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Blogging for Beginners?
A blog, in the newspeak of the noughties,
is an abbreviation of web-log - in my case, it means an online periodic
burble, (sort of stream-of-consciousness thing) of daily/weekly/monthly doings.
So, here's
Ma tha Gàidhlig agaibh , bhithinn mi glè
thaingeil ma tha sibh a'cuir thugam
ceartachaidh mo iomrallan
Monday 29 June 2009/Diluain 29 an t-Ògmhios 2009
On Sunday 28 June at CCE, we kicked
off our summer series on ‘Who Is This Jesus?’ with ‘Before Abraham Was, I Am’
from John 8.59. There were much smaller numbers around, being the first Sunday
of the school holidays in Edinburgh, and so Jules and Moira kindly laid out
just ninety chairs, in the round, making our gathering feel more intimate and
together.
We also rang the changes on the format, and
after an opening song, got the notices kicked into touch, before taking up the
offering in the first song of the following worship time. Iain A was hosting,
and lead us sensitively through, with prayer for the
nation and nations, and then Ben Gordon shared on what Jesus means to him;
personal, winsome and relevant, it was great to hear from him. I then came in
with the address, introducing the whole series with a short video clip gleaned
from the Foundations21 online discipleship course, setting the sail for our
voyage ahead.
We saw that Jesus’ words to the Jewish
leaders in John 8 leave no chance for us to see Jesus just as a moral teacher;
as C S Lewis has it, in his Mere Christianity, Jesus is either mad, bad
or God.
If we recognise Him as God, that draws from
us a response; first, worship, as the God who is in man, then surrender, giving
ourselves to Him as Lord which is our ‘obvious service’; and thirdly, reflecting
Him in transformed actions, as He lives in us by His Spirit, asking ourselves
not so much ‘What would Jesus do?’ but, as God resident in us ‘ Would Jesus do this?’
The weather has been, to use the Scots
vernacular, dreich, for June. Cool and damp,
though we made up for it this afternoon by settling down on the sofa with a
book each. (I’m reading Andrew Martin’s railwayman’s murder mystery, The
Necropolis Railway. )
Saturday 27 June 2009/Disathairne 17 an t-Ògmhios 2009
A speed blog this time, updating what’s
been happening;
Sunday 21st , I was speaking at Gateway Community Church Perth, a sister church of
the Scottish Network. Saw quite a few folks from former ECF days, doing well.
Great seeing their kids who are teens and twenties actively involved in worship
and community life there. Over the summer, they will be out in the local park on
Sunday mornings, as they were last summer, taking church outdoors.
Had a good and encouraging day with Allan
Cox up from Eastleigh New Community; the weather was lovely, as we sat on the
new deck, enough to drive us later into the shade. We had a walk up through
Tower Mains farm at Liberton, where we stopped to
chat to the farmer who was enjoying the lovely day on his hand-made log bench
overlooking the city and sea. And this just fifteen minutes or so from home !
On Wednesday evening, attended the
induction to
Thursday evening was a milestone for us;
our last child leaving school, as Abby took part in St Margaret’s School
closing concert. The music was very special, with my proud Dad’s heart beating
loud hearing Abby perform her saxophone solo of Ravel’s Pièce en forme de Habanera, my favourite of her repertoire,
before the packed-in audience at St Cuthbert’s Church, West End. (see clip below – not great sound quality, but you get the
drift.) There was a torrent of tears at the end of the concert, as girls in
white formal blouses and kilts hugged their long goodbyes to each other, the
end of an era. We went for pizza and ice
cream after to celebrate at Ciao Italia, home late after a pleasant and fitting
evening.
Wednesday 17 June 2009/Diciadain
17 an t- Ògmhios 2009
I listened this evening to
the second of Prof Michael Sandel’s Reith Lectures
2009 on Morality and Politics. Really riveting stuff, and thoroughly
recommended – download or listen at http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/reith/
Today, I was in Glasgow for a meeting at
the Evangelical Alliance offices in
Cowcaddens, as a follow up to the Brian McLaren tour last
December, and we are moving towards a ‘roadshow’ of
Scottish thinkers and responders to the questions raised by Brian, probably in
November this year, in Edinburgh and Glasgow.
<<
Before that, I enjoyed dropping in on Anne McGreechin who is the community development worker at the
Open Door in
Yesterday, Tuesday 16 June, I
was involved in an ideas workshop put on by the West Crosscauseway
Assocation at Southside Community Centre in
It was good to meet new faces and to
refresh acquaintance with some older ones; a number of the Southside Heritage
Group were at the day, a group I had been along to
some ten years ago or so. Also there were representatives of local architects,
the Living Memory Association and the Southside Community Centre.
We spent the first part of the day together
at RCAHMS (Royal Commission on Ancient and
I was a little waylaid by discovering the
architect’s details for the King’s Hall. David Cousin was a Free Church
architect, and a student of William Playfair. He not
only designed the original
<< The site on 1891 map
Going from RCAHMS we gathered at ‘the
Causey’ (pronounced locally as the Caussey –
it was paved early on, and retained the name thereafter). This space is also
known as The Guse Dub because at one time,
there was a pond here with geese. We also recalled that
in the photographs we had seen a horse-trough, which some of the group
actually remembered being there in their living memory.
The Crosscauseway
is an ancient street, now somewhat demoted in importance since the building of
The intersection is overlooked by two
considerable buildings; Buccleuch - Greyfriars Free Church built in 1856 and the former Chapel
of Ease, built in 1755 to serve the expanding St Cuthbert’s Parish. The burial
ground behind the chapel is the last resting place of, among others, the
infamous Deacon Brodie, in an unmarked grave, as well
as Mrs McLehose, who wrote the famous lament, ‘The
Flowers of the Forest’. We also noted
that 56 North, a nearby café, has tables out on the pavement, although the
environment is particularly café-culture friendly.
