Blog on the Learig

  1 November 2025 – All Saints We don’t belong to the Roman Catholic Church and so we don’t have a say in who becomes a saint. The process is quite complex and requires evidence that two miracles have been performed by the person on  route to canonisation. The last person to be officially canonised by Pope Leo was unusual in two ways. Firstly, Carlo Acutis was a young man who was born in England but raised in Milan. He died   of leukemia when he was only fifteen years old on 12 October 2006. Secondly, he was venerated for his ability to use modern technology to promote devotion to the Roman Catholic Church. He established a website documenting Eucharistic miracles and apparitions of the Virgin Mary.   He was named ‘the first millennial saint’ or ‘the patron saint of the internet’. The first miracle concerned the medically inexplicable recovery of a Brazilian boy with a malformed pancreas. The second involved a woman from Costa Rica who injured her head in a b...

  31 October 2025 George Bernard Shaw’s play, ‘Mrs. Warren’s Profession’, was written in 1893 but banned by the Lord Chamberlain. It wasn’t performed in public until 1925, the year in which Shaw received the Nobel Prize in Literature. It was recently performed at the Garrick Theatre in London with Imelda Staunton as Mrs. Warren and her own daughter as Vivie Warren, her daughter in the play. It was broadcast in cinemas and we saw it in Dundee. It was a magnificent production with brilliant performances all round. The theme of the play is moral hypocrisy. It focuses on the disparity of wealth, the limited choices of people who are poor especially women and the moral hypocrisy of those who benefitted from Mrs. Warren’s Profession whilst paradoxically banning the play! Her profession is never mentioned but is very clear. As a working-class woman she has aspired to provide the best for her daughter, Vivie. This included a university education at Newnham, the iconic women’s colle...

  30 October 2025 On Sunday past, I conducted morning worship in Carnbee Parish Church. It is in an idyllic location looking south across agricultural land to the Forth. It has a graveyard surrounding it, a plaque celebrating  Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee and a War Memorial. The day was dull and the interior not well lit. The exceptions are   the reader’s lectern, the pulpit and the Holy Table. They are all illuminated  with  amply lit lamps. There were ten worshippers. Most sat   in pews near the front. The organist was accompanied by her husband and right at the back a solitary worshipper. There are two redeeming features. The first is an outstanding acoustic. I don’t think I have been in any other church where the acoustic made praying, reading and preaching so effortless. It seemed as if the dimensions and furnishings were designed to provide such rich   communication. The second is the pulpit with its elegant staircase and wood panelli...

29 October 2025 The East Neuk of Fife Preservation Society has commissioned three panels retelling the tale about Pittenweem’s lost Priory. One of the panels is being positioned near the entrance gate to the parish church. There are lots of colourful illustrations recalling what the Priory might have looked like. Around 700AD, St. Ethernan founded a monastery on the Isle of May. It suffered under Viking raids but around 1100AD, King David I established a new monastery on the island bringing Clunaic monks from Reading Abbey to nurture growth. In the 1140s, monks on the Isle of May established a base in Pittenweem above St. Fillan’s Cave which is available as a tourist attraction. Storytelling takes place there during the Festival. The Priory developed and dominated the town until the Reformation in 1560. As a consequence of the new religion in Scotland, much of the medieval priory was lost. It was divided into two by a high wall. On the south were the domestic buildings which ar...

  28 October 2025 There are three places where I can smell cannabis smoke. Two of them are houses occupied by students and I smell it when I walk past. The third is more unusual. It is on the East Sands. A man stands by his white van smoking his joint and the smell escapes to the sandy beach below. It has become much more acceptable for people to smoke cannabis even in public places. But the dangers have not been eradicated as a consequence of social acceptability. This is especially true of young people whose brains can be irreparably damaged. I know this to be true from first hand pastoral experience. ‘When you start smoking with your mates at 14 or 15, you are literally growing your brain in a cannabis soup.’ said Dr. Lade Smith, President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. ‘There’s no doubt at all. Cannabis is a cause of psychosis.’ Cannabis is also associated with a higher risk of anxiety and depression as well as psychosis. The latter, removes the addict from real...

