• Review of Predictions for 2018

    On 1 January I made predictions for the coming year. Time to see how I got on.

    1 – General Election in the second half of the year.

    Well, no we didn’t and the government linger on. Not right

    2 – “…and as the polls close, our exit poll predicts that the Conservative Party is unlikely to be able to form a new government…”

    Well, the government did linger on of a fashion.  N/A

    3 – The next but one leader of the Conservative Party becomes Ruth Davidson MP.

    Too soon to tell. Not right yet.

    4 – The hipsters get bored of vinyl and discover cameras with actual, you know, film.

    In September, I happened upon three or four hipster types from Denmark in the cathedral grounds taking photographs for a fashion shoot in Belgium. They had stopped shooting for a moment…. to reload film canasters.  Right – but likely to become more common yet.

    5 – No date for a new referendum on Scottish Independence.

    No date for a new referendum and no great call for one either. Right.

    6 – No progress for LGBT affirming Anglicans in England.

    Sadly correct. Right

    7 – Progress for LGBT affirming Anglicans elsewhere, particularly Brazil.

    Stunning progress in Brazil – marriage agreed by huge majority on synod floor. (And who else saw that coming!) Right.

    8 – Increasing realisation that sexual abuse is part of church culture. #churchtoo #metoo.

    Yes – meetings happening all over the place trying to work out how to respond. Few coherent policies yet. Right.

    9 – FTSE lower at the end of 2018 than it is at the beginning. (7687)

    As I write this the FTSE is at 6728 – worst year in a decade. Right

    10 – The end of the beard.

    Those with style, manners and culture have seen the error of their ways and shaved. A few young and misguided types cling on. Completely and utterly right.

     

    Not a bad year, I think.

9 responses to “David's Lamentation – Sermon for 9 August 2009”

  1. Muriel Avatar
    Muriel

    Thank you very much for your very moving rendition of David’s Lamentation this morning in between the two readings. You were in excellent voice. I am surprised there are (as yet) no more comments but I am glad that the video held in there until your song was ended.
    I will be putting in on my new IPod once I have bought it and,more importantly, got to grips with it.
    A haunting and memorable moment……

  2. susan s. Avatar
    susan s.

    Thank you for posting this Lamentation. As Muriel says, haunting and memorable. If ever I get to Glasgow again I can come to church and hear you in person.

  3. RosemaryHannah Avatar
    RosemaryHannah

    It not only moved me to tears (not that hard) – it raised the hairs on the back of my arms – which is just about vanishingly rare. Stunning does not do justice to it. Just how profoundly the congregation were affected was heard in the quality of the silence which fell afterwards.

  4. Sarah SSM Avatar

    Thank you very much for this sermon and for the music accompanying it.

  5. Jimmy Avatar
    Jimmy

    Considering the machinations of our leaders over the last few years, the accounts of David’s life are quite up to date.
    In our hearts and in our political and social structures we are no better than the people then and we have not moved on.
    Hypocricy at home and exploitation abroad is not my idea of an improved mankind or world.
    There is not one person in this world who does not need to get on their knees with psalm 51 in front of them.

  6. kelvin Avatar

    Yes, someone said to me on Sunday that they did not think we had moved on at all. However, I think we have.

    Clearly the whole world hasn’t moved on at the same pace or to the same place. However, I’d rather live in the UK with all its faults and failings than live in Burma or Zimbabwe or Afghanistan.

  7. Grandmère Mimi Avatar

    The lamentation is beautifully done, Kelvin.

    I’m with your parishioner who said that we have not come so very far from the times of David.

  8. Aghaveagh Avatar

    Simply wonderful.

  9. Maureen (McK) Avatar
    Maureen (McK)

    I loved the lamentation, Kelvin, having never heard it before. The sermon was very good, too. Thanks

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