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Why I’ll be Marching at Pride (2024)
I slipped into an unknown pub in Middle England to get out of the rain and have a pub lunch. It was welcoming and cosy. Steak and ale pie, since you ask. The part of the pub I was sitting in was right next to the bar. A small snug. The kind of room where…
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A sermon for BBC Radio 4 – 7 July 2024
We were asked to produce a service to be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 7 July 2024 a few weeks before the General Election was called. The service had to be recorded in advance as the date for the broadcast fell within choir holidays. Once the election was called, I soon realised that the…
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And the lot fell upon Matthias – a sermon
This sermon was preached in St Mary’s Cathedral, Glasgow on 12 May 2024 You don’t get many stained glass windows depicting Joseph Barsabbas – also known as Justus, do you? You get plenty of windows depicting Matthias. We’ve got one here in St Mary’s – over by the tea and coffee table. There he is…
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Easter Day Sermon 2024 – It is started
It comes in waves, grief does. It is not a constant thing. And when you think that you are moving on another wave can hit you by surprise and leave you right back in the place you were trying to crawl out of. A big part of my life over the last 18 months has…
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Good Friday Sermon 2024 – It is finished
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen I remember some years ago hearing someone speaking about what made people compatible. I think that it was someone who was a statistician who was making quite a living by advising people who were designing dating apps on what…
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What’s really happening to the churches in Scotland
Over the last few weeks there’s been a number of articles that have appeared in the press highlighting decline in the religious life of Scotland and claiming in particular that it indicates a sudden decline in interest in organised religion in Scotland. On the face of it, this seems difficult to argue with. Fewer people…
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Predictions for 2024
General Election in UK – Labour landslide. PM – Sir Keir Starmer. (No great change in policies from the Tory government that Labour will replace). US politics will continue to be dominated by Donald Trump In the US Presidential election in November there will be victory for the Republican Party. AI/Deepfakes have a significant effect…
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Predictions 2023 – How did I do?
1 Generative artificial intelligence will become significantly disruptive of many sectors this year. Education practices will change quickly as a result of this but education will be but one of many areas of life to be affected. Happening all around us (even to people who can’t see it happening around them) – prediction fulfilled. 2…
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Coupled Together
Perhaps one of the most unexpected things that could have happened this year in religious terms is that in the last days of the year, both the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church have moved to similar positions on same-sex couples. Now, precisely what those positions are is complex, almost falling into the…