No.
205 January 2009
http://www.
dunblanecathedral.
org.
ukADDRESS
Let’s Take A New Direction
THE THOUGHT of a New
Year’s Resolution in the
middle of Advent leaves me
in a cold sweat.
IamwritingthisonDecember
12 because everybody is
cranking up for Christmas
and there won’t be time to
get it together for January if
we leave it...
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No. 205 January 2009 http://www. dunblanecathedral. org. ukADDRESS Let’s Take A New Direction THE THOUGHT of a New Year’s Resolution in the middle of Advent leaves me in a cold sweat. IamwritingthisonDecember 12 because everybody is cranking up for Christmas and there won’t be time to get it together for January if we leave it any later; so the newsletter deadline has been moved up by a week and it’s looming large. So here I sit, trying to put myself into that unique New Year mindset – the almost palpable deep breath everyone seems to take come January 1st (well, by the 2nd or 3rd at least) - the one that seems sensibly to say “party over, let’s get serious, let’s get organized, and decide where this year is going to take us. ” Resolve It’s almost a mental dusting down, a spring clean of the brain come early, but I’m failing… if I can manage to keep up my resolve to remember where I’m supposedtobeandwhatIsaid I’d do, then I feel I deserve to pat myself on the back and hum a wee fest
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From Dunblane Cathedral
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No.
204 December 2008
http://www.
dunblanecathedral.
org.
ukADDRESS
Waiting, Watching, Wanting
FROM THE MINISTER
DURING THE BUILDup to Christmas last year,
it was reported that the
head teacher of a school
somewhere in England had
banned her pupils from
mentioning Christmas in
school.
The teacher had
decided that there should be
no...
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No. 204 December 2008 http://www. dunblanecathedral. org. ukADDRESS Waiting, Watching, Wanting FROM THE MINISTER DURING THE BUILDup to Christmas last year, it was reported that the head teacher of a school somewhere in England had banned her pupils from mentioning Christmas in school. The teacher had decided that there should be no references to Christmas until 7 December, in an attempt to stop the children from becoming over-excited. Her decision received a mixed reaction from parents, apparently. Some believed this was an attempt to squash children’s natural sense of expectation and enjoyment. But others said she was right to resist the prevailing tendency for Christmas preparations to begin earlier and earlier every year - if not in schools, then certainly in the shops. But the good news for that teacher and for high-street retailers everywhere is that we are now in the season of Advent: that period of the Christian year where even in the Church we are actually allowed to star
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No.
203 November 2008
http://www.
dunblanecathedral.
org.
ukADDRESS
Who Tells You Who You Are?
FROM THE MINISTER
QUESTION: What is
the difference between an
investment banker and a
pigeon? Answer - ‘a pigeon
can still put a deposit on a
BMW’.
Whatisthedefinition
of an optimist? ‘A banker
who irons five shirts at the...
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No. 203 November 2008 http://www. dunblanecathedral. org. ukADDRESS Who Tells You Who You Are? FROM THE MINISTER QUESTION: What is the difference between an investment banker and a pigeon? Answer - ‘a pigeon can still put a deposit on a BMW’. Whatisthedefinition of an optimist? ‘A banker who irons five shirts at the weekend’. So a gallows humour takes over when things get out of hand. Andthoughwemaynot understand the complexities of global finance, we do have a sense that something has gone seriously wrong. Mindboggling sums of money have been wiped off stock exchanges, banks have been forcibly merged to stop them sinking, and others have been bailed out - effectively nationalised - not just in Britain but in the seat of private enterprise, the USA. Billions upon billions of taxpayers’ money have been spent to prop up a faltering system. Who would have believed it? Ficitious Wealth Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, made this comment about why the credit crunch happen
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No.
200 SUMMER 2008
http://www.
dunblanecathedral.
org.
ukADDRESS
LOOKING TWICE
FROM THE MINISTER
BY the end of this month
the schools will close and for
children seven long weeks of
summer will stretch ahead
of them.
Can you remember
how you felt on the first day
of the school holidays - that
sense of anticipation you had
of a whole...
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No. 200 SUMMER 2008 http://www. dunblanecathedral. org. ukADDRESS LOOKING TWICE FROM THE MINISTER BY the end of this month the schools will close and for children seven long weeks of summer will stretch ahead of them. Can you remember how you felt on the first day of the school holidays - that sense of anticipation you had of a whole summer at the disposal of your imagination? That first day of the holidays was always the best. “You must learn to look at the world twice if you wish to see all there is to see. ” But I remember someone writing about the summer he lost his imagination. It was the first day of the holidays for him. He had yearned for the time to come. Memories of the previous summer were still strong, long days spent playing in the garden, racing miniature cars and trucks with his friends. When the last bell of the school year rang, he ran home to get everything ready, and next morning he hauled it all outside. With the sun on his back he sat down in his special pl
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No.
196 February 2008
FROM THE MINISTER
http://www.
dunblanecathedral.
org.
ukADDRESS
The True Wilderness
“What is my life? What am I all about? Be able
to say, in twenty-five words or less, this is who I
am; this is what I do”
EASTER will be as early
as it gets this year.
I can
never remember the ancient
formula for deciding it,...
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No. 196 February 2008 FROM THE MINISTER http://www. dunblanecathedral. org. ukADDRESS The True Wilderness “What is my life? What am I all about? Be able to say, in twenty-five words or less, this is who I am; this is what I do” EASTER will be as early as it gets this year. I can never remember the ancient formula for deciding it, so I looked it up again. In 325 the Council of Nicaea stated that Easter shall be celebrated on the first Sunday that occurs after the full moon that appears on or after the spring equinox. The equinox, the first day of spring, is March 21. Therefore Easter will always fall on a Sunday between March 22 and April 25. A March 23 date, such as we have this year, is a oncea century event. It won’t happen again till 2160. So there you have it. Forty Days Though the date of Easter varies, the season of Lent which precedes it always lasts for forty days. So Lent begins almost unnaturally early this year on February 6. The forty days, of course, is based on
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From Dunblane Cathedral
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No.