After lunch, we got to work looking at how
the Causey could be transformed into a space for people rather than for a
cut-through for cars with three parking spaces. At the end of the workshop,
some common themes emerged from all four workshop groups – cutting or
prohibiting traffic, creating a relaxed and calm environment, possibly with
water feature and sculptures depicting the trough, horses and/or geese.
As participants, it was agreed that the day
had been very worthwhile, and before we left, I had liaised with the secretary
of the Southside Heritage group to host them one Thursday morning for a tour of
King’s Hall, looking at its history and its possible future.
One thing that came up in the course of the
day was the fact that both the Free Church and the Chapel of Ease are divided
off from the street by black, spiky railings. Many folks commented how divisive
these seemed, and one member of the Free Church taking part in the day pointed
out that it was ‘theologically unsound’ to make such a distance between
community and church. It made me think about the spikes which guard King’s Hall : could it be, in the recasting of our own building,
that we need to open up the front to serve the surrounding area rather than
proclaim a separation?
It was a valuable and worthwhile engagement
together as ‘Southsiders’ ;
hopefully good things may come of it. A video record of the day was made, and
this should appear on the Causey website in due course.
Monday 15 June 2009/Diluain 15 an t-Ògmhios 2009
Feedback from Sunday June 14 – quite low numbers out at CCE this morning; we’re
running into holiday time, and just around 70 were in attendance. However, the
good news is that about a dozen folks turned out for the ‘inconvenient
prayer time’ at 915am, in the coffee bar, with
accompanying croissants and coffee. That was encouraging.
Chris led the worship time, introducing the
new song ‘We won’t stay silent any more’ – hear it on Spotify
or the worship central training video on YouTube. It’s a call to prayer, ‘Could
we be a prayerful people?’
Malcolm hosted, and led us in
thought-provoking prayer after the saddening increase in people voting BNP last
week in the European elections – he encouraged us to look at the ‘Hope not
Hate’ website as one which is resisting any drift towards fascism.
We looked together at Daniel 7, the last in
the series, and saw from it that Jesus, in his applying the title ‘Son of Man’
to Himself in Matthew 26.64 was using the very Aramaic term that Daniel uses
here in Daniel 7. We homed in on the reality of who Jesus is, and the fact that
He is the centre of all things, and a relationship with Him is the key, rather
than the formulation of abstract principles. (See the Jacques Ellul quote below under 6 June entry.) It is to Him that the kingdom is given
in Daniel’s vision of chapter 7.
We shared bread and wine together in
closing, inviting folks to gather around the table and share with each other.
Thursday 11 June 2009/Diardaoin 11 an t-Ògmhios 2009
Southside Community Council EUSA
Presentation Weds 10th
Yesterday evening I dropped in for a very
short while to the regular meeting of Southside Community Council at the Nelson
Hall in Bernard Terrace. I was fortunate to catch a very informative
presentation by James Wallace, Vice-president of Services for Edinburgh
University Students’ Association on a Southside survey the association has
conducted. One of the figures which was impressive was
that of both students and non-students interviewed for the survey, 92% were
satisfied or fairly satisfied with life on the Southside of Edinburgh. The main
negatives of living there were street noise and vandalism, but it seems that
large numbers like the area.
When it came to noise, a perennial issue
for people, a fair percentage of students seemed to think they were noisy,
while only around 10% of non-students interviewed thought students were
responsible for nuisance noise levels, showing students are harder on
themselves, perhaps. There was also a feeling both from council members and
EUSA that there could be closer working together of university and community to
mutual benefit. A very worthwhile and interesting
presentation.
Canon Fred Tomlinson, St Peter’s
I hurried from the CC meeting round to St Peter’s in
The St Peter’s building has been recently
redecorated, and with new chandeliers looked a real picture for the
celebration, which was both joyful and dignified. Rev Frances Burberry, the
curate gave the sermon, speaking from words of a former Bishop of Durham, encouraging
Fred to ‘go in the company of Jesus Christ, relying on his grace’ in spirit,
soul and body. After the service, Fred was presented with a stole to
commemorate the occasion, which was blessed by the Bishop of Edinburgh, Rt Rev Brian Smith.
The service followed the Scottish Liturgy
1982, and I was moved and lifted up in my spirit by the depth of the worship in
its words, an example for me of accessible and meaningful crafted prayer which
is full of Jesus Christ and His presence.
Tuesday 9 June 2009/Dimàirt 9 an t-Ògmhios 2009
Cold water baptisms, Prayer and a
Landing-Strip for the Kingdom
Sunday 7th at CCE was memorable
for one major reason – the baptistry heater broke
down! But the brave souls being baptised and baptising (Jonny, Brian and
In speaking on Daniel 7, my focus on Sunday
was on Daniel as a man of prayer, and the need for us to see that as a church,
no prayer= no progress. John Wesley said God does nothing except through
believing prayer. – obviously not meaning that God is paralysed if we don’t
pray, but rather that He looks for our engagement with His purposes through
prayer. I gave a picture which might help, quoted here from my notes from
Sunday (available as a download from the CCE
website )
On June 6th 2009 there were celebrations in
I also highlighted that prayer is never convenient, will never ‘fit
in’ with our schedule. It has to be given space, and won’t be comfortable –
warfare is not comfortable nor convenient….
Jacques
Ellul’s The
Presence of the Kingdom
I am
reading a book I picked up at
We must be convinced that there are no such things
as ‘Christian principles’. There is the Person of Christ, who is the principle
of everything. But if we wish to be faithful to Him, we cannot dream of
reducing Christianity to a certain number of principles (though this is often
done), the consequences of which can be logically deduced. This tendency to
transform the work of the Living God into a philosophical doctrine is the
constant temptation of theologians, and also of the faithful, and their
greatest disloyalty when they transform the action of the Spirit which brings
forth fruit in themselves into an ethic, a new law, into ‘principles’ which
only have to be ‘applied’. The Christian life does not spring from a ‘cause’
but it moves towards an ‘end’; it is this which completely changes the outlook
for humanity, and renders the Christian life different from every other life.
