Blog

  • It is a justice issue, isn’t it?

    The question is this – is LGBT inclusion a justice issue or isn’t it? If we think it is a justice issue then we pray about it in church, right? Those two questions feel to me a little uncomfortable. We pray readily in churches up and down the land about justice issues – we pray…

  • Sermon for Epiphany 4

    If you look carefully at the video, you might spot the moment when I realised that I didn’t have all the pages of this sermon with me in the pulpit. Sermon preached on 1 February 2015 from Kelvin Holdsworth on Vimeo. Come out and shut up On Friday, we celebrated a commemoration in the Scottish…

  • Scottish Episcopal Church News for February 2015

    The following news can be reproduced on other websites and in church magazines. Sign up to have news like this delivered each month by email here: http://thurible.net/follow-blog/ Lent Appeals The Scottish Episcopal Church is having a co-ordinated Lent Appeal in each of its dioceses this year in aid of the Scottish Episcopal Institute. The Institute…

  • Charles, King and Martyr

    On this day, the Scottish Episcopal Church remembers Charles I – the king who was beheaded on this day in Whitehall in 1649. There’s always services organised in Scotland to remember Charles. The Scottish Episcopal Church was strongly aligned in the Jacobite cause in times gone by. I tend to remember this day not merely…

  • Sermon on BBC Radio 4

    It was great fun doing the BBC Radio 4 Sunday Worship live from St Mary’s today. There’s always a bit of an adrenalin rush about being involved with the production of 40 minutes of live radio. If you were one of the million or so who tuned in then you’ve already heard this sermon, but…

  • Response from the College of Bishops

    The following is the response from the College of Bishops to the group of more than 50 lay readers and clergy of the church who wrote expressing concern in unusually strong terms to a set of guidelines that the bishops introduced with no consultation last year. This has already been published online elsewhere and so…

  • Marriage isn’t enough

    I’ve been asked recently by a lot of people whether I’m pleased that the new legislation has gone through allowing same-sex couples to get married. I am pleased, of course. I helped to work for it and I’m delighted to see happy smiling faces of couples I know who are now as hitched as anyone…

  • Advert – Canon Missioner

    There’s a post advertised in the Church Times this week that it seems appropriate to highlight here too. We’re advertising for a new Canon Missioner for the diocese. This person will have a liturgical base in St Mary’s so as well as going out and about in the diocese, will be taking part in things…

  • For the cartoonists

    I used a cartoon, and a religious cartoon at that, on, my blog yesterday and yet I live. I sometimes pray for satirists – those who come to occasional services in St Mary’s may occasionally have heard me do so. They don’t usually get enough prayers. Today, sadly, the thoughts of the world are with…

  • How it feels to be gay in the Scottish Episcopal Church

    I’m aware that this cartoon was drawn for another situation. However, this is kind of how it feels to be gay in the Scottish Episcopal Church at the moment. My guess is that other people feel it too. We need to pray for a different style of leadership. Urgently. My thanks to Dave Walker for…