24 May 2026 – From My Diary 1996

We had a good fraternal. Discussion centred on the baptism of children whose parents were not married, the centrality of preaching and the importance of  releasing the gifts of the people of God.  Surprisingly, two colleagues were not favourably disposed to the latter.

The one said gifts could be released in a demonic way. The other said that a friendly dictatorship was to be preferred to an unfriendly oligarchy. History has proved them wrong and the necessity of harvesting the gifts of others is even more obvious thirty years on!

G called at the manse. He is living in the old caravan in the kirkyard. He asked for  a lift up to the kirk. I agreed. When I dropped him off, he burst into tears. He is going into the hospital for a major operation. Would I visit? Of course. ‘If I don’t come out,’ he said handing me a card, ‘Will you phone that number?’ Of course.

I re-read, ‘Mister God, this is Anna’ and used it to prepare the All Age Worship on Sunday. We have two services in June, an All Age at the Church Hall and a traditional service at the kirk. Anna was a remarkable child. Was she an angel in disguise?

She certainly knew what distinguishes an angel from a human being. ‘The difference from a person and an angel is easy.’ she said. ‘Most of an angel is on the inside and most of a person is on the outside.’ What do you think?

An elder and his wife came for dinner. They had a child who loved animals. A bird’s nest had fallen out of the roof. I earmarked it for her. Meanwhile, our older children were at sleep-overs in the parish and our younger children decided to organise a sleepover themselves -  at home! They had great fun!