8 August 2026 When we were children, my brother and I each had one of Beatrix Potter’s famous tales. I had the ‘Tale of Peter Rabbit’ and he had ‘The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck’. They were beautifully illustrated by the author and very easy to read. Even as children, we noticed the darkness in the tales. Peter Rabbit’s father had been chased by Mr. MacGregor – caught, skinned and baked into a pie for dinner. Jemima Puddle-Duck is lured into a shed by ‘a gentleman with a bushy tale’. She is rescued by a friendly dog but her puppies eat her eggs! As a child, I didn’t like this development. I wanted to deny this reality. Every time we turned the page, I wanted it to be different. But Beatrix Potter’s skill at story-telling is illustrated here. She writes simply but directly. She doesn’t deny reality and that gives her tale depth. When our children were born, my mother gave them Beatrix Potter books over a period of time. Eventually, they collected all twenty-three of her tal...
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7 August 2026 I have an old magic lantern slide which I bought in the museum in Dumfries. It was set into a block of wood which enabled the light to pass through. It is a picture of Joseph’s reconciliation with his brothers. They sold him into slavery but now he has risen to become ‘the Lord of Egypt’. Joseph was Rachel’s firstborn and Rachel was Jacob’s favourite wife. You remember his Uncle Laban’s deception in giving him Rachel’s older sister, Leah in her place! As a result, Joseph becomes Jacob’s favourite son making the other eleven intensely jealous! Surprisingly, Joseph doesn’t bear any animus towards his brothers. At every stage in his exile, he sees the hand of God at work in his life. He says of his suffering, ‘God has sent me before you to preserve life.’ In the famine, Egypt has food to share. Later on he says, ‘So it was not you who sent me here, but God?’ They are cleared of all responsibility. Reconciliation is only possible when we make a shift like this i...
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6 August 2026 There is a beautiful text in St. Matthew’s Gospel. Jesus says, ‘Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.’ (18;20) It is reassuring for two reasons. Firstly, small is beautiful and our diminishing congregations are no less beautiful if they are gathered together in the name of Jesus. Secondly, the significance of these gatherings is the presence of Christ. It is his presence with the two or three which makes the church holy. It is not the building. It has no holiness of its own. Holiness is a quality belonging to God and Christ manifests it when two or three gather together in his name. This has something very important to say about churches and worship spaces. It is not the physical buildings which are significant but the people who gather in these places in the name of Christ. The Scottish Reformers knew this very well. They reordered the medieval worship spaces with their designated sanctuary and nave. They abolished the distincti...
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5 August 2026 Peter Conradi wrote an article in the Sunday Times entitled, ‘Shooting Party’. It raised an alarming question, ‘During the Siege of Sarajevo, hundreds of residents were killed by snipers hiding in the hills above the city. Did foreign tourists pay to join the gunmen on human safaris and murder civilians for fun?’ It is a barbaric proposition which has been exposed by an Italian thriller writer, Ezio Gavazzeni. He investigated the claim that Italian, German and British citizens were involved. As a result, he submitted a report to Italian prosecutors who have taken it seriously. The Siege of Sarajevo began on 5 April 1992 and lasted 1,425. The residents of the city lived with the fear of being shot and got into the habit of zig-zagging their way around the city. Of the 5,434 civilians who were killed in the Siege, 1,601 were children. 534 of these were killed by snipers. In the heart of the city, there is a small museum dedicated to these children. Each child ...
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4 August 2026 There has been a recent YouGov Poll about meting out punishments for various offences. Two things surprised me. Firstly, the survey contained questions about flogging and putting people in the stocks which was most recently seen at funfairs with people throwing sponges at local celebrities. Secondly, the survey also asked people about their attitudes to capital punishment. Although there has been no-one hanged for murder in the UK since 1964, 42% of the public thought that the death penalty was the most appropriate form of punishment for murder. It isn’t sufficient to bring it back. However, 82% of Reform voters and 67% of Conservative voters support the reinstatement of the death penalty. 35% of Labour voters, 30% Lib Dems and 26% Greens also supported it! Beware of where your voting preferences might lead you! In the same week, three Anglican bishops wrote to Mohammed bin Salman, the ruler of Saudi Arabia, urging him to call a halt to ...
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3 August 2026 There has always been an ambivalence to art within the church. But the opening chapter of the Bible encourages us not only to see that God is the Creator but we are all made in the image of God. As such, we participate in the creativity of God. We do this in all sorts of different ways - art, music, dance and drama. These are human activities which stretch back to pre-historic times. Historically, the Church has had two problems with art. At various times in its history it has taken a dislike to religious art and art of any form within the worship space. Hence the two great iconoclasms. In the eighth century, the Eastern Church was split over the issue of icons in the worship space. In the sixteenth century, the Western Church was split at the Reformation over the use of images. Objections to religious art all stem from the prohibition enshrined in the Ten Commandments. The first four are about God and the second reads, ‘ You shall not...
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2 August 2026 Jesus says three important things about the extravagant gift which the woman with the alabaster jar of expensive ointment gave him. Firstly, ‘ you always have the poor with you and you can show kindness to them whenever you wish.’ Jesus is not saying that the poor should be ignored at the expense of an extravagant gift. He is saying that the poor are part of us and we should be kind to them, literally treat them as our kin! Secondly, he says of the woman’s extravagant gift, ‘ She has performed a good service for me.’ The word which is translated ‘good’ not only has moral content – good as opposed to bad but also beauty. The word is used to describe goodness which is beautiful, attractive, bonnie, winsome and so on. God’s creation is described as good. It is beautiful. Jesus is the Good Shepherd. The beauty of his love attracts. And that’s the point! The woman’s extravagant gift was not dutiful but spontaneous. She did what she did b...