Ellul J, trans Wyon O
The Presence of the Kingdom (London: SCM Press, 1951) p52
BBC’s
Reith Lectures 2009 – Morality and Markets
I just listened to Prof Michael Sandel, Harvard
Professor of Political Philosophy give the first of the BBC’s Reith Lectures
for this year, on ‘Markets and Morals’ in a series entitled ‘A New
Citizenship.’ It made fascinating listening, especially his critique of the
tendency to ‘marketise’ everything in our lives. It
put me in mind of Jesus’ words to the merchants in the Temple according to John
2.16, ‘you have made my house into a market-hall’ – are we doing the same thing
with the good news of Jesus?
The
lectures can be heard for a while on BBC i-player, or
are downloadable in mp3 format at http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/reith/
Sunday 7 June 2009/ Didòmhnaich
7 an t-Ògmhios 2009
On retreat last Thursday at the Bield in
First, He is Our Father; the prayer
only makes real sense when it is prayed together in community – in the first
person plural, not singular. That doesn’t mean we can’t pray it individually,
but Jesus said when you plural pray – He anticipated we would pray
together, saying Our Father.
Secondly, the prayer is about Him, not us.
So often when we pray, it is because we are in need, or want a successful
outcome. But the prayer focuses on Him – Your Name be made holy, Your
Kingdom come, Your will be done on
earth, as in heaven. And the end of the prayer echoes the beginning – Yours
is the Kingdom, power and glory, forever. So, praying together, we are making a
landing-place for the King to come and for His intentions to be realised among us.
Unfortunately, much of modern British
Christianity has seemed to be about God ‘okay’ing’
our basically liberal, democratic, humanist-individualist lifestyles, where
prayer is about getting more things from God – comfort, peace, prosperity,
convenience.
William Wordsworth, whilst not a great
Christian theologian, expresses something of the problem in a sonnet;
The world is to much with us; late and
soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our
powers;
Little we see in nature that is ours;
We have given away our hearts, a sordid
boon!
This sea that bares her bosom to the moon,
The winds that will be howling at all
hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping
flowers,
For this, for everything, we are out of
tune;
It moves us not. - Great God! I’d rather be
A pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses which would make me less
forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea,
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.
Whilst I don’t go along with Wordsworth’s
assumption that ancient paganism would be preferable (his romanticism),
certainly his cry for something more in balance with the world around us, and
more with the heart of God is one echoed in hearts longing for His Kingdom to
come.
Christ’s Kingdom is not another political
theory, nor a system of behaviours or rules. It is the King-ship of
Jesus Christ, personally with us, walking, talking, eating with us, guarding our
nights and filling our days, and overflowing into a life which has Him as the
priority.
Saturday 6 June 2009/ Disathairne
6 an t-Ògmhios 2009
An update of the last week or so
Friday 5 June 2009
At last, after months of training, Street Pastors were
out on the streets of the city for the first time, in uniform.
As we went off duty, walking back to the
car for home, we missed the opportunity to hand out a pair of flip-flops to a
woman running like a marathon runner along
The teams start out from next Friday,
properly, working into the wee sma’ hours around
Greenside. Anyone who feels they want
to join for prayer can come to
Wednesday 3 June 2009
Travelled through to Glasgow for the Scottish Network
leaders core team and prayer lunch in Bishopbriggs; it’s so good to have a
bunch of fellow leaders with whom one can meet nationally without getting on a
plane or living in a hotel. There is something about this monthly gathering
which is so vital to me, for its sharpening, its encouragement and its sense of
working together to see Christ’s kingship made known in
It was also good on the train back to catch
up with Bill Nisbet of North Berwick, and hear news
of their fund-raising for
Sunday 31 May 2009, Pentecost, Global Day
of Prayer, Edinburgh
A glorious, sunny weekend; temperatures at in the
balmy low 20s, and perfect for the Global Day of Prayer happening in the
Scottish capital this year up on Blackford Hill.
After Sunday meeting at CCE ( feedback from Poland team, prayer with student
team heading off to India to help in schools, latest instalment of Daniel,
chapter 5, Belshazzar’s Feast – ‘Partying as the Empire Collapses’ /download of
talk available from www.cce.uk.net ) some of us headed off for a picnic under a
cloudless blue sky at the Royal Observatory, then took a leisurely climb up the
spine of the hill to where about 200 of us gathered to worship (led by John
young and the worship band from Liberton Kirk) , to
pray the Global prayer at 3pm, (led by, among others, Kenny Borthwick,
Alan Colley and Paul James-Griffiths) to hear the Scriptures (Psalm 23 sung by
St Columba’s Free Kirk choir) and to bless the city, which lay in the sunshine
at our feet.
There was also a real African prayer, full
of God, from Pastor Peter Omwanda from
Banners flew in the breeze above the city,
and drums and a shofar sounded out blessing for many.
A great day, and I’m already looking forward to 2010
as the culmination of the decade of global prayer day.
For more go to http://www.edinburghprayer.org/gdop2009.php
Wednesday 27 May 2009/Diardaoin 27 a’Chèitein 2009
A round-up of the last week’s happenings:
Weekend in
A team of five of us, Chris and Lisa Hall, Alan
Colley, Ashley Foggitt and yours truly spent a weekend sharing and leading
worship with around eighty people at the En Christo
Centre for Evangelisation and Christian Life in Lanckorona, Poland; Lanckorona
is about twenty miles to the south west of Kraków, in
the beautiful Beskid Hills, and a few miles east of
the birthplace of Pope John Paul 2, Wadowice. The
centre is run by Andrzej and Sanita Sionek; Andrzej
spent about six months with us in 
renew friendship, which was wonderful.
On arrival at Kraków
airport, we were whisked straight to an open-air event being held by some of
the young people from Lanckorona outside the halls of residence of
We had some time on Friday to visit the Old
Town of Kraków, before the weekend Worship in the
Spirit started, with a session on the Friday night on What
is Worship? On Saturday and Sunday
morning, we split into two tracks, Chris Hall teaching on the worshipper’s
life, and Colin doing a track on The Worship Leader, life and character. We
came back together before lunch on Sunday for a session on worship in the Holy
Spirit, and it was like lighting kindling under a fire! There was a trememdous time of singing and speaking in tongues,
prophetic words and, after lunch, time for personal prayer and ministry.
