Kirkliston Croci

There seems to be some debate about whether the plural of Crocus is Crocuses or Croci. I checked up the Oxford English Dictionary and it was no help - offering both options for the plural. I liked Croci better - so there! Now all I need to do is decide how to pronounce it!

My daughter has been taking beautiful photos of Croci in the Meadows in Edinburgh. So when I noticed that there is a beautiful display in Kirkliston I decided to watch out for a sunny moment to capture them in all their glory. And as you can see - they are glorious.

One of my friends will be coming to live in Kirkliston in a few weeks time, so I hope that the beautiful floral display will encourage her as she prepares to make that transition.

One of the enjoyable aspects of my present period of work in the North East corner of West Lothian has been the absolutely stunning beauty of the countryside. Of course it has its bleak moments too. But the beauty is what remains in my mental vision of the place.

I suppose life is like that too. It has its bleak moments. And moments of stunning beauty and joy.

In this period of Lent, we are reminded of one of the bleak points in world history. But only three days later there was an eruption of majesty and joy!

Ooops, there I've gone and done a Lenten Reflection by mistake!

Auldcathie Kirk

Yesterday I had my bike at Winchburgh and decided to explore some of the outlying points of interest that are inaccessible by car.

Auldcathie Kirk was my first destination. It's a sad sight, and a sad site, these days.

In living memory there used to be a community around the old abandoned Kirk, but like so many of these small clusters of houses, it was too hard to upgrade them with modern facilities, and the people relocated to larger growing settlements, like Winchburgh less than a mile away, across the fields.

There is no sign of these houses now. Only the old Kirk had sufficient prestige to avoid demolition and the subsequent plough. And there's not much left of it now.

Auldcathie Kirk is shown on my old 18th century map of the area. It dates back to at least the 12th century, and was still in use at the time of the Reformation in 1560.

Shortly after that, in 1574, the parish was merged with Dalmeny parish, and Auldcathie Kirk became disused. It's a tribute to the subsequent generations that the building still survives as a ruin today.

It was in 1891 that the new church was built at Winchburgh. The shale oil industry was in full swing, and the Winchburgh brickworks was shipping bargeloads of product along the canal to the rapidly growing cities and towns along its route - to Edinburgh in the East, and Falkirk and Glasgow in the West.

Once again the church is facing hard times, and the enthusiastic congregation are facing some difficult issues in the months ahead.

The fact that Auldcathie Kirk continues to stand above the crops growing in the fields shows that the church still retains a lot of respect within the local communities. But it also shows what happens when such respect is not accompanied by practical support.

Jesus of Nazareth called his disciples to follow him. They had no building or infrastructure. No pulpit, no baptismal font, and no pews. As in the modern church phrase - it was a Church Without Walls.

Buildings do have their uses, especially in our Scottish Winters, so much harsher than in the Middle East. But God's people will continue to survive even if their buildings reach the end of their useful life.

Indeed, the people of God will live for ever. Come and join us!

Glorious Sunset

As I came home from work today the sun was just setting and the sky was turning a glorious pink and gold. It wasn't only a shepherd's delight!

It's been a good day today, with progress being made on a number of fronts, particularly with our two Lenten projects. So it was very pleasant when the partial overcast cleared away to deliver such a spectacular sunset.

Shepherd's enjoy a good sunset because it indicates that the upcoming weather is going to be clear and fine. There's a good forecast for what's coming up.

I wonder if the Good Shepherd is equally pleased with our efforts today, and whether he thinks there are good things ahead. I think so!

I hope you enjoy the photos.

Flowers of the Spirit?

Last week I was talking with the children about where grapes come from. One 4-year old lad replied, "Flowers." It was an answer I hadn't expected - although no doubt it should have been on my list of possibilities.

Later on I was talking with the adults about the Fruits of the Spirit - love, joy, peace, patience, generosity/goodness, faithfulness, kindness, gentleness, self-control. (Galatians 5:22)

So if these fruits come from flowers, then perhaps the flowers would be called Flowers of the Spirit. If the above characteristics are the fruits then what could be the flowers from which they come?

So I put together the following list of nine practices which might help us to bear the nine fruits:
Prayer, Submission, Forgiveness, Honesty, Trust, Open-ness, Sacrifice, Vision, Purpose.

I don't propose that there is a one-to-one correlation between these nine Flowers of the Spirit to the nine Fruits of the Spirit. But it seems to me that these nine practices would help us to develop the nine Fruits.

And of course, the Spirit provides the power and motivation to grow the Fruit, and to bear the Flowers.

What do you think? Would you suggest a different list?

Darwin's 200th Anniversary

On this date 200 years ago, the famous naturalist Charles Darwin was born. When he was 50 he published The Origin of Species, in which he proposed that mankind had developed over a long period of time from simpler creatures.

