Blog

  • Sermon – Epiphany 2, Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

    Preached in the Chapel of the University of Glasgow In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Dove. Coming to read the gospel story here in a University Chapel today has reminded me of an incident which occurred when I was a student. Sadly, I never studied here in…

  • Lambeth Conference of Bloggers

    I’ve seen one or two articles recently, both in traditional (ie dead tree) media and online, noting how much blogging has influenced the current Anglican crisis. There is some truth in this, but I’d be the first to say, it ain’t all our fault. When it comes to the Lambeth Conference, the only person that…

  • Chapel going

    BTW, I’m preaching in the Chapel in the University of Glasgow tomorrow morning. Service starts at 11 am. This can be witnessed either live and in person, or live online. The Chapel has a live web-stream which seems to operate day and night. Try it out here. UPDATE Here is the Order of Service

  • A Praepostery?

    It is a weekend of several Provosts. The Provost of the Cathedral of the Diocese of Gothenburg is here this weekend so I’m off to Kelvingrove today being a tourguide. Tomorrow, I’m hoping to meet the new Provost of St Paul’s Cathedral in Dundee. Thus, three Provosts are likely to meet in the same place…

  • 11%

    The rate of growth of our main Sunday service 11%. By that, I mean that the average number of comminicants last year was 11% more than the previous year which was itself 11% more than the year before that. I’m currently finding myself talking about this growth in many of the internal meetings that I…

  • Covenant Response

    The Scottish Episcopal Church now has a published response to the draft Anglican covenant. Although I have one strong reservation about something that it says, I do broadly welcome it. My reservation is over the phrase, “There is much in the Draft Covenant which we wish to commend: we appreciate its rootedness in Scripture, …”…

  • Divine Providence

    I see that Aberdeen University is having a conference on Divine Providence. The aim seems to be to revive it. At least that shows an acknowledgement that belief in it is, (thank God), dying at the moment. Divine Providence is a doctrine that most Christians think they are supposed to agree with. The idea is…

  • Congratulations to the Polis

    Congratulations are in order to Lothian and Borders Police for becoming the most gay friendly employer in Scotland according to Stonewall. It is an amazing turn around – 20 years ago it would have been inconceivable to me that a police force could ever be named as a gay friendly organization. We should not underestimate…

  • Blasphemy

    The BBC is reporting that the government is going to oppose attempts to abolish the law on blasphemy. “A spokesman said ministers wanted to consult the Anglican community further before supporting such a change.” Goodness. Thanks for asking. On you go. Ban it. Without delay.

  • Epiphany sermon 2007

    Today is the Epiphany – the day we remember visitors from the East coming to worship Jesus, and bringing with them their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. The temptation, when preaching in the West of Scotland is to dwell on the idea of people coming from the East and tell jokes about people from…