Blog on the Learig

  26 March 2026 Sophie Winkleman and David James have written a short article entitled, ‘Paper Chase’ with the subtitle, ‘Textbooks will always beat screens.’ Online learning certainly seems to be more immediately attractive with its vast range of resources and media. The authors share two studies with the reader. ‘Research has shown that students learning online spend as much as 39 minutes out of every hour off task.’ They don’t give us an equivalence for textbook students. But wasting two-thirds of your study time is a lot of time. The second relates to an experiment with 3,000 pupils who were involved in the PISA tests in maths, science and reading. Over three months, half did all their work on paper and half did all their work on computer.   What happened? ‘At the end, the paper-based group scored 20 points higher than the one working on screens – the equivalent of half a year’s extra schooling.’ Somehow, the tactile nature   of the book is attractive. It offe...

  25 March 2026 Jesus espouses the way of the peace-maker. The cross is all about self-giving love and non-violent resistance. In this, he embodies a truth of profound significance. Evil is overcome by good. In our daily lives, we are always suspicious of people who resort to force in order to make their point or win their argument. If they embodied the truth would this be necessary? The truth is its own defence. So where are you on this spectrum? Are you a pacifist? Or do you think that there is such a thing as a just war? Perhaps it is the lesser of two or more evils? Pacifists don’t think that those who justify war take the example of Jesus seriously enough. Those who justify war don’t think the pacifists take sin seriously enough. What do you think? How is this tension resolved. In his splendid book, ‘Ancient Wisdom, Modern World’, the Dalai Lama makes the point that ‘genuine, lasting world peace will only be possible as a result of each of us making an effort interna...

  24 March 2026 I have just received a newsletter from a charge in another Presbytery which is vacant but does not have the right to call a minister. Inside, there was some detail about their inability to pay for a locum after April. This is because of the General Assembly's decision to withdraw the Vacancy Allowance in these circumstances. As a result of this, the services which should have had a celebration of the Sacrament had been changed to services in which the Sacrament was not celebrated because the charge had no access to a minister.  This concerned me for three reasons. Firstly, in withdrawing the Vacancy Allowance, did the General Assembly make financial provision to pay for a minister to celebrate the Sacrament in these situations? Secondly, accessibility to the Sacrament should not be dependent on a congregation's ability to pay. Why should wealthy congregations receive such means of grace and others be denied it? Thirdly, in the Scots Confession (1...

  23 March 2026 ‘Where is wisdom to be found?’ asks Job. ‘Where can we learn to understand?’ The first point to make is that knowledge does not necessarily bring with it the wisdom to know what to do with it. We may live on the edge of unprecedented scientific and technological discovery but do we know how to use it wisely? Even the greatest minds make mistakes – as Albert Einstein discovered. Just before he died, he admitted that he had made a great mistake ‘when I signed the letter to President Roosevelt recommending that atom bombs be made.’ His scientific knowledge anticipated the atomic bomb in 1939 and, of course, six years later the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Many have discussed the wisdom of this. Einstein’s regret is compelling and we rest our case with Job, ‘Wisdom is not to be found among men; no one knows its true value.’ ‘God alone knows the way, knows the place where wisdom is found.’ For the poet says, ‘ To be wise, you must have reverence for God.’ ...

  22 March 2026 In the Orthodox Calendar of Saints, ‘Our Holy Father John and Companions’ are remembered on 20 March. They were monks in the ancient  monastery of St. Sava in the Judean desert. It was attacked, pillaged and laid waste  on several occasions by Arabs. During the eighth century when Constantine and his mother, Irene, jointly ruled the Byzantine Empire, the Arabs attacked again. On this occasion, the monks decided not to flee from their monastery but remained steadfast within its bounds. ‘We have fled from the world into this wilderness for the sake of our love for Christ, and it would be shameful if we fled from the wilderness out of fear of men.’ they argued. ‘If we are slain here, we will be slain because of our love for Christ, for whose sake we came here to live.’ Unlike the Arabs, they were unarmed. They waited for their hostile arrival. The Arabs slew some of the monks with arrows. Some were sealed off in the cave of St. Sava. A fire was lit at...

  21 March 2026 – Thomas Cranmer Thomas Cranmer became Archbishop of Canterbury in the reign of Henry VIII   but was martyred during the reign of Bloody Mary Tudor on 21 March 1556. We saw where he was tried in Great St. Mary’s in Oxford. Prior to the reign of this Catholic Queen, he had been instrumental in shaping the Anglican Book of Common Prayer. He is well remembered for the beautiful collects which he devised and which have been dutifully repeated down through the centuries much to the pleasure of many worshippers who have by use and wont memorised these texts and thereby nurtured their spiritual life. ‘God, which hast prepared to them that love thee such good things as pass all man’s understanding; Pour into our hearts such love toward thee, that we loving thee in all things, may obtain thy promises, which exceed all that we can desire; through Christ, our Lord.’ In the preface to the Prayer Book, there are words of guidance concerning the worship of the Church...