Blog on the Learig

  11 September 2026 Peter Sparkes is the Chief Executive of the RNLI. Recently, the charity became the subject of verbal and physical abuse because it was involved in the rescue of some migrants crossing the English Channel in small   boats.   Protesters hidden behind balaclavas and laptops turned their anger on the charity. There are four important things to remember about the RNLI. Firstly, throughout its 200 year history, the RNLI lifeboats have been manned by volunteers. The people who are involved in these rescues at sea are not paid for the work they do. ‘They selflessly give up their time to keep others safe.’ said Sparkes. Secondly, the RNLI is available to rescue anyone and they have done this in all weathers, in war and peace. They have ‘selflessly dedicated themselves to rescuing people they have never met before, without judgement, fear or favour’. Thirdly, they are an apolitical organisation. They do not choose sides. They respond to the calls which t...

  10 September 2026 Participation in worship has expanded enormously from a rota of readers to   worship groups. This has been greatly facilitated by photocopiers and printers and the provision of orders of worship which often contain additional responsive material. The Kirk has made enormous efforts to provide training for Worship Leaders in schemes like ‘Weaving Worship’ and backed it up   with online resources like ‘Starters for Sunday’. More modest, local arrangements   need to be made in preparing people to read the Word and lead the intercessions. Some read poorly and some without understanding. This requires attention. For reading the Word is proclamation.   It reveals the work of God in Christ through   the presence of his Holy Spirit. It facilitates an encounter with God. In Peter Brook’s, ‘The Empty Space’, he invites a student actor to read. Usually he and his peers would clown around. Not this time. It is a passage about the holocaust. T...

  9 September 2026 It is a long time since we took our record-players down to the kirk for the Watchnight service in 1984 to play Geldof’s, ‘Do they know it’s Christmas’.   And three years later to show the children Elizabeth Laird’s retelling of the Christmas Story illustrated with Ethiopia’s beautiful iconography. Cassettes of the service were distributed to housebound people. Videos and DVDs were shown periodically. By 1999, the Panel on Worship was referring to ‘multi-media worship’ as ‘highly relevant’. In 2007, CARTA proposed a paper to help Kirk Sessions discuss the issue of screens. Whilst Covid abolished the uplifting of the offering, the Great Entry and the common cup, the Kirk   creatively used the internet to make   connections which have continued apace. With the arrival of AI, Pope Leo counselled his priests to exercise their own brain and share their faith which a machine cannot do. Despite its wonders, the screen cannot replicate the intimacy ...

  8 September 2026 On Sunday, I celebrated the Sacrament of Baptism at Crail. There were a lot of children in the kirk. I talked to them about boats and the connections which Jesus had with boats and his four friends who were fishermen on the Sea of Galilee. With a square piece of paper, I was able to demonstrate how you could make a paper boat. It requires very few moves but the trick is to ensure that the creases are folded tightly. It is difficult to do this when you are standing up and not sitting at a table! But it worked well enough. In his beautiful book of childhood poetry, ‘A Child’s Garden of Verses’, the poet, Robert Louis Stevenson,   wrote a poem entitled, ‘Where go the Boats?’ It is about a child offering his boats up to the river to see where they will go. On goes the river And out past the mill, Away down the valley, Away down the hill. Away down the river, A hundred miles or more, Other little children Shall bring my boats ashore. The c...

  7 September 2026 Jesus was angry, angrier than   anywhere else in the Gospels. He was angry because   his friends were trying to stop   the children coming to see him. ‘Let the children come to me, do not stop them.’ They can teach us about God and his kingdom. Three things. Firstly, it is a gift and not something which we can achieve by our own efforts. That’s why children are right there in the midst of it. And that’s why parents promise not to give their child faith but opportunities to get to know God and be touched by his surprising love. Secondly, God’s kingdom it is an upside down world where the last shall be first. And here Jesus chooses to welcome   the little children who are suddenly made visible. They are no longer obscure, trivial or unimportant but for that moment, they illuminate the character of God’s kingdom. What a privilege! Thirdly, God’s Kingdom is characterised by joy. It is a kingdom of surprises. But perhaps the biggest surpris...

  6 September 2026 Helen Lawrenson sent me a postcard from her holiday cottage. On it, she had written a poem. It was called, ‘Washing Day’. It came on the back of a postcard of miners’ lamps taken from the ‘Lamp Cabin’ at the Beamish Museum. This is her poem: It was a good drying day and in my arms I held the basket (a blue shirt cuff hanging down over the field) when I met the deep eyes of the hind a few feet away. We stood making no sound a long moment or two – she in her coat of foxy brown, I in my red and grey. Then as if processing surprise she turned her head to bound over the fence, while I watching the long grasses sway hung the shirts up to dry. The poet captures the moment beautifully. It is an experience of awe. You don’t have to be in a holy building to experience awe. It’s a gift which is given to all those who look attentively at the natural world and savour the moment. It all happened on an ordinary day when washing was being hung...