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Mothering Sunday

20/03/2009 By 4 Comments

Here is a treat for Mothering Sunday – here at St Mary’s we are having the annual “Come to Mother Church” shindig at 6.30 pm. We’ve got massed musicians from all over the diocese singing some great music, a pinch of poetry, a wee sermon from me and the delight of singing songs of praise in good company in a great building. We’re even going to try to offer a cuppa afterwards, not an inconsiderable task for those numbers in a building without great facilities.

We are presuming to take the theme of the Annunciation this time. (The proper date is next Wednesday, but we’re anticipating it by a few days – think of it as the angel’s ponderings as he was on the way to Nazareth).

+Idris will be there. Choristers are coming by bus from the Galloway end of the diocese. Even the Angel Gabriel is coming. Don’t let the only person missing be you.

All welcome.

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Petition and Parliamentary Update

19/03/2009 By 1 Comment

You’ll remember that I was going on about people signing a petition to allow gay couples the same access to marriage as straight couples. Here is the update on what happened when the petition was presented.

On Tuesday afternoon, the petition was heard by the Scottish Parliamentary Public Petitions Committee. There was cross party (Green, Liberal Democrat, Labour, Conservative, Nationalist) agreement to write to the Scottish Government asking them whether they would bring in legislation to amend the Marriage (Scotland) Act accordingly and requesting that, if the government refuses, to give reasons for its refusal. Various bodies will now also be consulted, including Scottish Inter Faith Council, Equality Network, Humanist Society of Scotland and the Pagan Federation (Scotland).

So, congratulations to the Petitioner, Nick Henderson for organising this, and to all those who helped gather the thousand or so signatures.

The official record is here.

In other news, Patrick Harvey’s hate crimes bill, the Offences (Aggravation by Prejudice) (Scotland) Bill received unanimous approval at its first reading on Wednesday afternoon. This is an important piece of legislation which will ensure that that homophobic, transphobic and disability-related hate crime is taken as seriously as racist and religious hate crime.

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