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We should be wary of declaring martyrs
One of the themes that has been emerging over the last few weeks is the desire to recognise people who have been killed by terrorists as martyrs. However, we should pause and ask whether that’s really the most appropriate language to be using. The Archbishop of Canterbury was eager to do this in his Easter…
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Easter Sermon
I could see that they needed to get past. Their seats were on the other side of me – my right-hand side. I twisted my knees and they squeezed in and sat down. Two young men. Twentysomethings. Hipsters. All beards and tattoos. And everyone settled down to watch the play. And the hubbub settled down…
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The Triduum Promise
Over the next couple of days, I will be entering into a different time zone. It is one thing to put the clock forward to British Summer Time but it is quite another to step into the triduum zone. The Triduum is the set of services that begin with the Maundy Thursday communion service tonight…
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Christians and Jews in Holy Week
Over the last few years I’ve become much more aware of the things in the life of the Christian church which cause trouble for other people. Specifically, I took part in an interesting symposium a couple of years ago on how Christian preaching relates to Judaism. I learned a lot by listening to people there…
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A Question about Marriage and the Bible – can you help
I’ve been asked an interesting question by the Vice Provost, the Rev Cedric Blakey this week. The question is this – or at least something like this: If one were in conversation with a couple considering marriage, which married couples from the bible would you cite as good examples of marriage based on the biblical…
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Welcoming Muslims into church
There’s currently a bit of a fuss going on in London because a vicar invited a group to have Muslim prayers inside his church. This is a fuss blown out of all proportion. What the Rev Giles Goddard, the vicar of St John’s Waterloo has done is unremarkable and the trouble seems to be coming…
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A moratorium on mission?
My introduction to irony came when I was but 7 years old, in the form of the title of the television programme. It was called: Why Don’t You Just Switch Off Your Television Set and Go Out and Do Something Less Boring Instead? It seems to me that this title allows us a way in…
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Jesus – the Angry Religious Man
Here’s what I said in the pulpit yesterday for Lent 3 Sermon preached by Kelvin Holdsworth on 8 March 2015 from St Mary's Cathedral, Glasgow on Vimeo. The door opened. That door at the back, with its annoying squeak. And I looked up and immediately I was afraid. I saw someone come in and knew…
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The Opera Project – Purcell and Poulenc
The Opera Project was a double bill of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and Poulenc’s Les Mamelles de Tirésias at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. This review appeared originally at Opera Britannia. Rating: At first sight, the pairing of Dido and Aeneas with Poulenc’s surrealist piece Les Mamelles de Tirésias seems to make little sense at…
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News from around the Scottish Episcopal Church – March 2015
United Lent Appeal The College of Bishops has launched a Lent Appeal to raise funds for the Scottish Episcopal Institute, the new body that is the successor to the troubled Theological Institute of the Scottish Episcopal Church. The Lent Appeal is to raise funds to enable full-time training for younger ordinands. The following prayer has…