The Theological Commission appointed by the Church of Scotland in 2011 to examine issues relating to the ordination of those living in openly homosexual relationships has now prepared its report, and one thing is sure: very few of those attending the forthcoming General Assembly are going to have the stamina to read it. Ninety-four pages [...]
It’s probably a disgrace, but I’ve already forgotten the date of that referendum on Scottish independence. This cannot be attributed entirely to senility. I still know who I am, the date of Christmas, and the difference between infralapsarianism and supralapsarianism. These, after all, are important things, and one might feel honoured to announce them. But [...]
Most 20th century Highlanders view Christianity very much as Pontius Pilate viewed it: a load of rubbish, and sinister to boot. If asked why, you’d expect them to draw themselves up to their full intellectual height and tell you that modern science has put an end to that sort of nonsense. But what’s been interesting since [...]
Last week’s decision of the Church of England not to allow women bishops will have little immediate impact here in the Highlands. We do, of course, have our own form of Anglicanism, Eaglais Easbaigeach na h-Alba, but neither the Archbishop of Canterbury nor the General Synod has any authority over Scottish Episcopalians. They already have [...]
It’s not my job to sell tickets for Stornoway’s Lanntair Gallery, and so I kept mum about Richard Dawkins’s recent visit to the scenes of my childhood. I would still be mum were it not that the coverage of the event in the local press was the most prejudiced piece of news coverage that ever [...]
Watching the Mod can be a traumatic experience. Last Thursday evening, the finals of the traditional Gold Medals were broadcast live for the first time. The experiment was well worthwhile, and will itself, we hope, become part of the Mod tradition. But at the same time there were lessons to be learned. It’s hard to [...]
Last week the words, ‘Temple of Evil’ were daubed on the walls of Stornoway Free Church. It would be wrong to read too much into it. It was probably no more than a temporary aberration on the part of one individual, and the Church made light of the incident. Yet, though they might express it [...]
A few weeks ago my eye fell on a fascinating headline in the literary magazine, ‘Northwords Now’. ‘Aonghas Dubh aig aois a gheallaidh,’ it said. I hadn’t heard the phrase for a long time, but it was in common use in the older Gaelic world when life seemed more precarious than it does now; and [...]
Every week in life I’m tempted to open this column with the immortal words, ‘It’s been an itsy-bitsy week’; and every week I resist the temptation, for the very good reason that if I discourse on itsy-bitsyness fifty-two times a year they’ll dock my pay.
I must admit I’d never noticed that our dear Government has a Minister of, or for, Equalities; and I must further admit that when I discovered that it does, I assumed that her function was to ensure that the non-millionaires in the Cabinet suffered no discrimination from the millionaires; and, if she had time, to [...]