195 January 2008
COLIN’S NEW YEAR
REFLECTION
http://www.
dunblanecathedral.
org.
ukADDRESS
Trumpet Call
“We go through the
motions of waking,
working, eating, relaxing, more conscious
of the minutes than
the years.
We feel the
tyranny of the clock
but forget the larger
calendar of a life”
IT’S January, the beginning
of...
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No. 195 January 2008 COLIN’S NEW YEAR REFLECTION http://www. dunblanecathedral. org. ukADDRESS Trumpet Call “We go through the motions of waking, working, eating, relaxing, more conscious of the minutes than the years. We feel the tyranny of the clock but forget the larger calendar of a life” IT’S January, the beginning of another year. So here’s a story about time, related by Jonathan Sacks, the Chief Rabbi. Two elderly Jews who haven’t seen each other in fifty years meet, slowly recognise one another and embrace. They go back to the apartment of one of them to talk about the days long ago. Time The conversation goes on for hours. Night falls. One asks the other, “Look at your watch. What time is it?” “I don’t have a watch,” says the second. “Then look at the clock. ” “I don’t have a clock. ” “Then how do you tell the time?” “You see that trumpet in the corner? That’s how I tell the time. ” “You’re crazy,” says the first, “How can you tell the time with a trumpet?” “I’ll sho
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From Dunblane Cathedral
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No.
197 MARCH 2008
FROM THE ASSOCIATE MINISTER
http://www.
dunblanecathedral.
org.
ukADDRESS
LIFTED HIGH ON YOUR CROSS
THIS morning the leaders of
the Beginner Sunday school
askedmeifIcouldrecommend
some age-appropriate stories
for Easter.
They are wise folk
and realise that it mightn’t be
as simple as skipping over the
unpleasant...
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No. 197 MARCH 2008 FROM THE ASSOCIATE MINISTER http://www. dunblanecathedral. org. ukADDRESS LIFTED HIGH ON YOUR CROSS THIS morning the leaders of the Beginner Sunday school askedmeifIcouldrecommend some age-appropriate stories for Easter. They are wise folk and realise that it mightn’t be as simple as skipping over the unpleasant business of Holy Week, going straight from waving palm branches to shouting “Christ is Risen!” Smarter Children, unfortunately, are smarter than that and tend to insert awkward questions when we skirt round issues. It is a question that must have been grappled with a lot over the years because this is a hard, dark story – and parts of it show humankind at its very worst. It is a story that asks a lot of its hearers, and for the very young, I believe we owe a great deal of consideration as to how and when we help them begin to unpack this pivotal story. I didn’t give the teachers an immediate response, but will go away and try to find resources that will
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No.
199 MAY 2008
http://www.
dunblanecathedral.
org.
ukADDRESS
HOLY COMMUNION
The Sacrament of Holy Communion will be
celebrated on Sunday 25 May at
services at 10.
30am and 3.
30pm in
the Cathedral.
A joint Thanksgiving
Service will be held in St Blane’s
Church at 6.
30pm.
using individual
cups and unfermented wine.
Our voice is...
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No. 199 MAY 2008 http://www. dunblanecathedral. org. ukADDRESS HOLY COMMUNION The Sacrament of Holy Communion will be celebrated on Sunday 25 May at services at 10. 30am and 3. 30pm in the Cathedral. A joint Thanksgiving Service will be held in St Blane’s Church at 6. 30pm. using individual cups and unfermented wine. Our voice is one of our most powerful tools. using it has been described as many things – a gift, an inalienable right, a weapon. Throughout history, voices have cried for freedom while others insisted on the “I have a rIght to my own opInIon?” quite another. It is so tempting to react rather than respond, to decide on some instinct rather than take the harder road of discovery. We as a church have a lot to cell research, especially a new procedure that uses human and animal cells. Many jumped in, speaking of the horrible abuse and danger this concept opened the door to. The images portrayed in the media were frightening, and it was tempting to leap without looki
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No.
193 November 2007
How to remember war
without getting into a fight
THOUGHT FOR
THE MONTH
http://www.
dunblanecathedral.
org.
ukADDRESS
REMEMBRANCE SUNDAY SERVICES
On Tuesday 6 November, BBC Radio Scotland will be
pre-recording their Remembrance Sunday Service in the
Cathedral at 7.
00pm.
It is hoped that a good number of the...
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No. 193 November 2007 How to remember war without getting into a fight THOUGHT FOR THE MONTH http://www. dunblanecathedral. org. ukADDRESS REMEMBRANCE SUNDAY SERVICES On Tuesday 6 November, BBC Radio Scotland will be pre-recording their Remembrance Sunday Service in the Cathedral at 7. 00pm. It is hoped that a good number of the congregation will attend this service. On Remembrance Sunday, 11 November, the Morning Service will begin at 10. 50am so that the two minutes’ silence can be observed at 11 o’clock. Following the Service, a short Service for all the churches in the town will be held at the War Memorial. The new memorial bridge across the River Allan will be dedicated during this service. My father-in-law was a wireless operator and rear gunner in the RAF in WWII. A gentler, kinder man you could never meet. He never talked about his experiences, and when the subject of war came up, he was strangely silent - but in the last days of his life, he started to talk about frien
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