On Saturday evening, we shared in an outdoor mass in
front of the house, which, while it grew
colder as the evening grew darker, didn’t stop us worshipping and sensing the
Lord’s presence with us. Warm words of love and reconciliation were spoken by
the priests who had ministered, and prayers for a restoration of the whole
church one day.
We came home again Sunday evening grateful
for this opportunity to reconnect with some old friends. There are opportunities
for ongoing connection with Lanckorona in the days ahead.
And there’s a video clip here of a flavour
of Saturday night’s outdoor worship, singing ‘His love endures forever’
Debate
at the Church of Scotland on Monday 25th May
I listened in to the webcast of the debate
on the ‘Overture’ of the Lochcarron and Skye
presbytery to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland on Monday
afternoon, appealing to the assembly to establish the Biblical rule that
ministers should not be in any sexual relationship other than a monogamous,
heterosexual marriage. It seems that the assembly was unable to do this,
leaving the question to be resolved by a special commission of the Kirk left to
report back in 2011.
This was the Church of Scotland at its most
arcane and Byzantine, redolent of the bad old days of late eighteenth century moderatism ;
this procedural obfuscation must leave most of her members in constant
frustration at the slow pace, and no doubt, many of them will be angry at the
assumption that the Kirk now permits openly homosexual ministers to practice in
its congregations, even though this has not yet been established. My prayer is
that the Kirk will remain confessing its Christ-given adherence to Scripture,
and reject the spirit of the age which has led to so much brokenness and
despair already in the nation.
National Scottish Prayer Breakfast
Wednesday 27 May
Some two hundred of us, up at the crack of
dawn were privileged to hear the welcome by Alex Fergusson, presiding officer
of the Scottish Parliament to the 21st Scottish National prayer
breakfast, held at the Houston House Hotel, Uphall.
Among others participating were Ross Finnie, former Scottish Government
minister, Ruth Box from Bishiopbriggs, singing for us,
and Sir Tom Farmer, who led the prayer for the nation, with an exhortation to
‘target the values rather than value targets.’
The speaker was Andy Brookes, from
Wednesday 20 May 2009/Diardaoin 20 a’Chèitein
2009
We have been in a big build since
February, hence the scarcity of the blogging. To a design by David Hewitt, we
now have extra rooms on the back of the house and a superb view of the old
garden has resulted, for which we are very thankful for God’s provision. The
team of builders from DOM construction were speedy, friendly and accomplished,
and Polish – I have had a mini-Polish-improvement course in all things builder,
from skirting boards (listwy) to girders (bełka), but it’s been fun having Poland come to
Liberton!
Now we are
settling back into life, albeit with a lovely peaceful setting which I have
been making the most of for morning prayer, the garden
forming the backdrop to the daily liturgy which is really refreshing and
inspiring. There are still a few finishing touches, like painting, but we are
well into the swing of garden life!
Here are some
speed-blog updates;
Tuesday 19 May Fascinating visit with Street Pastors training to
the city’s CCTV monitoring centre at
Monday 18 May
There has been some amazing steam action
around
Sunday 17 May
Good Sunday meeting at CCE; Paul Ede was meant
to be with us, but was unable because of bereavement, so we majored on worship
and prayer, in the round, with bread and wine. Malcolm C was hosting, and led
the liturgy for communion sensitively and thoughtfully. We opened up with a
simple chanting of the ancient Jesus Prayer, (Kyrie Iesou Christe, Yie tou Theou, eleison me, ton amartolon - Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.), then moving into Alleluia,
(Agnus Dei). There was space for prayer and words during the morning, which
should be posted on the CCE members’ site.
Alan C also led us in an instrumental meditation on images of the
vastness and beauty of space, which was very creative, with Adam’s sax somehow
echoing the haunting beauty of the planets and stars. We also said goodbye to
Hamish and Miriam as they return to
Wednesday 13 May Had the privilege
of visiting the new Addiewell prison, near
Livingston,
Monday 13 April
Steam (diesel and electric) heaven! – I turned up Easter Monday to
see A4 Pacific 60009 pass Craigentinny, hauling the
Great Briton back to Peterborough, and unexpectedly found a couple of locos
already in steam, having hauled the previous day’s train down from Dundee. I
videoed the ensuing movements, including, fifty seconds into the vid below, the A4 screaming past to a chorus of whistles
from the other two locos – this was just a gricer’s
dream moment!
Monday
March 9 2009/Diluain 9 a’ Mhàirt 2009
Feedback on Visit to
I went last week with Allan Cox to visit the New Community French
base at Le Vay, near Maisoncelles-la-Jourdan,
Tues 3rd March
Left Edinburgh by plane to Gatwick,
thence train to
Wed 4th March
At 730am, had breakfast with Christian
and Monique Vives; they are leaders of the Assemblée Evangélique Protestante at Bretteville-sur-Odon,
a suburb of the city of
From Caen we drove out into the beautiful Norman country south of
the Channel, and found the tiny village of Heurtevent,
a short step from Livarot, south of Lisieux, and well-known for its fine local cheese. Here
Bill and Jan Gordon welcomed us to the Centre Chrétien at Bethanie,
a converted farmstead, now used for retreats, Alpha weekends and ecumenical
fellowship. Bill is Catholic and Jan protestant, so they are an icon of unity,
and we had a very lovely afternoon sharing and talking with them. Bill went to Heriot’s School and knew
After a convoluted drive west from Heurtevent, through sun, rain and snow, with Allan’s satnav sometimes showing us as driving through fields, or
giving us helpful instructions like ‘turn west’, we arrived thankfully at Le Vay, to be welcomed by Peter and Marianne who look after
the house at the moment, and by a roaring wood-burner and a roast meal.
