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Predictions 2022 – How did I do?
Time to see how I did with my predictions at the start of the year. Boris Johnson will be replaced with a Prime Minister who is more competent, more right wing and more difficult to beat. Well, if we skip lightly over the horror of Liz Truss’s premiership, I’m going to claim this one as…
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Christmas Sermon 2022
This is the sermon that I preached at Midnight Mass in St Mary’s Cathedral in Glasgow for 2022. This was reported in the Herald here: https://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/23213007.glasgow-clergyman-hits-rwanda-policy-christmas-service/ And in the Daily Record here: https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/scots-church-leader-brands-tory-28812715 Why is it always night? In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. She…
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Christmas in St Mary’s (with a twist at the end)
Christmas is a time of joy and celebration, and there is perhaps no better place to experience the magic of the season than at St Mary’s Cathedral in the Scottish Episcopal Church. With its stunning architecture and rich history, this beautiful space offers a truly special and meaningful way to celebrate the birth of Jesus.…
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Reparations, the Churches and LGBT communities
For one reason or another, I’ve been thinking about the idea of reparations for some time over the last year. I’m one of the chaplains at the University of Glasgow and it made me think a bit when the University started to implement concrete policies in recent times by way of trying to make reparations…
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The English Heresy
A long time ago and in a land far away, by which I mean Fife, I was a theological student. It was a good time in my life. By and large I was in the company of clever people, learning clever things from clever people. Theological education can be exciting and that was an exciting…
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Turning Up and Being Counted
I’m currently going through a strange time. I’m away from my congregation on sabbatical. It is a good thing to do and I’m having a great time, meeting fantastic people and learning a thing or two by stopping for a while to breathe. There’s always things that you miss when you are away from the…
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12 Things I’ve Learned About Preaching
At the moment, I’m on sabbatical and am not preaching regularly. However, I recently had the opportunity to preach to a congregation largely made up of apprentice preachers – those who are training for ordained and lay ministries in the church in the future. A number of them have asked me to share some wisdom…
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It was 30 years ago today…
It seems extraordinary to me that it is thirty years since I stood with others in Deans Yard in London outside the meeting of the General Synod of the Church of England waiting for news. It was a long day and one that many had worked towards tirelessly, for many years. It was the day…
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Gender Recognition Act Reform – It’s Time
This week the Scottish Government will be considering a piece of legislation which will affect most people’s lives very little but which has great significance for those seeking legal recognition that their gender is different to that which was assigned to them at birth. People being recognised legally as having a changed gender is nothing…
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The Kalendar for 2022 – 2023 is available free!
For years now, I’ve produced a Kalendar for the Scottish Episcopal Church with all the bible readings set out for the year. In the past I’ve sold it for around £4. For a range of reasons, I’m not going to be selling it this year but am releasing it online so that anyone can download…