Blog on the Learig

  15 March 2026 One of the world’s most spiritual composers is the Estonian, Arvo Part. During his early career, he pursued an avant garde style. This led to a seven year absence from composition. When he returned, it was with a different style which he described as tintinnabulist. The word ‘tintinnabulum’ is Latin for bell. It characterised a music which was minimalist and meditative. It is most famously heard in his work, ‘Spiegel im Spiegel’, literally, ‘Mirror in the Mirror’. In this type of music, there are two voices. ‘One is the vulnerable, human voice that is straying and sometimes pained, the other is the stable, divine or angelic voice that consoles.’ writes Peter Bouteneff. The two are never far from each other and he describes this as ‘bright sadness’. On Friday night, there was an extraordinary concert in St. Salvator’s Chapel of Arvo Part’s St. John Passion, sung in the Latin from the Vulgate. The soloists were taken by the Gesualdo Six singing in the chancel ...

14 March 2026 Christians may identify themselves by the affirmation of the briefest confessional statement, ‘Jesus is Lord!’ But the more important way of identifying a Christian is through the fruits of the Spirit. There are nine altogether – joy, love, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. It is conceivable that someone could make the verbal confession, ‘Jesus is Lord!’ but not evidence the fruits of the Spirit in their daily lives. In that case, we would say that they did not have integrity. They said one thing but did something which contradicted what they said. The last on the list is self-control. In a recent study, researchers    concluded that, ‘The individuals with poor self-control were ageing more quickly than their peers.’    And they went on to suggest that ‘impaired emotional regulation is a common risk factor for many conditions, including depression, anxiety and disordered eating.’ Some people do not believe...

  13  March 2026 – From My Diary 1996 The parish of Logie bounds on Dunblane Cathedral. Thirty years ago today, the news was dominated by the wicked actions of a man called Thomas Hamilton from Stirling  who walked into Dunblane Primary School and shot sixteen five year old children  and their Primary 1 teacher in cold blood. Mary-Catherine brought the news back to Logie  Manse. She was studying at Stirling University and her class had been discharged after  news of this heinous crime was reported. I contacted the Presbytery Clerk and offered help. He was trying to get to Dunblane himself to get some first hand information. Maybe because this tragedy had unfolded in a Primary School, I was drawn to visit Riverside Primary where I was School Chaplain. I sat with the teachers in the staff room listening to the news. A member of staff from Dunblane had already gone home. The head teacher was angry at the lack of security in the school. Everyone was s...

  12 March 2026 In ‘Common Order’ authorised by the General Assembly in 1994, there are five liturgies for the celebration of the Sacrament. In the   introduction to the book, we learn that the second Order ‘reflects the Celtic tradition’. Of the five orders for morning worship, the fourth ‘contains material from the    Celtic tradition’. In his history of worship in the Church of Scotland, Bryan Spinks records that Peter Thomson in his critique of ‘Common Order’ ‘believed that since the Celtic tradition is only a small part of the whole, the Celtic material stood out somewhat awkwardly.’ The Iona Community has been instrumental in popularising what has become known as Celtic Christianity. George MacLeod was the romantic exemplar. But Professor Donald Meek in ‘The Quest for Celtic Christianity’ considers it ‘one of the great illusions of our time’. Criticising the elasticity of this   phenomenon and its dependence on Alexander Carmichael’s ‘Carmina Gadel...

  11 March 2026 We have heard for ourselves … and we know that Jesus is truly the Saviour of the World. He is the one, nay, he is the only one who can ultimately remove the burdens which we carry on  our backs like an   erstwhile Pilgrim making his progress to the Celestial City.   ‘Rarely will anyone die for a righteous person …! ’ says St. Paul. Can you name one? ‘Though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die.’ And who comes into this category of goodness? ‘But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.’ Now we have no problem asking, ‘Who comes into this category?’ It’s not just   one nor two nor one here nor there. It is   everyone and the beauty of it all is that we are all united in our need and in our sin! We may miss being classed as righteous and we may miss being classed as good. But none of us will ever miss being classed as a sinner. And if our boast is not in this categoris...

  10 March 2026 During the last week of his captivity, the prison Chaplain invited Jonathan Aitken, the former cabinet minister,   to preach in the chapel. He took as his text Psalm 130. The publicity given to this occasion greatly   increased chapel attendance. As the prisoners filed into their seats, Aitken got increasingly nervous. ‘ I think the idea was to give me some teasing … it was crammed like rush hour. ‘ he said. And just before the service began, the raucous rabble was silenced not by Aitken but by Big Face. He had been a gang boss in London. As he enters the chapel, with a couple of burly minders, people make way for him as he takes up his position right at the front of the chapel. Aitken’s nerves almost get the better of him. He’s just six feet away! Something remarkable happens during the service. Far from making trouble, Big Face is visibly moved. There’s some moisture around his eyes. When Aitken finishes, Big Face comes up to him and gives him a ...