Thur 5th March
Time over breakfast chatting with Peter and Marianne; Peter is
English, but Marianne is of German parentage, and we talked of some of the
issues of living in an area so ravaged after WW2, with its ongoing woundedness and some anti-German feeling.
We looked around the property,
saw the goats and chickens, and the potential for growth in the house and its
outbuildings. We then visited Mortain, a hill with a
great view across to Mont-St-Michel, 42 miles away, where a famous tank battle
had taken place, and then visited Collette Usser in Gers, in her lovely converted schoolhouse, which has
potential for serving the community of ex-pat Brits and French locals. Collette
herself is a widow, based in St Malo, but remains in
the house at Gers to be near her daughters.
We then moved on to lunch in the
village, at a restaurant filled with lunchtime farm-workers (all male!) tucking
into their five-course lunch, which suited us down to the ground as well.
We then moved on to visit Vire, a bustling market-town with old castle keep and gate
house. The sad story is that on 6 June 1944, it was bombed 
by the Allies, and 500 of its citizens died; leaflets had been
dropped by the Americans to warn of the attack, but they blew off course three
miles, so no one knew it was coming. There is a memorial to the dead in the
church, and in the local war memorial.
We even braved the local Andouille de Vire, a
smoked sausage made from pig’s intestines – and it was OK, for a local
delicacy!
Fri 6th March
Early departure from St Malo, and then once in Portsmouth, a flight up from
Bournemouth, after dropping in on Allan’s wife, Lizzie back at Southampton, who
kindly drove me to the airport.
Overview
It was great to connect with French
believers. I felt very impacted by the Lord in prayer there about the need of
I would love to think we could find a
small team of intercessors and/or outreachers to go
back, maybe to do some Scottish cultural stuff to bridge-build with the local
community. Also, Le Vay is available for visits,
holidays and retreats, and with a hire car from
Monday
February 9 2009/Diluain 9 a’Ghearrain 2009
Talking
about the Kingdom…
Oh, it’s a month and more since I put anything on this
blog… I hope I have no regular readers! Anyway, something has been bothering me
about the way in the English speaking world we use the word ‘kingdom’ when
talking about the ‘kingdom of God’ or the ‘kingdom of heaven’: because of our
political experience of ‘kingdom’ in our everyday lives, and of our history of
kings and queens, we tend to have a very political view of what the kingdom of
God is. That is, we see ‘kingdom’ as an abstract construct, a system of
governance with protocols, rights and behaviours which differentiate us from,
say, a dictatorship, republic or federal state. Those of us living in the
It’s a linguistic issue primarily. Kingdom is a place to us, a geographical, social entity with a whole panoply of
connotations – from Richard III’s cry, ‘A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse’ through to Disney’s Magic Kingdom which millions of kids
visit annually. Yet the Greek word is basileia
(basileiva) denoting the
quality of being a King – king-ship or
kingliness. Put simply, in Jesus’
terms, this kingship cannot be experienced without an experience of, a
relationship with the King. Yet often I hear people, especially in new
and radical church circles speaking of kingdom as an ideology, a set of principles
or, particularly, behaviours, which
if engaged in will bring the Kingdom in –
common jargon for our aspiration for Christian ideological impact.
What I want to say, loud and clear, is No King – No Kingdom. We cannot mediate
‘Christian values’ to church, world or society without personal encounter with
the King Himself, Jesus Christ. In this Kingdom, the King does not stay in His palace and let His
subjects get on with life, as our Queen does. The King Himself comes to live in
our homes, in our businesses, is at our desks and production lines with us as
we work, study, live; he travels with us as we commute, He eats with us as we
sit at table, He is present where His ambassadors are present.
In studying Daniel 2, I have been struck by
how unequivocal Daniel in speaking to Nebuchadnezzar about His reliance on God
for His wisdom and insight. Even in a hostile environment, Daniel doesn’t
conceal his source of inspiration. We
need to be wary, in a world which wants religion kept out of the marketplace,
of hiding the King behind ‘a veil of flannel’ about principles and objectives
which deliberately hide the source of our life, and make us out to be the
clever ones.
Last year, I did an essay on the subject of
Servant Leadership, looking
particularly at the works of Robert Greenleaf, who popularised for western
culture this concept as a method of improving relationships and productivity in
society. I had thought it would be a chance to study the ways of Christ and
their application to leadership today. However, I found myself gripped by a
deep antipathy to Greenleaf’s approach, precisely because, though acknowledging
Christianity as one of the major sources for his work, he treated servant
leadership as an ideology which could be imparted while being divorced entirely
from the God who Himself put on a towel and washed His creatures’ feet.
When I hear the word kingdom these days, particularly in Christian teaching and
preaching, I check it in my mind against the word King to see if there is a cross-match. When I pray, Your Kingdom come , am I picturing a system or a
person, an ideology or a relationship? When I say I want to see the kingdom established am I thinking of a lifestyle
choice or a living Spirit guiding all I say and do, infinitely creative, an
adventure with the King himself?
To paraphrase Matt. 6.33, Seek first to relate with God as King (the
Kingship of God) and His ‘right-side-up ways of doing things’, and everything
else will fall into place.
Monday
January 5 2009/Diluain 5 den Fhaoillteach 2009
So the new year is in, and it’s back to auld claithes and parritch .
Over a restful holiday, I read two more Rebus
novels by Ian Rankin (Let It Bleed and Black
and Blue, the latter, to my delight, having a scene set in the Royal
Commonwealth Pool, where I swim. DI Rebus chases a suspect into the Clambers
children’s play area, and ends up sticking a plastic ball in his gub! I love the way Rankin has Rebus running round the
streets of
Hogmanay was fun, at a cèilidh, kilted up
and swinging the light fantastic… and fireworks after, this year not from seven
hills, but just two, Castle and Calton. Ben’s band were playing the gig, and it was a very enjoyable time
with the six score who turned up to see the year out and in with us. So, happy
new year to you, - have a sublime ’09!