It is now largely accepted that this long period of time was around 400 million years, during which life developed from tiny single-celled creatures such as Amoeba through to the arrival of modern mankind about 100,000 years ago.

I find it quite remarkable that what Evolution took 400 million years to achieve, each human child manages to accomplish in 9 months!

Happy Anniversary to Charles Darwin's enthusiasts!

Pruning and Cleaning

Although it somewhat early in the year for pruning that's what I was thinking about last weekend.

The Gardener prunes those branches that do bear fruit, so that they will bear even more fruit. It seems a bit harsh that the reward for producing fruit is to get a severe trimming.

But the original language of this piece is old-fashioned Greek and in Greek, the word καθαιρω also means cleaning as well as pruning.

Perhaps it makes more sense to give the fruitful branches a thorough spring clean in order that they will make the most fruit ing the coming year. On the other hand, as with roses and many other plants, bigger and better fruit and flowers are more often produced if the weak branches are removed and the long branches are shortened.

I think that if we are all honest with ourselves, there are some parts of our lives that do not produce as much sweet fruit as we would like them to produce. I know that this is true for myself. None of us are perfect. We all have room for improvement.

Some of us are carrying too much baggage. We are loaded down with trouble, worry, complexity, burdens, that we are not meant to be carrying. They are slowing us down, consuming our energy and resources, restricting our fruitfulness. Pruning, cleansing, helps us to cut away some of the retaining straps on these heavy loads. It cuts them away, like secateurs cut away the dead branches that are no use anymore. We are released to spring forward on our journey in the Master's footsteps.

If the metaphor of pruning and cleaning does not appeal to you, then you can be glad that I haven't been talking about the refining fire that burns away the dross and leaves behind the pure 100% gold!

Enjoy a fruitful year!

Planning Ahead

People frequently ask me what I am going to do next. Usually they are wondering what I will be doing after my current training placement is finished. However the end of this placement is still a long way ahead. It's too soon for me to be deciding what to do next.

So I am much more interested in what I am going to be doing during the next few weeks, or even the next few days.

Today in Winchburgh, three of us had a very productive planning meeting, looking at the next few weeks. We have decided to try out some new ideas in that period leading up to Easter which the church calls Lent.

Lent always begins 40 days before Easter. Since Easter is always on a Sunday, this means that Lent always starts on a Wednesday. It is called Ash Wednesday, because one of the old ceremonies for that first day of Lent involved marking oneself with Ash, the ancient symbol of mourning and despair.

Easter moves around from year to year, and this year in the UK we will celebrate Easter on 12th April, thus making Ash Wednesday 25th February - only two weeks away tomorrow.

The eagle-eyed among you may have calculated that there is something strange about my arithmetic. Ash Wednesday is more than six and a half weeks before Easter Sunday, working out to be exactly 46 days before Easter Sunday. What's going on?

Well the answer is that the 40 day period of Fasting that is Lent does not include Sundays. On Sundays the church celebrates the resurrection and presence of Jesus. So Sundays are not to be mournful and despairing Fast Days, but are rather to be Feast Days. There are 6 Sundays in Lent, so that subtracting those from the 46 elapsed days gives the 40 day period of Lent.

So if you were thinking about Fasting for Lent - you get Sundays off!

And if you are wondering what I am going to be doing next - the answer is - our Lenten projects. And you can find out more about them on my Lenten Reflection blog here.

Good Old Days?

At one of the churches I was preaching at this morning the heating had only managed to get the temperature up to 5°C. It's not surprising because the average temperature outside must have been below Zero for several days now. I should have put on my thermals!

I was first to arrive, some 30 minutes before the service was due to start. When I got the door open, there was a strange smell of burning electrics in the foyer. Being on my own, it was rather a tense moment. But I checked throughout the building and there was nothing worse than the smell.

However, by the time the service was due to start, the smell was definitely getting worse, even with the door being opened and shut to let the people in. Then we spotted a wisp of smoke coming from top of the electric cupboard. Out came the torches and we spotted the trouble. The wiring for the main 3-phase electricity feed was melted and blackened. And that was before the main fuses - which are supposed to protect the input wiring from overloads. It shouldn't be possible - but there it was.

There was nothing else to do but to turn off the entire power to the building. And this was 2 minutes before the service was due to start!

We had a quick conference in the porch. One couple went off home to phone the power people. The rest of us decided to trim down our worship service and go back to the old way of doing things!

No organ, no lights, no PA, and worst of all, no heating!

Although we shortened the service, finishing in half an hour, the temperature inside had dropped to +3°C by the time we finished! My hands are usually cold at the end of a service - but never before as cold as they were today!

