… I need to make my mind up who to go and see at the Book Festival in Edinburgh which starts soon.

Must get on with some book reviews. There are 2 things sitting on the shelf which I have had for a few weeks. I find that unless I do them immediately upon receipt, there is the temptation to just put them aside and forget about them. Richard Holloway’s new one comes out next week -…

Did I mention what a great success the art exhibition was last week? It is a long time since the church hall was used in this way, for local artists to display their pictures. Quite a number of the artists had turned their paintings into cards and notelets which were lovely. I’ve no idea how…

I'm not preaching today – if you want to read sermons, try www.textweek.com, which is a great resource.

It took me a surprisingly long time to find a Richard Holloway picture o­nline which I could put o­n the church website. It looks rather old. I am not even sure that he wears a dog collar much these days. When I have seen him recently he always been in an existentialist black polo neck.In the…

The G8 leaders are coming to the Auchterarder Railway Hotel (aka Gleneagles), just up the road at about this time next year. There is likely to be a lot of disruption locally. Perhaps not rioting in Bridge of Allan, though rioting somewhere not too far away, without a doubt. There will also be a lot…

Talking of the Archers (and who isn't), I discovered a whole new literary genre the other day – Archers Parodies. o­nce again, the internet brings the most extraordinarily glorious nonsense together in o­ne place.I particularly liked Come Into the Polytunnels, Ian (with thanks to Tennyson)The Battle of Glebelands (a Stanley Holloway parody)Not wasted (a TS…

It seems difficult, at first glance, to see how anyone can preach anything worth saying about the story of the Good Samaritan. It does not seem to matter how often Jesus?s words are repeated, they lose none of their power. The problem for the preacher is what to say. For this is o­ne of those…

I cannot find my ECUSA Hymnal ie the hymn book that they use in the States. I’ve been through my bookshelves twice, but cannot find it. I wonder whether I have loaned it to someone. In the course of looking for it, I did discover my American BCP and the two psalters, Anglican Chant and…