• Tales of the City – February 2020

    On the way home from the opera I step into a shop to get out of the rain, and buy something to eat against the cold – a late-night post-operatic chittery-bite.

    In front of me are two young men dressed in much less than I am. They are the worse for wear and arguing.

    Drunk Young Man #1: Well we’ll ask someone else then.

    Drunk Young Man #2:
    Yes! Someone neutral.

    They turn to me.

    DYM#1: Here man. Settle an arugment for us will you. Is coronavirus real or is it propoganda

    Self: I think it is real.

    DYM#2: Aye man. Told you. It *is* real. He said so. Here, I bet you do a very responsible job

    DYM#1:
    Aye very responsible. What are you man?

    I hesitate a moment and consider how to answer.

    DYM#2: I bet he’s a Supply Chain Manager. Are you a Supply Chain Manager, man?

    I smile a smile that I hope will look like the smile of a cold wet Supply Chain Manager.

    DYM#2: I knew it.

    DYM#1: Hey, do you have a lighter?

    I shake my head.

    We are all forlorn that I do not have a lighter.

4 responses to “Sermon – 27 February 2005”

  1.  Avatar
    Anonymous

    Re: Sermon – 27 February 2005

    It is people like you who we should be electing as Bishops!
    People of faith, who have a kind, decent and honest heart.
    People of courage, who are prepared to speak out and stand firm against prejudices of all kinds.
    St Saviour's congregation are fortunate to have you, and have grown in faith because of you.
    The Scottish Episcopal Church is extremely fortunate to have you.
    The Anglican communion must also recognise how fortunate they are to have good Christian people like you!

    Jesus turns no o­ne away – we have no right to either

    I hope that you will continue to help us grow, in the faith that we all proclaim to have.

  2.  Avatar
    Kelvin

    Re: Sermon – 27 February 2005
    Exactly!

  3.  Avatar
    Anonymous

    Re: Sermon – 27 February 2005
    Our friend Skintbuthappy has put my thoughts perfectly so I have nothing as beautifully put to add other than in reply to this comment

    Jesus turns nobody away, why should we?

    That, in my opinion is the whole point. This is what we read all through the New Testament, this is what all the parables underline. No-one is excluded and we mere mortals have no right to do otherwise or indeed to make judgement.

  4. Ann Philp Avatar
    Ann Philp

    Recently I took a funeral at the local crem. It was of a cross gender woman much loved by all who knew her. The crem was full, many of them from the community of gay and cross gender folk locally. They had asked me to do it ( I had employed one of the mourners) The congregation–really hard up most of them,many had really limited education. I found myself wanting to weep…not for the dead. ..that was their job but because the church had lost them all. We don’t do God one of them had said. Why did they want me? I had been kind…
    They said, you know about God..you can talk to him. Yes I endured pop songs at odd places in the rite no hymns or psalms…but of course I prayed and of course I talked. There was only one message, God loves all of you…it is the only message…but where have we been? He eats with tax collectors and sinners, he mixed with all people showing equal love to all. What have we let happen?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Previous Posts

  • Jericho, Berlin and what wall next?

    I remember going on a school trip to Germany when I was a young teenager. I don’t remember that much about the visit to be honest, but I do remember the wall. We were not in Berlin but we were staying near enough to the border between East Germany and West Germany to warrant a…

  • Somewhere over the rainbow

    I’ve just heard that I’ve been included in the Independent on Sunday’s Rainbow List. This is the new name for the Pink List – a list of gay, lesbian, bi and trans people whom the newspaper wants to celebrate as people who have made a difference in the past year. To be honest I’m surprised…

  • Becoming a Welcoming Cathedral

    Someone who is visiting Glasgow at the moment and who has been to St Mary’s a couple of times, said to me this week, “Well, whatever you are telling those people about Welcome, they are actually doing it.” It reminded me of someone in the congregation who said early on in my ministry here, “You…

  • Sermon for Dedication Sunday 2014

    26 October 2014 – Dedication Sunday from Kelvin Holdsworth on Vimeo. You have come to something that cannot be touched – in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen I suppose I should give the full verse of the text that I want to preach on this…