  27 October 2025 There was an interview with Donald Tusk, Prime Minister of Poland,   in the Sunday Times. He had some salutary things to say about the threat from Russia, the influx of immigrants and the damage done to Europe by Brexit. Woven into this political analysis was the vexed question of aging European nations and the dramatic drop in the birth rate which will have devastating consequences in the future. He argued that it wasn’t a social issue but a cultural one.   He had gleaned this from conversations with young people and especially young women. ‘It’s not housing. It’s not money. It’s that they don’t like this way of life, the obligations, the responsibilities.’ he said about the disinclination to have children. ‘It’s much easier for the younger generation to live without this responsibility, because if you have kids, you have to be much more responsible.’ There are important issues here. The first is the preservation of the human race and our natura...

  26 October 2025 You are busy downstairs. You remember that you wanted to get that book which was lying at the side of the bed. You run upstairs and when you reach the top, you suddenly wonder, ‘Why have I come upstairs?’ You have forgotten the purpose of your errand. It is something which happens to everyone and probably as a result of inattention. We were concentrating on something else when this thought came into our head. We broke off to complete the task but were not concentrating on it or so it seems. In their book, ‘Memory Lane’, Greene and Murphy talk about the benefits of forgetting. We tend to see it in negative terms and assume it is happening because our memory isn’t good or we are aging faster than we thought or, heaven forbid, we are entering the early stages of dementia. It is their contention that we forget more than we remember and this is healthy. ‘Forgetting allows us to shed memories of mundane experiences.’ They call it mental decluttering and it happe...

  25 October 2025 The King made a welcome visit to the Vatican this week. Following his initiative, Pope Leo invited him to come to the Vatican for a state visit. The central feature of the visit was a prayer service in the Sistine Chapel where the Chapel Choir sang alongside choristers from St. George’s, Windsor. It wasn’t the first time that a monarch had worshipped in a Roman Catholic Church. Queen Elizabeth attended Vespers in Westminster Cathedral and had visited the Pope in Rome. However, this was the first time the Supreme Head of the Church of England worshipped with the Supreme Pontiff in five hundred years! It has huge symbolic appeal. In these two men, the two denominations are personified – the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of England with its Anglican Communion. It was styled as a joining of hands between the two great churches. The Archbishop of York and the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster were both in attendance. The Archbishop of York concluded the...

  24 October 2025 Embrace the Middle East is a charity which is supporting Palestinians on the West Bank with a project entitled, ‘Olive Tree Project’.   The olive trees are under threat from Jewish settlers who want to expand onto Palestinian land. The trees are dug up, cut down, set on fire. Since 1967, a million olive trees have been destroyed. Since the war in Gaza, the trees have become more vulnerable. Recently, Jewish settlers used bulldozers to destroy 1,200 trees in Al Mughayar, near Ramallah. Nothing survived! Talking about the destruction, Muhanad Al Qaisy, Director, said of the farmers, ‘They don't want to lose the land and they want to fight the occupation - but they don't fight it by violence; they are fighting now by planting olive trees. Farming is a way to express and to empty the anger that they have in a non-violent way.’ He added, ‘More lands will be annexed.   Planting the empty lands with trees will help stop the Israelis taking more and more...

  23 October 2025 Sunday is going to be a day of reckoning. There are   seven crucial votes taking place in two corners of the Presbytery. The first   two are in the North Fife Cluster where I have been working as Facilitator. Balmerino and Wormit and Creich, Flisk and Kilmany are voting to unite. Balmerino and Wormit have already united. Once this union takes place, there is a third to negotiate with Newport.   Newport has a minister in post and so any union will be dependent on more than the agreement of the two Kirk Sessions. The second five votes are taking place in three congregations – Crail, Pittenweem and St. Ayle (Cellardyke and Anstruther). St. Ayle is already a union and it is voting to unite with neighbouring Pittenweem where I am Interim-moderator . If the union goes ahead, they will each be voting to link with Crail. The linked charge will be an appealing   prospect for a minister. It is a hugely attractive parish – four villages   se...

