-
HIV and AIDS in Scotland in 2014
Check this video: marion chatterley #1.movie from Kelvin Holdsworth on Vimeo. It is World AIDS Day next week. To mark that date this year, I’ve recorded a number of conversations with Marion Chatterley in connection with her work as Chaplain to people with HIV and Hep C in Scotland. Here are some of the things…
-
Sermon for Christ the King 2014
Sermon preached on 16 November 2014 by Kelvin Holdsworth from Kelvin Holdsworth on Vimeo. Well, I wonder how many of you have met the Queen. Or indeed any other head of state. For in a congregation that is as diverse as this one, we have people here from a variety of places – some from…
-
A kiss is just a kiss
Can it really be that many are happier to see a gay couple marry than give one another a kiss? Someone asked me recently whether the time had come to stop campaigning on LGBT issues. After all, he said, the gays have got everything they want now. They can get married and everything. Well, leaving…
-
Art by Syrian Refugee Children
We’ve an exhibition on in church over the next week. It is an exhibition of art by Syrian Refugee Children. Its fantastic and a way of seeing what is happening in that part of the world through different eyes. There’s a preview tonight (Friday) at 6.30 pm. If you’d like to come to that preview,…
-
Church AGM season
At this time of year, most of the churches I know best in this part of the world are having their Annual General Meeting. In some denominations it is called something different, but whether it is the AGM or the Annual Congregational Meeting or the Annual Stated Meeting or whatever, the dynamics are generally pretty…
-
Counting our many blessings – Scottish Episcopal Statistics
This Sunday is the day when the Scottish Episcopal Church counts how many people are in church. It isn’t a count of the number of people who want to be Episcopalians, it isn’t a count of those who say they are Episcopalians – in fact it isn’t even a count of Episcopalians at all. It…
-
Prayers on converting a Civil Partnership into a Marriage
In a few weeks time, here in Scotland, it will be possible for those couples who have entered into a Civil Partnership to convert that into a marriage. It is clearly a significant moment though interestingly, legally they will be regarded as having been married from the time they entered into the Civil Partnership rather…
-
We love you, American Episcopalians!
Two hundred and twenty five years ago today, something special happened in Aberdeen. Two hundred and twenty five years ago today, Anglicanism in the USA was set ablaze with the consecration of the Rt Rev Samuel Seabury, their first bishop. The fact that the consecration took place in Aberdeen is one of those quirks of…
-
Prayers for Remembrance
Last Sunday evening we had an extraordinary Choral Evensong. The idea was simple – to mark the start of the First World War by singing some of the music that the cathedral choir was singing 100 years ago. The idea came from Pam Barrowman, one of the members of the choir whose historical research includes…
-
Jericho, Berlin and what wall next?
I remember going on a school trip to Germany when I was a young teenager. I don’t remember that much about the visit to be honest, but I do remember the wall. We were not in Berlin but we were staying near enough to the border between East Germany and West Germany to warrant a…