Bha Oidhche Chaillein
gu doigheil againn anns an Talla an Righ aig a’ Chèilidh le comhlan aig ar Ben, mo mhac. Thàinig sia
fichead neach air a shon. Chaidh mi ann leis an eileadh agam agus
bha sinn a’dannsadh agus an deidh sin chaidh sinn airson nan
cleasan-teine aig meadhon oidhche, ged nach robh
iad ach air dhà cnuic am bliadhna, Cnoc a’Chaisteil aguis Cnoc Calton.
Ach bha iad
breagha gu dearbh. Bliadhna mhàth ùr ’09 dhuibh
uile!
St Stephen’s
Day, Friday December 26 2008/Latha Naoimh Stephain Dihaoine 26 den Dùbhlachd 2008
Meditating on the martyrdom of Stephen
today, I am reminded that Christ calls us to adventure, even an adventure to
death, because the pseudo-home we create here in our present physical lives is
not the city we truly seek. At the moment of his death, Stephen was given a
glimpse into the realm of God, where the risen Christ, who has overcome death,
is seated and at home with His Father in the city that is to come. We are
called to adventure, not to comfort, to quest, not to settle. Stephen’s
martyrdom is one aspect of that adventure that draws us on.
The carol Good
King Wenceslas is connected with this day, as the ‘Feast of Stephen’. It is
a legend from the
In the carol, if we can get past the
schmaltz of the familiar English verse, there is a challenge to Christ’s
apprentices today. Just as Stephen, Václav adventured
for Christ, leaving behind the comfort of royal privilege, and ministered to
the poor, the jewel of God's heart. His ministry took him into hardship, and
also to death, but, like Stephen, his service of the
marginalised and his ultimate sacrifice have been recorded in our
memories through the story of him we remember today.
Christmas
Day Thursday December 25 2008/Latha na
Nollaige Diardaoin 25 den Dùbhlachd 2008
Happy
Christmas to you !/Nollaig Chridheil dhuibh!
I have
been meditating this Christmas on the French carol, which in English we know as
‘O Holy Night’. The French have a saying, traduir, c’est trahir, ‘to translate is to
betray’, and in the case of this song it is certainly true, because the English
version loses much of the power of the original. I wonder if it is because the
French, known as Cantique de Noël was thought too revolutionary
and not deferential enough for the class-bound British? So, to liberate the meaning
for us Anglophones, here are the last two verses in the French and my
(non-scanning) translation, to let you see the power of the words as they were
given.
De notre foi que
la lumière ardente May the
burning light of our faith
Nous
guide tous au berceau de l’Enfant, Lead
us all to the child’s cradle,
Comme autrefois une étoile brillante As once a shining star
Y conduisit les chefs de l’Orient. Led the rulers
of the East.
Le Roi des rois naît
dans une humble crèche; The King of Kings born in a
humble manger,
Puissants du jour, fiers de votre
grandeur, O,
Powers that be, proud of your greatness,
À votre orgueil, c’est de là que Dieu prêche. It is from there that God
addresses your arrogance,
Courbez vos fronts devant le Rédempteur! Bow your heads before the
Redeemer!
Courbez vos fronts devant le Rédempteur! Bow your heads before the
Redeemer!
Le Rédempteur a brisé toute entrave, The Redeemer has
broken every shackle ,
La Terre est libre et le Ciel est ouvert. The earth is free and heaven is
open.
Il voit un frère où
n’était qu’un esclave, He
sees a brother where once was only a slave,
L’amour unit ceux qu’enchaînait le fer. Love unites those whom iron
chains once bound.
Qui lui dira notre reconnaissance? Who will tell Him of our
gratefulness?
C’est pour nous tous qu’il naît, qu’il souffre et meurt. For all of us He was born, suffered and died,
Peuple, debout! Chante ta délivrance. People, arise! Sing of your
deliverance.
Noël! Noël! Chantons le Rédempteur! Noël ! Noël !
Sing of the Redeemer!
Noël! Noël! Chantons le Rédempteur! Noël ! Noël !
Sing of the Redeemer!
Wednesday
24 December 2008/Diciadain 24 den Dùbhlachd 2008
I was prompted to update my blog somewhat
by someone who complained that they were looking for news of me on it, so it’s
nice to be wanted…
Highlights of the time since the last entry
in October
-
Two
weeks in
-
A
weekend in the middle of the study leave to visit Podolínec, to be there for
the First Sunday in November, which was greatly refreshing. I spoke to them
about my conviction that theirs is a testimony of adventure with God, which is
the theme of my essay on ‘biography as theology’ (still in train as I
write.)
-
On the
Tuesday of the second week of study leave, we drove from 
Sobotište, near Trnava, where the Baptist Federation
owns a house which belonged to an Anabaptist community there in the 17th
century (pictured left) . We had the privilege of
going into the house, and seeing where these disciples
of Christ lived in community, (right) sharing all they had, working the land.
We also witnessed the evidences of their craftsmanship in pottery and other
manufacture which were in the town’s museum. It was unusual for me, having
spent so much time among Roman Catholic friends in
-
We then
crossed back over the border (now unguarded and unpatrolled since Jan 1st
this year, as part of the Schengen agreement) to
visit Mikulov in Czech Republic (formerly Nikolsburg) where Balthasar Hubmaier had led many to Christ and baptised them here
before his burning at the stake in Vienna in 1528 for his baptist ideals. We
also visited the castle of the Dukes of Lichtenstein, one of whom is said also
to have followed Christ under Hubmaier. His lands
became a haven for anabaptists
fleeing persecution in
-
At the beginning of December, a weekend with Brian McLaren, (left) including the NETS theological forum in
-
Ann was
in
-
Christmas
Eve is here again; At 6am I was swimming with my new
swim buddy, Alan Colley, who is training for the quadrathlon
next year, so he’s doing 1.5km each time, since that is what he’ll have to swim
across Loch Tay before other punishing tasks. This has spurred me to extend
myself a little more, and I now swim 1300m rather than my previous 1000m. Then,
feeling a little prayerless, I went off to morning
communion at Old St Paul’s at 8am, which was so peaceful and God-filled. I met
there the new curate after, and we agreed to meet up in the new
year for a coffee and catch up.
