15 August 2025 There is concern about the birth rate. Young people are not having as many children as people had in the past. People are waiting until their career is established or their mortgage purchased before considering having a family. Children have vanished from a large number of kirk congregations. Out of interest, I looked back at the statements on marriage in the three most recent editions of the ‘Book of Common Order’. The 1940 version, which was widely acclaimed, states that marriage was ordained for life-long companionship, the continuance of family life and the welfare of human society. In the 1979 version, there are two orders for marriage. In both orders there is a reference to children. They are described as ‘God’s gifts’ and in a marriage they enjoy ‘the security of love and the heritage of faith’. Clearly, children are a constituent part of marriage. In these orders another reason for marriage has appeared in addition to those in the 1940...
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14 August 2025 Do we try to protect our young people too much? Self-esteem is very important but so is resilience. The two are related. If we feel good about ourselves, we are more likely to be resilient to the things which threaten to undermine us. There is a danger of emphasising the one over the other. The development of self-esteem is crucial especially in Scotland where people suffer from a lack of it. But if the development of self-esteem is won at the cost of protecting young people from negative experiences and not equipping them with strategies to cope, what’s the benefit? Equally well, if we expect young people to bounce back too soon after every failure and disappointment, we may be in danger of becoming unsympathetic and dispassionate. This is a return to the bad old days when people were inclined to say, ‘Tough luck!’ or ‘That’s life!’ or ‘Make the most of it!’ Both qualities are important – self-esteem and resilience. Both can be distorted. Too much emphasis...
13 August 2025 In recent years, there has been controversy about the authorship of Scotland’s most famous painting, ‘The Skating Minister’. Was it the great eighteenth century Scottish artist, Sir Henry Raeburn, or was it the little known eighteenth century French artist, Henri-Pierre Danlou? The arguments against Raeburn aren’t immediately convincing – the uncharacteristic size of the portrait, the type of canvas used, the style of the brush stroke. Interestingly enough, the latter is also used in favour of Raeburn! Unlike the Frenchman, the Scot knew the minister, the Revd. Robert Walker, and was one of his executors. The Walker Family, who inherited the painting, thought it was a Raeburn. But, the thing I like best about the Skating Minister is evident in other Raeburns – the element of surprise! Look at his portrait of James Hutton, the Scottish geologist. His research ultimately challenged traditional Biblical chronology and a literalist approach to the Creati...
12 August 2025 Our own Scottish tradition has certainly made a distinctive response to the invitation to sing a new song. We still sing the hymns of the Celtic Church written by St. Patrick and St. Columba. And the metrical psalms which have turned out to be the most lasting gift of devotion from the Scottish Reformation. ‘Sing from deep feeling in the heart!’ wrote John Calvin in his great Institutes. This amazing two volume foundation stone of Reformed theology provides us with a deeper understanding of what we are doing when we come together to sing psalms, hymns and sacred songs. Firstly, it’s an opportunity for the Church to glorify God together with one voice and one mouth. Secondly, it’s an opportunity for each member to ‘receive the confession of his brother’s faith and be invited and incited to imitate it!’ In other words, our singing not only unites but strengthens us in our corporate faith. In the eighteenth century, choirs were introduced into the Kirk....
11 August 2025 I went to school in the days when Latin still had a valued place in the curriculum. Although I would have preferred to have studied art, I cannot deny that four years of Latin has helped me not only understand the root meanings of words but also to think more clearly. One of my vivid memories was translating the letters of the Roman Governor, Pliny. He was sent to the Roman province of Bithynia to deal with a major problem – the Christians! He writes to the Emperor Trajan explaining the situation and how he has handled it. I remember being excited by the realisation that these were original, historical documents which confirmed the existence of the early church and the courageous stance which it took in the face of an oppressive Empire. Pliny’s faithful letter-writing records unique developments in the growing Church. ‘They meet at dawn to sing a hymn to Christ as God!’ he writes. And so, we know that at the end of the first century, Christians were meeting...
10 August 2025 I attended a Golden Wedding recently. I had been asked to bless the marriage in which the couple had kept their marriage vows for fifty years. It was a commendable achievement and worthy of our celebration. Once I had completed my work, a friend sang a hymn which had been sung at the couple’s wedding in 1975. O perfect Love, all human thought transcending, Lowly we kneel in prayer before Thy throne, That theirs may be the love that knows no ending Whom Thou for evermore dost join in one. The prayer which was sung on their wedding day had certainly been fulfilled by God. Theirs is the love which knows no ending and they were joined together in one by God. He has been their source of strength and inspiration as I know very well. This marriage hymn was very popular in my parents’ generation. It did not appear in the Church Hymnary (1885) but in the Revised Church Hymnary (1929). The author was Dorothy Frances Gurney who was born in 1858 and probably not ...
9 August 2025 Ecclesiastes, the Preacher, talks about marriage and brings out some common sense advantages to the marital state. Listen to his sensible observations! ‘Two are better than one because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up the other, but woe to one who is alone and falls and does not have another to help. Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though one might prevail against another, two will withstand one. A threefold cord is not quickly broken.’ As we grow older, falling is a more immediate threat. To have another to lift us up, to encourage, support, care, to be there at all times and in all seasons is literally a saving grace. Keeping warm in wintry weather is easier when two lie together and even in warm summer’s nights, there is joy in lying together too. Intimacy is life-giving, a consolation and a delight. Two, of course, are stronger t...