  22 October 2025 Matt Goodwin has written a devastating critique of tertiary education entitled, ‘Bad Education’. He is particularly concerned about the constraints put upon freedom of speech and academic freedom. He is quick to expose hypocrisy in our universities. He reports that by the early years of this decade, 27% of all non-EU students studying at UK universities came from China. It represents an increase of 186% on 2011. In 2023, Civitas discovered that 117 out of 140 universities (84%)   have significant ties with China. He calls to mind the University of Cambridge which has scrutinised its historical involvement in slavery and has sought to remove memorials and statues marking benefactors who benefitted from the slave trade. Goodwin contrasts this with the university’s relationship with China. The University of Cambridge has accepted tens of millions of pounds in research grants from Chinese corporations and has a very large Chinese student population which ...

  21 October 2026 At school, we learnt a whole host of collective nouns taken from that redoubtable text book, ‘First Aid in English’. There are so many, the book was not exhaustive. Some of the most interesting collective nouns are associated with birds. There is the murder of crows, the charm of goldfinches, the mischief of magpies and the congress of eagles. The wise owl collects as a parliament. The flamingos form a flamboyance, unsurprisingly. The starlings are collectively called a murmuration. It comes from the verb   ‘to murmur’ and refers to the sound which the murmuration makes when it swoops in and out of the sky in these marvellous patterns. They sport great artistry and celebrate what it means to collaborate and co-operate. According to Giorgio Parisi, Nobel Prize Winner, the starlings react to the falcon by getting closer to each other. Apparently, they are much closer at the edges of the murmuration than in the centre. No one wants to be singled out. T...

  20 October 2025 Last week, Jasmine Beverley gave an emotional but powerful interview on the BBC news bulletin. She had given birth prematurely to her still born son, Sunny, in May 2022. After the funeral which she described as ‘beautiful’, she was given his ashes. Two years later, they discovered that the ashes which they had been given by the undertaker were not Sunny’s. Furthermore, the police discovered their son’s body at the funeral home. The undertaker, Robert Bush, had not cremated them. He appeared at Hull Crown Court after an investigation into human remains found on his premises along with Sunny’s. He had pleaded guilty to thirty-five counts of fraud by false representation one of which related to Jasmine. He denies other charges and will face trial next year. In her interview, Jasmine reflected on the undertaker’s actions. ‘I am trying to forgive him,’ she said, ‘but I am finding it hard. There must be some reason why he did this.’ Amazingly, she has taken a st...

  19 October 2025 The   Sunday Times has just launched its ‘Get Britain Reading’ campaign which is supported by a whole string of authors and celebrities including JK Rowling, Michael Morpurgo, Claire Balding and Graham Norton.   People are invited to donate to Bookbanks, volunteer to read in schools and, above all, take the pledge. The Pledge is simply put. ‘For the next six weeks I will spend at least ten minutes a day reading to myself or to someone else, just for the fun of it.’ It is a very modest ask. But, surprise, surprise, people are not reading more than social media posts and subtitles. The consequences are dire. One in five children aged 11 to 13 never pick up a book voluntarily. One in ten children aged 5 to 18 do not have a book of their own! Worst of all, parents are reading less frequently and less often to sons than daughters! Astonishingly, university lecturers in English Literature are now required to teach their undergraduates how to concentrat...

