What is in Kelvin's Head?

  • Sermon – Christmas 2

    Here’s what I had to say in the pulpit yesterday:

    Video first…

    When I was young, Christmas was pretty much the same every year at our house. The morning would comprise of morning worship and after that there would be lots of driving to pick up older relatives so that the family might be together at Christmas.

    Eventually gathered together around a specially prepared festive table we would eat and manage to get through vast quantities of food before listening to the Queen at three o’clock. And then and only then, unwrapping presents.

    The thing that I want to remember today is one of my older maiden aunts. Actually a great aunt, who was always with us at Christmas.

    The thing I remember was something that she used to say as we prepared to tuck into the food, glorious food, that my mother had prepared.

    “Do you know,” said that maiden aunt each year, (more…)

    , ,

4 responses to “Prayers at a time of tragedy”

  1. Linda Watson Avatar
    Linda Watson

    It’s hard to imagine that only a few hours ago I was in your beautiful church in that wonderful city that sometimes I think of as mine. My heart and my prayers go out to all the families of the bereaved and injured tonight.
    “Rest eternal Lord, grant unto them and may light perpetual shine upon them”

    Reply
  2. Diane Avatar
    Diane

    Amen. And yet again the people of Glasgow showed themsleves at their warm-hearted best, with unsolicited offers of practical help.

    Reply
  3. The Revd Tom Green Avatar
    The Revd Tom Green

    Thank you for this prayer Kelvin.
    Here in Australia the week before last, a guy dressed as a Muslim (and was in fact one) held a lot of people hostage in a very posh but well-patronised cafe in the business/law precinct the city of Sydney. He had a lot of irrational demands. It was a very well-planned and he held up the people and the city in terror for 12+ hours. He was actually a bully and unhinged mentally. In the end the police broke in and in the ensuing gun battle 2 people were killed by the gunmman then the gunman himself.
    We lie quietly here in Australia with relatively little racial violence (but lots of domestic violence -the gunman had heaps of charges)
    We understand this incident does not equate with what happened in your city
    or to the schhool-children in Pakistan but it stunned us.

    So I thank you for your skill to put this simple prayer together.
    Tom

    Reply
    1. Kelvin Avatar
      Kelvin

      Thanks Tom – we were all watching and praying along with those in Sydney last week. These events are world events. Paradoxically they bring us together.

      Reply

Leave a Reply

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

Previous Posts

  • Scottish Episcopal Flickr

    I’m pleased to announce the existence of a flickr group for the Scottish Episcopal Church. It is open to anyone, not just members of the church; the only criteria are that photos shared with the group are of church events or buildings or people. Tourists passing by, you’re welcome. The group’s guidelines are over here.…

  • Ecumenical Websites (Sex and Gargoyles)

    Two ecumenical websites to report on and draw to people’s attention. Ecumenical websites seem to be all the rage at the moment, but like a lot of ecumenical things, it is hard to focus people’s attention on them. Firstly, www.resourcingchurches.org.uk. This one has things for Christians to do. Quite a lot of C of S…

  • Elephants are apocryphal

    We are reading stories from one of the books of the Macabees at morning prayer this week. There are a lot of elephants there. Nuggats such as this are on offer: “They offered the elephants the juice of grapes and mulberries, to arouse them for battle.” So far as I’m aware, elephants only appear in…

  • In Search of the Presbyterian Sense of Humour

    I’ve received a request off-blog from someone in the colonies, asking to be pointed to any Scottish bloggers writing from a presbyterian point of view who display the same kind of sense of humour as some of those linking to and posting comments on here. I don’t know the answer to this one, so my…