1 August 2026 ‘The Parish Communion’ was a set of essays edited by AG Hebert in 1937. The essays were on various subjects pertinent to a deeper understanding of the Eucharist. Austin Farrer wrote, ‘Eucharist and Church in the New Testament’ and Gregory Dix wrote, ‘The idea of ‘the Church’ in the primitive liturgies’ and so on. The book was designed to encourage members of the Church of England to gain a deeper understanding of the Church and its central act of worship, the Eucharist. It was part of an initiative to centre the worship of the Church on the Sacrament of Holy Communion instead of Matins. In the Preface, Hebert emphasises the importance of teaching within the parish. Some have tried out the Parish Eucharist but it has failed through inadequate preparation. He introduces the testimony of a Belgian parish priest who has taken eight years to introduce liturgical reform: ‘ He would be a simple man who thought that he could gain from my people an active participati...
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31 July 2026 Erella has sent us another update on life in the West Bank. As she travelled to see a friend who was dying of cancer, she heard about the theft of 200 sheep. They had been stolen by armed Jewish settlers from the pens of the Moor family in the village of Mnezel. Although the sheep had Palestinian Authority ear tags, they were being driven out in broad daylight by settlers who claimed they had been stolen from them! Full military backing prevented the herd owner, his family and his friends from resisting this outrageous theft. Friends got together to discuss the situation. Samir drafted an e-mail to all the villages in the Masafer and beyond. Within twenty-four hours, 85 sheep had been brought to Samir’s home. They were loaded into a large truck and taken to the Moor family in Mnezel. As Erella wrote, ‘Neither reporters from the Palestinian Authority nor foreign correspondents showed up. It wasn’t reported in any newspaper or on the news. They di...
30 July 2026 Last Saturday, there was an interesting act of worship on the island of Papa Stronsay in the Orkney Islands. It took place in the chapel at the Golgotha Monastery and lasted four hours. Three bishops from South America consecrated Father Michael Mary, the Superior of the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer, a bishop. The consecrating bishops were unauthorised by Pope Leo to conduct this act of consecration. As such is was considered to be a schismatic act. Prior to this, the Society of St. Pius chose to ordain four new bishops without the authorisation of the Pope. It constitutes an act of schism. Michael Mary’s consecration comes late in life. He is now 73 and without this consecration the future of the order would be in jeopardy. It is only bishops who can confirm new communicants and ordain new priests so a bishop is essential for the future well-being of the community. Listening to what some of the members say is disheartening. Like many other splinter ...
29 July 2026 In one of his holiday poems, Cardinal Newman wrote, ‘Welcome the thorn – it is divinely sent!’ This enduring faith is evident throughout his life. He was only free to take this extended holiday because of a specific thorn. In his work as tutor at Oriel College, he displeased the Provost by spending too much time with his students. One of Newman’s gifts was his pastoral care which he exercised effectively throughout his ministry. In the days when tutors had little personal contact with their students, Newman took time to listen, engage, guide and care for them in a way that is expected nowadays. But not then! As a result, his students were removed. Two things happened. Firstly, he had time to travel. And out of this experience came his sense of purpose. Secondly, he had time to concentrate on what became known as the Oxford Movement. In his second letter to the Corinthians, St Paul writes about a thorn which was given to him to keep him from becoming too ela...
28 July 2026 Jan-Emmanuel De Neve is an economist and behavioural scientist at Oxford University. He is also the editor of the ‘World Happiness Report’ which has just published its findings. Once again, Finland has been named the happiest country in the world. It has retained this position for the past nine years! De Neve gives several reasons for their quality of life. Firstly, they have high levels of economic productivity but their wealth is more evenly distributed. Wealth inequality is much lower and as De Neve says, ‘Greater income inequality is associated with worse well-being’. Secondly, money gets distributed through a welfare state. Thirdly, there’s a healthy life expectancy. Fourthly, and most importantly, there are strong social ties in Finland. This relates to the number of shared meals and the number of friends you can rely on. Fifthly, the people in Finland have high levels of social trust. ‘If you lost your wallet what is the likelihood that you think you w...
27 July 2026 On Wednesday, the Glasgow School of Art Board informed the public that the most prized building in Scotland would not be rebuilt in its original form. They were talking about the iconic Mackintosh building which was seriously damaged by two fires in 2014 and 2018. There has been a long running dispute with the insurers which had just been settled. Whilst the amount of the settlement was not disclosed, Ann Priest, the Chair of the School’s Board of Governors, told the press that £265M was required to reinstate it and they didn’t have the funds available. ‘It is a national disgrace what has happened here. Nothing less than an authentic recreation of what Mackintosh left Glasgow and the world will do.’ said Lachlan Goudie, painter and writer. ‘The Scottish Government need to be saying this is vital to our national character – we had architectural crown jewels left to us.’ It is certainly a different response to President Macron’s immediate intervention when Notr...
26 July 2026 ‘Living Stones: English Cathedrals as Sacred Spaces in Changing times’ is a report produced by Theos, a think tank for understanding the Christian faith. It was based on a YouGov Poll of 1,300 cathedral visitors and qualitative fieldwork done across six Anglican cathedrals including Derby, Rochester and St. Albans. 75% of adults in England have visited a cathedral at least once in the last three years. This compares favourably with those who have attended a sporting event (30%) or engaged with a museum or gallery (41%). However, this doesn’t extend to a sense of responsibility for sustaining cathedrals. One of the most interesting statistics refers to what are known as Nones, people with no religious affiliation. One in three cathedral-visiting Nones say they experience God through the calm and quiet. Spiritual experiences are mediated through art, music and the building itself which is also a work of art. In the last fifteen years, there have b...