  18 October 2025 ‘Transform’, the magazine of the Scottish Bible Society, has a series of articles based on a three year global survey of people’s attitudes and beliefs about the Bible. It was undertaken by the United Bible Societies. 90,000 adults across 85 countries participated. In the article about Scotland, the Bible Society highlights ‘an openness to the Bible and an increase in church attendance among young adults’. 16% of 18-24 year olds attend church at least once a month. 44% are interested in learning more about the Bible. And 24% read the Bible at least once a month. This is an encouraging place to be. It’s all part of what is being called ‘The Quiet Revival’. It may not be evident in the churches where I am called to preach but it does indicate a cultural shift and an openness among young people to learn more. We should act on this with more confidence. In   those nations located in the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia, 85% say that religion is ...

  17 October 2025 I was making a purchase on the internet. The item was no longer in the shop. The shop-keeper had failed to remove it from the   internet but was able to source   another. I discovered it was coming by ship from New Zealand. I wondered whether to continue with the purchase? It turned out that the shop was in   Enniskillen, Northern Ireland. Somehow that made a difference. It had become part of our corporate history. I confirmed my willingness to   wait and said how we remembered the courage of the people at Enniskillen. She thanked   me for my encouraging words. I remember the town well. The bombing immediately came to mind. It was at the War Memorial on Remembrance Sunday 1987. An IRA bomb exploded killing 11 civilians and a policeman. 68 were injured. The IRA made a mistake. Their target was a parade of   soldiers marching to the war memorial. Among the dead was a young nurse Marie Wilson. She and her dad, Gordon, a local dra...

  16 October 2025 ‘Remember Jesus Christ!’ says St. Paul, ‘Raised from the dead!’ And then he adds, ‘a descendant of David’. Of whom? David, the shepherd boy, who slew Goliath who became Israel’s greatest king. It is from this line that Jesus was laid in a manger in Bethlehem, the house of bread, David’s town, as the carol proclaims! Such a courageous and inspiring heritage but a heritage which goes further back than David to his great grandmother, Ruth, the Moabitess! She was a foreigner. She was born and brought up in Jordan. But it was her foreign blood which coursed through King David’s veins and was celebrated in the person of Jesus. This lineage draws us away from any foolish anti-semitism for the foreign blood which is celebrated in David’s line reminds us of our own indebtedness to Judaism. Three quarters of the Bible is devoted to the Old Testament. This is our holy Scripture too and we share it with fellow Jews. More than that, the great Scottish Presbyterian love...

  15 October 2025 ‘Remember Jesus Christ!’ says St. Paul in his second Letter to Timothy adding, ‘Raised from the dead.’ Why does he focus on this aspect of Christ’s life? Paul describes himself as suffering hardship ‘even to the point of being chained like a criminal’. It is not a very good place to be – restricted freedom, physical pain, depressing future. But he goes on to say, ‘But the word of God is not chained.’ This insight transforms his predicament and helps him to transcend his tragic imprisonment. There is a life within which can never be chained for it belongs to the eternal life given by Jesus   who is ‘the resurrection and the life’. No matter what is happening to us whether we are physically imprisoned by chains or imprisoned by our failure, our disappointment, our infirmity,   our old age,   our besetting sins, our lack of self-worth, our grief,   we can always and forever transcend these things with St. Paul who calls us to ‘Remember Jesus...

  14 October 2025 The ‘Parable of the Good Samaritan’ is one of the greatest short stories ever told. It resonates down through the centuries whenever people are tempted to ignore the needs of others.   At the heart of that tale there is the unexpected nature of the Samaritan’s compassionate generosity. We are inclined to think that the people within our own circle have all the Christian virtues and those who lie outside it do not. Nothing could be further from the truth. Compassion   belongs to those   who share our common humanity. The Samaritans get around. Jesus once met a Samaritan woman fetching water at Jacob’s well. He asked the woman for a drink. Conversation followed. It resulted in the Samaritan woman running back to the town and forgetting her water-jar   to tell people about Jesus. She became   the first woman to minister the Word of God. And on Sunday, we   met a third in the lectionary, a leper. At first we were only told that th...