I've just received my first Christmas card. It is from a company wanting to sell me Church Copyright licences – a business which I find unpleasant enough at the best of times. I hope that I am not being too Scrooge-like by putting it straight in the bin. I have a feeling that a lot of…

I rather like bonfire night, but the cat does not. Last night she spent part of the evening hiding under the dining room table refusing to come out until the banging noises stopped. I ended up under the table trying to convince her that life was worth hanging o­nto for a couple of days and…

One aspect of the Gene Robinson story really interested me. It was the news that people around his diocese had been contributing gold jewellery to be melted down to make a pectoral cross – ie the cross which most Western bishops wear near their heart. Some divorcees had contributed wedding rings and there were some…

It is quite extraordinary to be able to participate in the consecration of a bishop in the USA whilst sitting at home watching a screen. I've never been to a consecration before, but I felt very present last night watching the events in New Hampshire.A blessing o­n you, Gene Robinson from Bridge of Allan -…

I'm delighted to hear the news that the Park of Keir Greenbelt land issue which I have been campaigning o­n locally is to have a full Public Enquiry. Quite right too. Many of the local campaigners went down to the Scottish Parliament o­n Wednesday to lobby their MSPs. Together we managed to get all the…

I'm back from sunny Argyll. It was far hotter and sunnier than I would have expected.More immediately, I've just come in from standing in a very cold field for an hour watching the Northern Lights gently illuminate the night sky. There were meteors to watch too – shooting across both Orion and the Pleiades. A…

I'm taking this week off from Blogging. Blog will be resumed 28 October 2003 (ish).

Rejoice, Bridge of Allan – broadband is here.I might just feel a twinge of pride. Broadband has been a long time coming and it was quite hard to convince a lot of people that it was worth signing up for.I felt another twinge of pride last night in having the Primates' Statement up o­n the Changing…