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How to Keep Holy Week
People who join St Mary’s from other kinds of churches or who are facing Easter for the first time since finding faith sometimes wonder how to keep Holy Week. Here’s a quick and easy guide to some of what to expect in Holy Week in a church like St Mary’s. Most of this text I’ve…
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Understanding the Justin Welby Radio Phone-In Controversy
There’s been something of a fluttering in the various Anglican doocots this week over remarks that the Archbishop of Canterbury made on a radio programme. When asked why the Church of England could not move forward on affirming marriage as an option for same-sex couples, the Archbishop spoke of standing at a mass grave in…
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You condemn it, Archbishop
It is often noted that the Scottish Episcopal Church is very much in favour of the Anglican Communion. What is noted in public slightly less often but which is no less important to remember, is that it is not in favour of the Anglican Communion at any cost. Our dismissal of the Anglican Covenant showed…
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Blowing up the Red Road Flats – a poor image of the city
It has been announced that some of the Red Road Flats will be blown up during the opening ceremony for the Commonwealth Games. I think it is in pretty poor taste. Notwithstanding the fact that people like to watch the spectacle of tower blocks being brought down there is something about making this the focus…
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Nine things I learned on sabbatical about church growth
I was prompted by someone yesterday on facebook to outline some of the things that I learned about churches and particular something about church growth that I learned whilst on sabbatical in North America. I came up with a quick list and thought that I would share it here too in a slightly expanded form.…
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The sacrament lottery
One of the consequences of decisions being made in different jurisdictions which don’t align with other geographical entities is that you end up with what we tend to call in the UK a postcode lottery. The most frequent use of the term is in describing a situation whereby someone can get treatment for a medical…
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Was Jesus nice to women?
I’ve been thinking about that gospel reading that we had on Sunday all week. Here at St Mary’s I read the central part of the reading, the dialogue with the woman at the well as a dialogue between my voice and that of a female member of the congregation. You learn new things by the…
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Opera Review – Macbeth – Scottish Opera
Here’s my review of Scottish Opera’s latest production, as posted at Opera Britannia. The exclamation marks are obviously not my own and have been added by an editor. Rating: Scottish Opera’s revival of Dominic Hill’s production of Verdi’s Macbeth is something of a mixed bag that is saved by several confident performances, most notably that…
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Sermon – At the Well
Here’s this morning’s sermon. I went a little off piste from the text, but essentially what I wanted to say is in both the video and the words below. Let me begin this morning with a poem. Just a short poem – so slight that you need to listen or it will pass you by.…
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Who is the happiest of the them all?
Mirror, mirror, on the wall…. Who is the happiest of them all? Turns out the answer is clergy. According to the BBC, the government is beginning to include measures of happiness in what it attempts to do and part of that has been trying to quantify who the happiest people are in society. Turns out…