Last Sunday my computer switched itself off just after I started the service. This was unfortunate because all the words for the hymns and prayers were going to be projected on the screen. So we had to fish out the hymn books and go back to the old way of doing things. That's why this week I had decided to use minimum technology ...!

I'm beginning to wonder quite what might happen next Sunday! Should I take a generator along, or perhaps that would provoke something even worse!

Anyway, that was today's little drama. I hope you enjoyed the story. You may even have found it more exciting than the Rugby this afternoon!

Fruit of the Vine

I've been thinking about fruit this week. It's a word that gets used for all kinds of symbology. Fruit has so many appealing characteristics that we can all enjoy thinking about it. Some kinds of fruit are so delicious that your mouth might be watering just now even although you're only thinking about it.

One of the characteristics of many kinds of fruit is that they are delicious to eat without any need for preparation or cooking. Strawberries, apples, pears, plums, or grapes, can just be picked from the plant and popped into the mouth.

Most other kinds of food needs to be prepared. Grain needs to be ground and the resulting flour baked or fried. Vegetables need to be cleaned then boiled or roasted. And for those who can bear to consider animals, there is much to be done before the meat appears on our plates all juicy and tender.

On at least one occasion, Jesus tells his disciples to bear fruit. What on earth does he mean? Surely he doesn't expect strawberries, apples, pears, plums, or grapes, to start growing on their bodies to provide tasty food for other people!

But clearly Jesus does expect his followers to produce something. It should be attractive to look at, and delicious to experience. It should be easy for other people to access and to absorb into their own lives. It should be good for the consumer bringing them energy and strength.

Jesus brought Good News. Those who were around Jesus enjoyed new life. They received healing of mind, body, or spirit; they learned to live together in community and in cooperation; they felt clean and whole; they found that they received help and encouragement from the One they discovered to be God.

Jesus was fruitful. His fruit was attractive, delicious, easy to access and absorb, and good for those who ate.

What fruit results from your life - from your labours? Do others want it?

We'll be talking about other aspects of fruitfulness on Sunday - at Abercorn Church at 10am, and at Winchburgh Church at 11:30am. Taste and see that God is good!

If you can't be there, and you want to discuss this some more, then send me a Comment!

Snowy Scene

There was much delight throughout most of Britain yesterday as the snow pelted down and the countryside turned white. And for the same reason there was also much misery with slippy pavements making walking treacherous and transport disruption causing chaos.

Here in Edinburgh yesterday's snow was slushy rather than fluffy. So when I woke up this morning I was not surprised to see that my green grass had reappeared with only a few grey slushy patches left from yesterday.

Yesterday wasn't our first snow of the Winter. You may just recall that I showed you a photo of a Wintry Scene at Abercorn as 'early' as 23rd November. And the photo above of the Pentland Hills viewed from Winchburgh was taken on 3rd December. Whereas the photo below of snow in my back garden was taken two weeks ago on 19th January.


The snow may not have lasted very long this year, but we have had several snowy days through the Winter - and it's not over yet!

Mind you, I recall at least one Winter within the past ten years where the snow lay on the ground for two weeks. And before that when the temperature was around -10°C for many days in a row, resulting in frozen drain pipes, etc. And back in the Winter of 78/79, some of you may remember the gritter strike at the time of the blizzards. The temperature was down to -18°C and we had to walk everywhere for three days in a row! Ah yes, them were the days!

Vendee Globe - won yesterday

It's been an exciting 84 days since the start of the Vendee Globe. Several yachts had to return to port for repairs soon after the start including the eventual winner, Michel Desjoyeux. It was the second time he had entered the race and he is the first person to have won it twice - this time by a margin of several days!

The previous occasion was 8 years ago, when he was trailed in by the now-famous Ellen Macarthur. Today the second place competitor, Roland Jourdain, retired after losing his keel, a consequence of crashing into a whale of some sort in the Southern Atlantic.

Thirty competitors started the race 12 weeks ago, and now only 11 competitors remain in the race. The winner has finished and the last man has still to make it around Cape Horn, with the South and North Atlantics lying ahead of him before his turn to finish - assuming he makes it that far.

It has been an exciting race, with one man breaking his leg and needing an emergency rescue, two leaders losing their masts and retiring, and one boat capsizing with the yachtsman being rescued by a competitor, damaging his own boat in the process, after which he too was dismasted.

There are too many stories to tell here. You can read and see all about it on the Vendee Globe race website.

The leading British sailor, Samantha Davies, is now in third place, following Jourdain's retirement. The fourth-place man has a larger time bonus than Sam after standing by poor Yann Elies while he awaited rescue after breaking his leg. So it will be an exciting finish for those two as they race up through the North Atlantic.

Can Sam take third place? Wait and see!