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10 Correct Opinions About Christmas Carols
Public service announcement. The following opinions are all correct. The first carol on Christmas Day should always be Christians Awake Salute the Happy Morn. It should be sung lustily and with the last line repeated. While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks By Night may be sung to almost any tune. It must not, however, be sung…
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Always the Inkeeper – a sermon for Christmas Day 2018
In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen. I, was always the innkeeper. I’m not sure how many times I was in a nativity. Nor am I sure how it happened. But somehow, I was always the innkeeper. And the innkeeper doesn’t get the best of lines. “I’m sorry, there is no…
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Love means love – a sermon for Midnight Mass 2018
It was the middle of the night. It was dark – the night black as pitch beyond the cold bright lights which shone in our faces. And it was surprisingly cold. Crossing the border should have been easy. But they made us all get off the train and queue up to have our passports stamped.…
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Here comes the Sun
The solstice is past. Here comes the sun.
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Sermon preached on 9 December 2018 – People Look East!
[Apologies for the poor audio in the video this week] “People Look East!” the prophet Baruch commanded in our first reading. And he wasn’t talking about Edinburgh. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. “Arise, O Jerusalem, stand upon the height; look towards the east” says…
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Whither Mission?
It is the long-standing tradition of the Scottish Episcopal Church to dedicate its prayer on St Andrew’s Day to one particular thing. As it happens, it isn’t praying for Scotland though no doubt people have done that on this day for quite a while too. I know this will come as a bit of a…
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Dedication Sunday Sermon – Responding to Antisemitism
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Religion changes over time. How to run a congregation changes over time. The things that you need to do change over time. As I flicked through the readings for this morning, I found myself thinking first about Jacob dreaming…
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Rigoletto Review – Scottish Opera 18 October 2018 – ***
Scottish Opera has chosen to begin its season of main stage operas this year with a revival – the production of Director Matthew Richardson’s Rigoletto which was first seen in 2011. If anything the passage of time makes both the opera itself and this particular production all the more relevant. This is a piece that…
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Can the Epi Scopal Church speak of the love of God?
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Identity matters. It always has of course but these days it seems to matter a huge amount. And one of the most difficult things for Scottish Episcopalians is to explain to others who we are. The name doesn’t…
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Who would true valour sing?
I had the opportunity this week to abide for a while and think by Bunyan’s grave in Bunhill Fields in London. I was on my way back from holiday (Budapest, Sophia, Istanbul, London) and had scarcely thought of work at St Mary’s for most of the time that I had been away. But finding myself…