Blog on the Learig

5 May 2026 The election of the newly established diaconate was born out of division within the early Church. We didn’t start well. Here there was complaint about the way food was being distributed to the women who had been widowed within the community. The Hebrew women were being favoured over against the Hellenist women. The leadership of the church were very skilled. They do two things. Firstly, they decide that they are not going to take over the food distribution themselves. Their first priority is to preach the Word. Life is all about discerning what is most important and prioritising what our work is going to be. Some people find it impossible to say no or to let go and spread themselves too thinly to the detriment of themselves and the kirk. Secondly, the leadership decide to delegate the work of the foodbank to others. Not only that, they effectively create the new office of deacon. They are unafraid to let go and give up control, to trust others and to share the load. ...

  4 May 2026 In   the Acts of the Apostles, which was written in the first century, there is an election taking place.   A new office is being created within the Church – the diaconate and the whole community is entrusted with the election of seven men to take responsibility for practical matters like the fairer distribution of food. The task is not entrusted to individuals like Peter or even the disciples but to the whole community. There is no monarch, archbishop, duke or laird assuming the right to elect the seven deacons. It is the whole community of those who were followers of Jesus. And in this tiny passage where something new is emerging from the nascent Church, we read that their election is followed by a series of liturgical actions. They stand before the apostles who pray and lay their hands upon them just like our kirk ordinations. This right of the people to elect ministers within the early Church was eroded by the time of the Reformation. John Knox co...

  3 May 2026   - From My Diary 1996 We celebrated the Sacrament in the morning and afternoon. The Afternoon Service was held in the Kirk Hall. The last hymn followed the Benediction and was unannounced. This was unfortunate. The wrong hymn was listed. The words of both hymns were sung together. Fortunately, they both had four verses and  both were  common metre. The cacophony worked! One of our children was asking questions about the communion. What did it mean? Could he come along? Why did Jesus die to show us that he loved us? Couldn’t he just keep on living? I explained as best I could and encouraged him to come along to the next celebration on Pentecost. The Treasurer and the Worship Convener have made an excellent appeal to the congregation to raise money for the restoration of the kirk organ. It has been decided to return the organ to its original form with tracker action. We are half way there. Pipe organs in neighbouring churches are being sacrificed fo...

  2 May 2026 Recently, someone asked me why there was so much anti-semitism in our world. There has always been anti-semitism but it has become all the more newsworthy in the recent times. Anyway, the question   set me thinking. There are five things which are contributory factors. Firstly, according to the Old Testament and God’s eternal plan, the Jews were specially chosen to fulfil a ministry which would bring all nations   back to God. They failed in this purpose but still retained the accolade of being God’s chosen people. Secondly, there is evidence in the Gospels that the evangelists played down the involvement of the Romans in the crucifixion of Jesus. It may have been the case that they wanted to protect the nascent church from being persecuted. The Jews and, in particular, their leaders were culpable and became known as Christ killers. Thirdly, the Roman Catholic liturgy for Passiontide contained anti-semitic sentiments. One of the Good Friday prayers ta...

  1 May 2026 I am working as a facilitator in the Presbytery. I had a preliminary meeting with two congregations to explore the possibility of union. One of the initial exercises involves remembering the Christmas carol, ‘O little town of Bethlehem’ and in particular, ‘The hopes and fears of all the years …’ One of the hopes which is often articulated in these situations relates to increased membership and the hope of more worshippers, more energy, more ideas, the   opportunity to spread the base of responsibility and greater care of the parish. In this regard bigger   would be better. In this meeting, I was delighted to hear that one of their hopes was to prioritise work amongst young people and their families and to develop working relationships with the Primary Schools in this expanded parish.   This is critical and essential work. There was the hope that   in a bigger parish more care would be taken to communicate with people and to keep people toget...

  30 April 2026 On Easter Day, the physical body of Jesus had gone from the tomb. ‘He is not here! He has been raised!’ proclaimed the angels. When the women met the risen Christ they ‘took hold of his feet’.   They were clinging on to the physical. Jesus had other ideas. He told them to go and tell the disciples that   they would see him in Galilee. In any bereavement, we have to let go of the physical. The imperative is to ‘Go!’ – leave the tomb, travel on, make disciples of all nations, baptising … Our true life is not made up of physical things – a house, a church, a painting, a bookcase, a car, a bag of golf clubs. Our true life is made up of spiritual things, the things   which lift us out of ourselves and into the presence of God. Consider these three. Firstly, letting go of self and living for others. This takes us right into the heart of the Gospel. ‘Forget self, take up your cross and follow me.’   This liberates us from concerning thoughts abo...