Blog

  • Clutha Bar – Helicopter Crash

    I’m just about to go to church to take our St Andrew’s Day eucharist. Inevitably, as we pray, all thoughts are going to be with the ongoing incident in the city centre, where a police helicopter crashed onto the roof of the Clutha Bar when it was full last night. I’ve yet to hear direct…

  • New statement on Civil Partnerships from the Scottish College of Bishops

    The College of Bishops of the Scottish Episcopal Church has issued the following statement which was sent to clergy on 29 November 2013 as part of a regular electronic clergy mailing. Blessing of Civil Partnerships The General Synod of the Scottish Episcopal Church in 2012 agreed not to adopt the Anglican Covenant. Since then, and…

  • Thanksgivingukkah

    Double blessings today. Blessings upon American friends celebrating Thanksgiving and blessings too on Jewish friends celebrating Hanukkah. It is very unusual for the two holidays to coincide. The last time was in 1888. The next time will be in 70000 years. (I know, that does seem incredible but calendars are calendars). I was in the…

  • High Church and Informal

    Someone coming out of church on Sunday who isn’t a regular at St Mary’s said to me, “That was great – exactly what I like – high church and informal”. I was pleased that the person had understood what we are trying to do. High church and informal is precisely one of the ways in…

  • Yesterday’s Baptisms

    Yesterday was the Feast of Christ the King – and that meant a lovely baptism service of a pair of twins. Here’s how it went: Unbridled joy.

  • Hail Bright Cecilia – patron of musicians

    Hail Bright Cecilia on this her feast day. Thank God for musicians everywhere. Alleluia. Amen.

  • Parliamentary Victory and Interview on Scotland Tonight

    I was glued to my computer last night watching the debate from the Scottish Parliament on introducing the legislation that will one day soon, allow same-sex couples to get married. It is difficult to describe what it was like watching it. In touch with others on twitter, I was aware of a certain amount of…

  • “Marriage is a sacrament”

    Here’s the third and final video that I’ll be posting this week from the collection of equal marriage campaign videos. It is Jaye and Ruth who are a married couple who are members of St Mary’s. They had to travel to South Africa to get married. They’ve been very much some of the most visible…

  • This is a church for everybody

    Yesterday I reposted the It’s Time video from the equality network which features a 1 second cameo of me waving a sign. They filmed that over a year ago and as they collected those sign-waving people – religious leaders, celebs, couples, politicians etc they also asked them in front of the camera why they were…

  • It’s Time for a Vote

    This week we get to a significant point in the campaign for more equal marriage law in Scotland. On Wednesday there will be a vote in the parliament at Holyrood. Whilst there has been a lot of pre-scrutiny of the legislation and a long political process already, this is the first time that members of…