Blog on the Learig

  4 June 2026 -   From My Diary 1996 The bride was nervous at the wedding rehearsal. The young couple had much on their plate. I had agreed to a video being taken because the groom’s mother was seriously ill in hospital. For whatever reason, she had been unable to attend his brother’s wedding. Unfortunately, the wedding clashed with the Scotland versus England game in the Euros 96. The time of the wedding had been scheduled to accommodate this. The reception was at   ‘The Sword Hotel’. The guests spent the time between service and meal watching the game. The meal was delayed. Scotland defeated 2-0! One of the homeless men living rough near the kirk stopped by and asked for a lift. He was in a dilemma. He had to appear in court at the same time as being admitted to hospital. As it happened, he missed both the court appearance and the hospital appointment. His lawyer wrote to me.  I searched for him, he had gone! Our younger daughter was sick. Mary-Catherine was ...

  3 June 2026 It is good to recover our Kirk’s history and to realise the treasures which have been preserved within it. This includes the ministry of the eldership, Presbyterianism, the centrality of the Word, our responsibility to the parish and to seek unity with other Christian denominations. This gives us two things. Firstly, an enlarged perspective. We are not alone, we belong to something much bigger than ourselves. We are put in touch with a distinct Christian tradition, its pioneers and prophets, its wisdom and pragmatism, its balance in conscience clause and acceptance of difference. Secondly, our distinct identity. If we do not remember the significance of a congregation’s right to elect a minister or respect the   calling to preach which carries the authority of the Church and is given to those who understand   the huge responsibility in handling holy things, we will forget who we are. The Kirk gave Scotland its schools. It was a founding principle – a...

  2 June 2026 What makes the Kirk distinctive? Is that important? Are the priorities and perspectives of our tradition worth preserving? Or does it matter whether we morph into the shape of other Christian communities? Consider these two examples from the Roman Catholic Church. It was four hundred years after the Scottish Reformation that preaching at Sunday mass become a priority. In the relevant document from the Second Vatican Council, it says: ‘… a richer, more varied and more appropriate reading of Holy Scripture should be introduced …The ministry of preaching is to be performed properly and with great fidelity … The sacred celebration of the Word of God is to be encouraged on the eves of the greater feasts, on certain weekdays…   and on Sundays …’ More recently, the late Pope Francis invited the Church to pursue a path of synodality. This was an opportunity for the laity to engage in raising issues which concerned them about the Church – women’s ordination, marri...

  1 June 2026 The Great Commission at the end of Matthew’s Gospel needs to be tempered by the other two commissions which Jesus made. Interestingly, they are both recorded in St. John’s Gospel. The first is the great prayer which Jesus makes at the Last Supper.   It is the prayer which defines our relationship with the world. We are in the world but not of the world. The world’s definitions of success and failure are not ours! Jesus prays that ‘they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.’   We find our true home in the Holy Trinity. Through the Spirit, we are drawn to Christ and into his relationship with the Father. This is the place where we are truly at home and at one with each other. It’s through our unity that the world will believe. The second is the commission which Jesus gives the disciples in the Upper Room. He appears to them after the resurrection and say...

  31 May 2026 Walking from the East Sands up to the clifftop above the water, I met a man with his dog. I noticed the dog first. It was a golden labrador and it had something hanging from its mouth. At first, I thought it was a woolly toy but, no, it turned out to be   a young rabbit. I passed and walked to the top of the cliff. I looked back down the hill and noted that the labrador had dropped his prey on the ground – and it had tried to make its escape. He was unsuccessful. The labrador cornered him and began to make sport. He swung the rabbit from side to side, hitting the helpless creature on the ground. All the while, the dog’s owner walked on without any concern for the welfare of the rabbit. They   exited the path onto the sandy beach. I followed behind. At this point, the dog dropped the beast on the sand and his owner called him away. This was his first and last intervention. I was first on the scene and could see that all life had been knocked out of th...

30 May 2026 In her poem, ‘Tyndale in Darkness’, UA Fanthorpe tells the story of William Tyndale in beautiful blank verse. In particular, she exposes the humanity of the disciples whom Jesus calls. She imagines them aboard the boat in the storm: Why did he ask them to stay awake When He knew they couldn’t? Because He always does. He picks the amateurs who follow Him For love, not devout professionals With a safe pair of hands. Look at Peter, A man permanently in hot water, chosen, Perhaps, for that very thing. God sets his mark On us all. And then her Tyndale reflects on his own predicament and the unique calling which was his, to use his ability as a scholar to bring the living Word, as he called it, to ordinary people: You start and it’s easy: I heard the ploughboy whistling under Coombe Hill, And I thought, I could do that. Give him God’s Word, I mean, in his own workaday words. And I did, But it got difficult: exile, hardship, shipwreck, Spies everywh...