and wellbeing: young people who lack a sense of belonging, or do not have a trusted adult to turn to, are more likely to experience low wellbeing.’ The Society sets out their recommendations to strengthen belonging through four interconnected areas. The first is People and the provision of people young people can trust . ‘Over one in five (21.7%) young people with low wellbeing did not have an adult to turn to, compared with just 6.1% of those who did not report low wellbeing.’ The second is Places and the provision of places where young people feel they belong. Nearly a quarter of young people with low wellbeing reported that ‘they did not feel like they belonged in their community, compared with just 3.6% of those without low wellbeing.’ The third is Power to in...
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6 November 2026 The teaching of Jesus as recorded by Matthew is unforgettable. ‘The keys if the Kingdom’ are his and his alone. The primacy afforded to Peter and the foundation of the Church upon this rock is to be found nowhere else in the Scriptures. And yet, has there been a more powerful and divisive text in the whole of Christendom? ‘Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.’ These are beautiful, unforgettable words spoken by Jesus as a fitting prelude to his wisdom about the futility of discontent and worry. And, of the all the words which we remember from the gospels, the comfortable words of Jesus must surely rate very highly. Our gospels would certainly be the poorer and our hearts the more troubled if we couldn’t open the pages of St. Matthew’s Gospel and read the last verses of Chapter 11. Is there any more fitting conclusion to a chapter, a sermon,...
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5 November 2026 The Jesus which Matthew introduces us to is primarily a teacher. In between the Incarnation and the Resurrection, there are five important discourses all introduced by some biographical information and all concluded with the words, ‘And when Jesus had finished ..’ The five discourses are really collections of sayings which the author has gathered together on particular themes. The first is the most famous. We call it ‘The Sermon on the Mount’ and it contains the Beatitudes, the new law, teaching about a true spirituality. The last is equally familiar. It has to do with the time to come – the second advent and the judgement of God. It contains the famous parables of the Ten Virgins, the Talents and the Sheep and the Goats. The followers of Jesus are always described as ‘disciples’ which literally means ‘pupils’. Whereas the disciples of the rabbis eventually graduated and completed their role as disciple, this isn’t true for the followers of Jesus. Right at t...
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4 November 2026 Unlike St. Mark’s Gospel which begins with the ministry of Jesus and St. Luke’s Gospel which begins with the birth of Jesus, St. Matthew’s Gospel begins much further back with the roots of Jesus. This is spelled out in his genealogy which isn’t traced through the line of his mother, Mary, but through her husband, Joseph. He is a direct descendent of David. On several occasions, Jesus is described by St. Matthew as the Son of David. This is important because his gospel is the most Jewish of the four. Jesus is the new Moses. He doesn’t climb Mount Sinai to fetch the Ten Commandments but on another mountain, he teaches his friends a new law and gives them eight Beatitudes, disclosing the secret of a true happiness. ‘You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth’, but I say to you …’ And Jesus gives us a new law about turning the other cheek, going the extra mile. ‘You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbou...