What is in Kelvin's Head?

Quiet Wednesday – one week to go

03/12/2014

Guest blog post from the Vice Provost, the Rev Cedric Blakey

Quiet Wednesday is the idea at St Mary’s Cathedral, an antidote to Black Friday and Cyber Monday. A day with no work, no shopping, no card writing or food prep. A day, well up to 6 hours, without emails, blogging or social media. A day in company with a dozen or so others at a small monastery in the heart of Glasgow.

The idea? To give yourself a little space before things get too frantic. In fact to turn up and be looked after. To hear a couple of short talks on the subject “Great Expectations: a look at waiting and longing”, and most importantly, to find a space to read, to think, to pray or simply be.

Last year, one person wrote “it was just what I needed, a day when I felt I had permission to stop and to rest and be ministered to with quality words and in a beautiful, peaceful place. To have this day a couple of weeks before Christmas made all the difference. It was simply divine”.

People can still join the day on Wednesday 10 December starting at 10.00 using the form on the cathedral website. And those at a distance can join in too. Perhaps by planning a day at home or in a park or glen.

5 responses to “Five Thoughts On Losing Elections (and a referendum)”

Meg Rosenfeld

31/01/2020

Thank you; this was a good and helpful piece to read on a day when, in all likelihood, those of us in the USA who have been endeavoring to restore justice and truth to our Presidency are going to be informed that we’ve failed.

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Helen Dean

31/01/2020

Great message. We also need people who are prepared to lose for the right reasons even if they never win.

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Jackie Heatlie

31/01/2020

Truly, huge common sense in this. Never let go of ‘Radical Hope’!

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Marie Craig

01/02/2020

I second that!

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Rosemary Hannah

01/02/2020

Yes but. The rain, it raineth every day/upon the just and unjust fella/ but it raineth more upon the just/for the unjust hath the just’s umbrella. It is hugely much easier to win if you feel free to say what you know to be
popular. If you feel free to discount the complex for the always simple. I know this because over the years I have tried to explain, variously, that a nation’s economy does not work in the exact same way as a household budget, and that trade agreements between countries are not as simple as selling goods at a church sale of work. Or, to put it another way, the huge medical success of the last fifty (plus) years has been vaccination. A short discomfort, a huge level of success. That has not prevented the anti vaccine lobby having huge success in persuading people that an exceptionally safe procedure is seriously dangerous. And at least some of the pro vaccine propaganda has been slick and professional (witness the latest row on TicTok)

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