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Street Music
I was out and about today in the city of Glasgow doing good works and healing the sick and raising the dead and all the things that a busy clergyperson does the week before Christmas when I came upon a familiar sound. It was the sound of a Salvation Army band playing Christmas Tunes. I…
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Every breath we drew was hallelujah
Frankly, I prefer the versions by Mr Buckley and Mr Handel to this nonsense from the X-Factor. And all people of good taste agree with me.
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Glasgow Terror Attack Broadcast
There have been two things recently which have very strongly reminded me of the service which was broadcast on Radio 4 from St Mary's on 1 July 2008. Firstly, one of those responsible has just been found guilty in an English court. Reading the reports of the court case has been unnerving. It is hard…
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Advent 3
Here is this morning’s sermon in video. I’ll add the text later when I have access to it. UPDATE Here is the text: I want you to use your imagination this week and use it to answer a question that I have for you to think about during the week ahead. – It is this…
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Myers-Briggs Blog Analysis
Here is a wheeze. Type a blog url into this webpage and it will attempt to analyse the style of the writing in terms of the Myers-Briggs typology. It gets me bang on. Although I used to identify as an introvert in the first half of life, I think that those days are long gone.…
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Sticky moments
Forgive me. I’m about to say something that some of you are not going to like at all. Sorry everyone, but this is probably worse than trainee teachers casting aspertions about the reality of Father Christmas. (The silly fool involved should have told them about Saint Nicholas and had done with it). My problem is…
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Hurrah!
Earlier this year, there was a rather special service at St Mary’s, at which a number of journalists were present. After the end of the celebration, I went over to talk to the journalists to give them some quotes for their pieces for the next day. The first thing that I was asked was, “Well…
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Messiaen's Birthday
Off to the chapel of Glasgow University last night for a concert to celebrate what would have been Messiaen’s 100 birthday. The first half was organ only. Firstly the eternal church shimmered into view and the disappeared again in Apparition de l’Eglise Eternelle. Then it was off to Bethelehem for the Christmas cycle La Nativité…
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Oliver Postgate – RIP
Hard to think of anyone who has brought as much innocent pleasure to my generation. [youtube:http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=_l2AblgHy1w]
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Apple Tree
Last night’s Choral Evensong began with one of my favourites; a piece which gets sung quite a lot at this time of year and which is high on the list of Music Which Makes Me Cry. It was Elizabeth Poston’s carol Jesus Christ the Apple Tree. It is the weirdest thing. Most of the time…