8 August 2025 In my last charge, I observed that it was predominantly older people who belonged to the art club and displayed their art in the two annual shows. I wondered why this should be? I reckoned that many of us are inhibited from venturing into the arts and artistic endeavour because of our experience in childhood or even at school. When we grow older, we have the potential to lose our inhibition and give it a go! For I believe everyone has an artistic gift or an ability to be creative. It is part of the image of God embedded in everyone. He made the universe and he calls us to be makers too. These are the riches of the glory of his mystery! This word ‘maker’ has a particularly Scottish ring to it. We call our national poet, a makar, a maker. The Greek origin of the word literally means ‘blessed’ or ‘happy’ and it is the opening word for all our beatitudes in St. Matthew’s Gospel. ‘Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.’ There is no doubt about i...
7 August 2025 In Colossians 1;25, St. Paul describes his vocation ‘to make the word of God fully known’. He describes this word in three ways. It is a mystery ‘hidden throughout the ages and generations’. Of course, it is a mystery because it is of God who is infinite and completely beyond our comprehension. It is the poets and artists, musicians and story-tellers who penetrate the mysteries of the universe and reveal God’s glory. He goes on to say that the ‘glory of this mystery’ has been made known to the Gentiles. All people have the potential to catch a glimpse of this glory. In God, there is no secular and sacred. Everyone has the potential to be creative. For it was Simeon who sang about this when he held the Christchild in his arms. He is destined to be ‘a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of the people Israel’. (St. Luke 2;32) Getting to the heart of his vocation, St. Paul describes the glory of this mystery as ‘Christ in you’. The...
6 August 2025 Throughout the Middle Ages, the sufferings of Christ were painted beautifully by all sorts of artists and used to stimulate devotion towards Christ’s passion which became more strenuous in the Roman Catholic Church after the Reformation. Goya famously produced his ‘Disasters of War’, eighty aquatint plates drawn and etched in graphic black and white. The horrors of the Napoleonic wars are vividly portrayed – the tips of rifles on the right hand side of a page, the helpless civilians lying in a heap. As well as the sufferings of humanity which are replicated today in Ukraine and Gaza, we see one of Agostina, a woman from Saragossa, manning the canon herself after the staff had fallen during Napoleon’s siege. ‘What courage!’ writes Goya on his etching! And others thought so too. David Wilkie, celebrated Scottish artist, picked up the tale in a paradoxically beautiful depiction of ‘The Defence of Saragossa’ which was bought by King George III and ...
5 August 2025 The ability to make things and to create something new out of something old belongs to God. ‘In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth ..’ are the opening words of Genesis, the first book in the Bible. Here we are introduced to God who creates the universe out of nothing beginning with the light on the first day and ending with human beings on the sixth. ‘In the image of God he created them, male and female he created them.’ As a consequence of these origins, the Psalmist sings, ‘The heavens are telling the glory of God and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.’ (Psalm 19;1) God’s creation reveals something of the Creator and his glory. This glory is a sign of God’s presence. It is something we can see so it is related to the light and because it is a glimpse of God, it has something to do with his beauty. It is limited like seeing through a glass darkly. In his letter to the Romans, St. Paul writes, ‘Ever since the creat...
4 August 2025 Yesterday, I was conducting morning worship at Pittenweem Kirk where I am interim-moderator. It was a joint service with neighbours from Carnbee and Anstruther. There were around 90 people present. The singing was magnificent! It was the only Sunday within the Pittenweem Arts Festival which began on Saturday and so we reflected on God the Creator whose image is embedded in human beings and whose calling is to participate in God’s creativity. We don’t need to go far to celebrate this for Pittenweem Kirk is full of art. The first time I came to the kirk, I was spellbound by the William Wilson windows and their inspiring depictions of the Gospel. The liturgical layout of the kirk reflects the theological transformation of the Scottish Reformation and the creative artistry which brought the people closer to the Word and challenged the distinction between secular and sacred. But, most of all, there is the beauty of the people who have worshipped in this ...
3 August 2025 We visited Paxton House on Tuesday on our way home from Leeds. There was a craft fayre in a marquee. We saw some beautiful art work – a pin cushion made out of cathedral patchwork, a basket woven with willow, a ceramic dish with an actinidia leaf imprinted upon it. We met an older man who had been trained as an engineer. In his retirement, he took up wood-carving. He was selling assorted boxes made out of oak. I bought a box shaped like a tear drop. The inside of the lid was made from a piece of elm. It had a natural picture embedded in the wood – its rings looked like rays of sunshine falling on what looked like an empty tomb in a garden. His logo was carved in the wood – three crosses on a hill. ‘It’s all an accident.’ he said. ‘The wood shapes itself.’ Had the elm wood created within itself a picture of the resurrection? His logo had certainly stimulated the imagination in this direction. On the outside, there was the sorrow of the tear drop...
2 August 2025 When Colin was an undergraduate at the Birmingham Conservatoire, we attended a lunchtime concert. Colin was playing. When he entered the auditorium, we were glad to see that he was dressed appropriately although he had no hair on his head. His brother had shaved it off! As he took his bow in response to the welcome applause, an elderly gentleman two rows in front of us turned to his neighbour and said, ‘He looks more like a football hooligan than a piano-player!’ We smiled. And Colin played without vandalising the Steinway! Sometimes first impressions, superficial assumptions, fearful predictions, blind us to the inner beauty harvested by those who are prepared to break the mould and be true to themselves even if it is to favour a bald head just like his dad!