Monthly Archives: October 2010

Catching up on the news, I was moved by the account of Linda Norgrove’s burial on Lewis.  The aid worker who as killed tragically during her rescue in Afghanistan had a humanist ceremony followed by the carrying of her coffin … Continue reading →

A friend lent me a Michael Baigent – him of  ‘Holy Blood and Holy Grail’ fame.  ‘The Jesus Papers’ purports to show that hitherto undiscovered documents reveal Jesus to have been a Jewish mystic, not the Son of God.  He survived … Continue reading →

Some nature notes from the last couple of days:  I watched a spider race eagerly across – to where a seed had blown onto its web in the autumn winds. I saw a hawk, which had been sitting on our … Continue reading →

The Lectionary – prescribed readings for the day – offers us passages from Ecclesiasticus at the moment.  This is a bit like the book of Proverbs, or Ecclesiastes  – it’s about Wisdom and how to gain it (or her, since … Continue reading →

Some big questions came out of a conference ‘Celebrating Volunteering’ today.  Inevitably, the ‘Big Society’ lurked around – and Alison Elliot speculated that perhaps just as the Church declined as an institution when the Welfare State grew, so the reverse might … Continue reading →

The breaking news is gripping – 12, 17, 22, now 27 miners raised from the San Jose mine in Chile.  You hold your breath, hardly daring to believe that it’s now actually happening, that it seems to be OK. It’s been … Continue reading →

Have you heard the virtual choir that Eric Whitacre assembled to perform his piece ‘Lux aurumque’ on YouTube?  He got 185 singers from 12 countries to post  clips of their parts, and then made a ‘choir’ out of them.  The … Continue reading →

Vince Cable, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills and President of the Board of Trade – and, as he also informed us, Minister of Time (i.e. he decides what time it is in Scotland and whether it should … Continue reading →

I came across a new book by Kate Coleman, former President of the Baptist Union of Great Britain. I haven’t read it yet, but its title is enticing: “Seven Deadly Sins of Women in Leadership” – and I think she … Continue reading →

Sometimes you suddenly realise how far things have moved on by what people are not saying. The Chancellor announced today that Child Benefit will be cut to families where there is one parent earning more than about £44,000 a year.  … Continue reading →