25 July 2026 At various times in its history, the Church has taken a dislike to religious art and art of any form within the worship space. Hence the two great iconoclasms in the eighth century Orthodox Church and in the sixteenth century Reformation. Objections to religious art all stem from the prohibition enshrined in the Ten Commandments. The first four are about God and the second reads, ‘You shall not make for yourself any idol, nor bow down to it or worship it.’ The commandment has encouraged people to think that they shouldn’t make any representation of God nor Jesus but the point of the commandment is not to prohibit a celebration of God and his works in art but the displacement of God by works of art!
24 July 2026 When Moses received the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai, God also told him how to design, furnish and adorn the Tabernacle. It was to be full of representational art and it had to extend to the liturgical garments worn by the priests. In particular, Aaron’s liturgical robes were to be decorated in a very colourful and surprising way. There were to be golden bells attached to the lower hem. Can you imagine them ringing from a Kirk minister’s Geneva gown? In addition, there w ere to be homemade ‘pomegranates of blue, purple and crimson yarns’. The liturgical artists were to have a field day for these robes were not only colourful but imaginative! Where have you ever seen blue pomegranates? Purple and crimson – yes! But blue – no! In this instruction, God was saying that the artists should be free to use their imagination and make blue pomegranates. They would create a frisson of excitement and cause a stir. Questions would be asked, imaginations ...
23 July 2026 At the moment, I am doing some pastoral work for another congregation. On one of my visits, I was conversing with an older woman who asked, ‘Who is it who does funerals now?’ In a former day, the answer would have been, ‘The Parish Minister’ but not today. She was searching for ‘The Celebrant’. When I was a child growing up in Ardrishaig, all the funerals were held in the church. It didn’t matter whether you were a member or not, everyone had their funeral in the church. That never happened in any of my four parishes. Even as a child, I knew that his was very hospitable. In the village of Forth, funerals were generally held in the home of the deceased. Often crowds of men had to stand outside in the garden and in the rain if the house was too small. A church funeral was reserved for an elder or active member. The funeral service used to be followed by a burial or a cremation. This was the normal pattern. Nowadays, some people prefer to have the ...
22 July 2026 God is good! God is truth! God is beauty! Praise him! These are the last three lines in the refrain of Percy Dearmer’s famous hymn, ‘God is love: his the care’. Jesus came to show him. We find him in others. He saves us by the truth. His love is our pattern, showing God in beauty. In 1919, Percy Dearmer reflected on the fact that fewer people came to church after the First World War than attended its services before. Although we do not have the trauma and barbarity of a First World War to excuse us, attendances now are much smaller than they were ten years ago. Dearmer’s remedy is worth pursuing. ‘Yet our course is clear and simple. It is to serve God for his own sake: to serve him in spirit and in truth, to worship him in the beauty of holiness, and in the holiness of beauty: to give up all that is unreal and insincere, ugly or depressing, tedious, artificial, or mawkish, unsocial, narrow, quarrelsome …’ he wrote. Where is t...
21 July 2026 When I began my ordained ministry in 1981, there was a two-year lectionary available. It had been produced by a Church of England Liturgical Commission. It appeared in the Church of Scotland ‘Book of Common Order’ in 1979 and in the Church of England ‘Alternative Service Book’ in 1980. A three-year lectionary appeared in ‘Common Order’ published in 1994. This was the ‘Revised Common Lectionary’ which had its origins in work done in the Roman Catholic Church following Vatican II and in the churches of North America consequent on the publication of the Roman Catholic lectionary. In the introduction to ‘Common Order’, Charles Robertson, Honorary Secretary of the Panel on Worship, confesses, ‘A few adjustments have been made to it, such as the provision of Old Testament Lessons alongside readings from the Apocrypha.’ It’s interesting to note that there is no provision in the ‘Book of Common Order’ for the ‘Feast of Christ the King’. However, it appe...
20 July 2026 We watched the England-France game in the Fifa World Cup on Saturday night – and enjoyed the game. England won with an impressive 6-4. They made an extraordinary first half winning it 4-0. The French fought back with agility and energy to score 4 goals in the second half. As you can imagine, there has been a lot of discussion about England’s performance at the World Cup and comparisons made with other national teams. Tom Allnutt made his comparison between England and Spain under the title, ‘It’s not technique, it’s reading the game – Spain’s midfield factory.’ He argued that both England and Spain produce footballers who are technically brilliant. The difference between these skilful players is in the attention paid in the Spanish team to understanding the game. This has implications for coach and player. Firstly, the Spanish players are trained to think for themselves. They are given the freedom to make their own decisions – to interpret situa...
19 July 2026 This is one of several similar windows in Ardrishaig Parish Church. It is a leaded window which has been ‘fringed with Edwardian, Art Nouveau patterned stained glass’ as Professor Hume has written. This particular window was located immediately behind our family pew. I started Sunday School when I was two years old and attended worship every Sunday. My brother and I sat between my mother and father. The sun shone through our window. The colours danced on the wooden pews. Sometimes we sang my favourite childhood hymn as the light enveloped us: Looking upward every day, Sunshine on our faces; Pressing onward every day Towards the heavenly places. Like the ancient Celtic crosses standing in the Scottish landscape and the ruined abbeys and rebuilt cathedrals, this simple Victorian Parish Church was a holy place, a place apart where the beadle carried the Bible into the pulpit and the atmosphere was awesome. It had a powerful impact on my chi...