-
Tha Feill na Nollaige
comhla rinn a-rithist. Aig 6u an diugh bha mi a’snamh
le mo charaid-snamh, Alan, a tha
a’treanadh airson an Cuadrathlon an atha bhlaidhna, agus mar sin bidh e a’snamh 1500m oir snamhaidh e Loch Tatha san Iuchair a tha tighinn. Agus
tha mi a’snamh 1300m an aite 1000m a rinn mi gu h-abhaisteach,
agus tha sin màth air mo shon-sa! Tha mi a’guidhe oirbh a-nis Nollaig Chridheil
agus bliadhna 2009 mhàth nuair a thig
i.
That’s the last
couple of months summarised for you,then! Have a wonderful Feast of the Incarnation,
and a very fruitful and happy 2009 when it comes.
Tuesday
14 October 2008/Dimairt 14 den Dàmhair 2008
A linguistic theory has come to me, which I
have been meditating on. In preparing a message on 1 Corinthians 13, I was
wondering about the use of the word agape
(a*gavph) for love in
this chapter. (Pronounced to sound like the English a gappy ) Many have assumed that this is only a New Testament Greek
word, and I myself have spoken of agape
as the special word to denote the uncaused love of God, as opposed to the eros and philia of the Greek concepts. But
I’m having to rethink this – and to rethink the 
Greek categories that go with it.
When the Hebrew Scriptures were translated
into Greek, around 200BC under Ptolemy II, traditionally by a committee of 70,
hence the name for this version, the Septuagint
(from Latin 
for Seventy), eros
and storge
were shunned in favour of the word agape.
(The word philia
does also occur in the OT Greek, but only in eleven places in Proverbs, and
tends to do with kisses.) Agape was
not a commonly used Greek word for love, being found only in verbal forms in a
few places in Greek literature. But going back to the Hebrew that agape translates, something clicked; the
Hebrew word for love is ahavah (hb**h&a^) and there is a definite similarity linguistically in
the two words, in their makeup. In consulting that fount of all knowledge, Wikipedia, on agape, under its heading Ancient
Usage, it asserts that it is not beyond possibility that the Greek word was
a transliteration of a Semitic word earlier in the language’s development.
It would make sense, therefore, when the
Seventy came to translate ahavah into Greek, to use a word which was close in sound
and value to the Hebrew root. It is worth noting that neither eros nor storge, other Greek words for love, appear in the Bible at all. Agape is used, both in Greek Old and New Testaments, for the love
of God, but also for the love of man and woman (notably in Song of Songs, a higly erotic poem) and of brother to brother (of David and
Jonathan, for instance, in 2 Sam 1.26).
There is something key in this realisation.
While Greeks sought to categorise and classify types of love, there is one, unitive love which runs through the Bible. It is sourced in
God, but pervades human relationships as well. It then makes sense, in 1
Corinthians 13, for Paul to highlight love as so indispensable, for it is God's
character expressed in us. And when John says God is love, He is not separating agape off from other forms of love, but is making God, making
Christ the heart and source of all true love which exists.
Thus, eros
does not enter the running. It is a Greek idea, not a Biblical one. And it
perhaps behoves us, in a day when Eros
seems to be worshipped among the nations again, that we reject the pull of
base, pagan definitions of erotic
love, and resort instead to a Godly agapic approach full of integrity and life, one which does
not allow for the separation of sex from love, but which holds them together in
creative, dynamic relationship. To recall C S Lewis’s words in The Four Loves, ‘Love (eros) begins to be a
demon the moment (it) begins to be a god.’ Our God, on the other hand, says John, is Agape.
Tuesday
30 September 2008/Dimairt 30 den t-Sultain 2008
Hardy’s Tess and the Romantic Myth
I was musing again on Hardy and on my
dissatisfaction with his pessimism in the story of Tess of the D’Urbervilles (see yesterday) when it hit me, that the
novelist is espousing that ancient tradition of the myth of romantic love.
In the first volume of his systematic
theology, Ethics, J W McClendon, Jr
entitles the fifth chapter, Eros – Toward
an Ethic of Sexual Love. He traces the literary myth of a love that is
always thwarted, back to the mediaeval idea of ‘courtly love’ which he defines
as never love for one’s spouse, ..seldom to be consummated, reaching its height only in an unfulfillable eros or desire
considered valuable for its own sake – which ultimately ends in the tragic consummation of death for the
lovers.(1) Applying
this to Hardy’s Tess, it is not quite
the classic myth, for the one that Tess is shackled to is not her lawful
husband, but her abuser, and the man she actually marries is the one she cannot
consummate her love with, even though they are wed. The story ends, however,
with a brief time of erotic encounter, inevitably cut short by death, as
happens with Tristan and Isolde, or, using McClendon’s example, Oliver and
Jennifer in the classic film of the 1960’s Love
Story.
McClendon highlights the lack of good
literary examples of the celebration of erotic marriage from a Christian
perspective, and its transformative quality, albeit through struggle and
suffering. He writes;
The resurrection may seem to some the least likely
prospect for any sort of guidance toward the erotic Christian life. It turns
out, on the contrary, to be indispensable. While the romantic myth moves
inexorably from its kind of love to death, the Christian master story moves
(through death) to newfound life – in the body. The risen Christ conveys hope
that transforms our present life and erotic love at its best turns upon such
episodes of transformation. Rosemary Haughton, in ‘The Transformation of Man’
(1980) tells the story of two lonely and almost loveless, thought otherwise decent
people, a man and a woman, who meet, become friends, in time become lovers. In
the process, they become for one another and for themselves new people.
Haughton wants us to see that there is in this erotic encounter a power of
transformation that, because it changes everything for them, is analogue and
sign of the transformation that awaits us each in the salvation Christ offers:
their falling in love is not irrelevant to anyone’s ‘falling’ into Christ’s
way…(2)
On the costliness of this transformational
love, McClendon has this to say;
Unless the role of faithful, costly and redemptive
suffering in Christian love is ingredient to erotic love also, our analogy
breaks down at its centre. Yet it does not break down; while the romantic myth
exults in deprivation and ultimate loss, the Christian way of love has its own
tale of a different sort of costly suffering, and though that may sometimes
issue in loss that seems irreparable, the assurance of the gospel is that
suffering that remains faithful to the Master is destined to be both redeemed
and redemptive.(3)
Perhaps some of the best examples of a
literary celebration of eros from a Christian perspective are found in Jane
Austen’s novels . In contrast to Hardy’s Tess, Elizabeth Bennet
and Mr Darcy in Pride and Prejudice
find redemption and transformation through suffering and love, which leaves us
with a very different outcome to that of the romantic myth. The danger is, that
the Hardy version of reality is perceived as the ‘real’, and Austen’s as the
‘fantasy’; yet, as Christians, we cannot settle for the pessimism of this age,
seeing that we have a Lover who has reconciled all things to Himself, and who
will take us to Him as His bride in the consummation of the ages. As McClendon
observes,
We exist as a tournament of narratives; nowhere is
there a story-free ‘love’ to be discovered; our Christian hope lies rather in
finding that banner of true stories of love that can liberate us from the half
true and from the false.(4)
(1)
McClendon,
J Wm Jr, Systematic Theology vol I, Ethics (
(2)
Ibid
p156
(3)
Ibid
p156
(4)
Ibid
p149
Monday
29 September 2008/Diluain 29 den t-Sultain 2008
Hardy
Revisited
I have been following the BBC dramatisation
of Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the
D’Urbervilles over the last three weeks, and have found it quite impacting,
for a number of reasons. I studied Tess as a seventeen-year-old for English
A-level at school. When I say, studied, I probably mean crammed enough facts
and quotes into my head about the novel to pass an exam! However, I remember
being very angry with Hardy’s representation of the church and Christian faith
in general, depicting it, as he does, in the setting of ungracious Victorian
highbrow, middle-class attititudes and mores.
But watching it now, thirty odd years later, and then
going back to the novel itself, I find myself in a very different place, and
with a different reaction. The story is of Tess Durbeyfield,
a peasant girl raped by her employer, Alec D’Urberville,
a self-styled nobleman. She becomes pregnant with his child, with loss of her
virtue and eventual death of the baby. The local vicar refuses the child burial
in consecrated ground, and her mother advises her never to tell of her past
shame. She falls in love with Angel Clare, a clergyman’s son, in a happier
phase of the novel, and marries him. On their wedding night, she confesses her
past, but he rejects her, and separates from her. She then falls into hardship,
labouring on the land; it is at this point she meets Alec again, who has
experienced Christian conversion and is preaching in a barn. However, the old
lust for her overcomes his new-found faith, and he pursues her, abandoning
Christ.
The novel ends in tragedy, with Tess going
back to Alec, for the sake of her impoverished family’s survival. A brief
respite from the pain comes when a remorseful Angel and Tess do make it
back together for a brief few days together, but the outcome of the tale is
fatal.
I remember ranting in my essays at school
against the biased treatment I felt Christian faith was receiving from Hardy,
and got to such a level of preachiness, that I
remember my English master marking me down for my unmeasured words! I just
hadn’t seen what Hardy was saying, nor experienced the reality of the
fallenness which runs through even the body of Christ in its more enthusiastic
expressions. I return to Hardy, therefore, more chastened and reproved, rather
than insensed.
As I mused on the novel today, a phrase
came back to me from my days in the classroom at
As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods,
They kill us for their sport.
It’s from Shakespeare’s King Lear, the tragedy we studied for
the same exams, and things began to nag at me; I’m sure we linked those words
with Tess of the D’Urbervilles in our
discussions in class. It seems that
something in Hardy’s own experience gave him such a grim view of life, that it framed his
writing, particularly of Tess. And
researching his biography, some key factors come to light. Early on, he was
involved in the Plymouth Brethren, a renowned Evangelical grouping. Later, he
became an agnostic, and also suffered tragedy in his marriage, separating from
his wife, Emma. His philosophy developed into pessimism and naturalism, clearly
manifest through his writings. (His later novel, Jude the Obscure is deeply morose and caused uproar at its
publication.) He wrote his belief into his characters in Tess, an unrelenting, lowering fatefulness which sets the tone for
the whole book.
My one quibble with the otherwise excellent
BBC production is their omitting the scene in the book where the troubled Angel
Clare sleepwalks, carrying the terrified Tess through the waters of a river, to
lay her in a stone coffin in an Abbey church near their troubled marriage-night
lodgings. Perhaps it was deemed too melodramatic, but for me it was one of the
most memorable scenes of the book. Ho-hum, dramatic licence!
And my reaction now to Tess ? One of anger at the
hypocrisy of some Victorian middle-class religion, and also of commitment to
see the love and grace of Christ overcome such unkind and un-Christlike attitudes depicted in this novel. While I am
heartened that the Christendom Hardy rails against is on the wane, I am so
aware that the finger-wagging evangelicalistic culture
of today can at times be little different at heart to its Victorian
predecessor.
Friday 5
September 2008/Dihaoine 5 den t-Sultain 2008
On the last evening of the Slovak team visit, we were
at the Festival Fireworks, Sunday 31 August. They were quite amazing, an hour
of fireworks, synchronised with Brahms’ Hungarian Dances, and Dvořak’s Slavonic Dances – appropriate for friends
from central
Watching them put me in mind of the last day of August
651ad, when St Aidan leaned against a beam in the church at Bamburgh,
and yielded his weary spirit to God. That night, Cuthbert, a shepherd on the Lammermuir Hills, was watching the skies as we were, and
saw, not a transient burst of gunpowdered colour, but
a faithful soul being carried to God; this was the night not only of Aidan’s
death, but of Cuthbert’s call. The youth’s later ministry would bring him here
to the northern borders of
(illustration
from Bede’s Life of Saint Cuthbert)
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