-
Christmas Sermon 2013
[UPDATE: The Herald newspaper covered this sermon as a front page story here: http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/clergyman-calls-for-human-rights-focus-at-2014-games.23039023] Here’s what I said in my Christmas Sermon this year. It has become something of a commonplace that Christmas, at least in the life of the shops and the media starts all too early. Even at the end of September, the…
-
The Day Today
-
We’re going on a journey
A couple of years ago, there was a new initiative in St Mary’s – someone suggested that we should have a crib service for children at 4 pm on Christmas Eve. We kind of expected a few children from the young church to show up. In the event there were about 50 people in the…
-
The shortest day, the longest night.
Today is the shortest day in the northern hemisphere. The winter solstice takes place at 5.11 pm today. Please have your gongs, whistles and drums at the ready for the moment. Photo credit – Andreas Krappweis
-
Willkommen! Bienvenue! Welcome!
There have been quite a lot of new hits on the blog over the last few days, not least because of the Rudolphus post, which is currently receiving comments about the quality of the Latin. The comments are in Latin too. Seeing all these new hits come in, I decided it was time to update…
-
You’ll have had your apocalypse
So, Mr Harold Camping has died. Do you remember him? Sure you do. He was one of the most prominent predictors of the end of the world in recent years. There was quite a worldwide sensation in May 2011 when he predicted that all the true believers in the world would be taken up to…
-
Listen up! Moocs are the future
OK listen up. Moocs are the future. Now before we go any further, let’s get the usual responses out of the way. The usual responses are twofold: What’s a mooc? (Most people) *rolls eyeballs* (lots of academics, including quite a few in my congregation) Firstly, a mooc is a term used for a new form…
-
How to be Single at Christmas – repost
This post was first published in 2010 I find myself wanting to write something about being single at Christmas. After all, I’ve got some experience to draw on. There was a time when I used to find being on my own at Christmas a tricky thing to think about, but these days its one of…
-
Gender Segregation in Universities and Elsewhere
Having been involved in university chaplaincy a couple of times, the issue of gender segregation in universities that has come up in the news is not a new thing for me to think about. There have been a couple of news reports about issues surrounding Islamic groups in universities this week and quite a lot…
-
Rudolphus
I’m not sure who is responsible for translating Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer into latin and setting it to plainsong. Whoever it was, they have earned an Advent Blessing and a Tip of the Biretta from me. You can hear it here: