Category: Life

  • This time last year

    One year ago, last Thursday, I was ordained and inducted into my first charge. One year ago today (Sunday), I had taken (actually, shared) my first service in that new charge. I had also done a funeral visit, and was preparing to take it in just a few days time. I’d sat in the car…

  • Settling in

    Well, that’s just over two weeks in ‘the job’. Three Sundays, albeit one where I was preached in, two funerals, initial contacts with one of the primary schools, time with local colleagues, and lots of unpacking and manse-readying. Oh, and a rapidly filling-up diary. If I was being totally honest, I would have to say…

  • Remembrance 2011

    ‘They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old; Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them.’

  • Ch-ch-ch-changes

    The primary purpose of this blog was to act as a vehicle for my reflections as I went through the ministry training and formation process with the Church of Scotland. It has acted as a place to journal my thoughts on issues and situations and to be a place to raise questions over what I’ve…

  • Building

    I suspect that this post may end up somewhat incoherent because I’m still absolutely knackered from the weekend and my brain is somewhat mushy (moreso than usual, anyway). The reason I’m so tired is that I spent the weekend with 32 sixth-year pupils and around 10 staff from Grangemouth High School at their team-building weekend.…

  • Israel Diary – Day 5 Around Galilee

    Our long roundabout route to get to Tiberias did have the bonus of a lovely dinner and a comfortable night in the Scots Hotel. The hotel is not without its own controversy within the Church of Scotland. It is, unashamedly, up-market and represents a very significant investment on the part of the CofS. There are…

  • Day 3 – Yad Vashem

    [Note – I got out of sync. Hebron was actually day 2. What can I say? I was tired.] The visit to Hebron was a difficult one. Witnessing the effects of Israeli settlements on a Palestinian community was difficult. Seeing some of the ‘propaganda’ used to justify the existence of settlements was frustrating and caused…

  • Time

    I’m wondering what has happened to the month that has passed since I last posted anything. Once again, it’s not a case of nothing happening; more just a case of lots of little things which eat away at the time and are, in and of themselves, not really worth a blog post. But I suppose…

  • New toy

    Santa was very nice this year (as he is every year, I must add) and brought me a Kindle 3 (hence the new sidebar item). I was always somewhat sceptical of electronic book readers, always claiming that you couldn’t beat ‘the real thing’ – and never mind the trees; plenty more where they came from.…

  • In view of the weather…

    … it would be sensible to ensure that the weight of snow on the roof does not cause damage to guttering. Clearing ice and snow may be a sensible precaution. This is not how to do it though: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5lcX_M9AmI