Stewart Weaver

I was invited to lead a discussion of Rick Warren’s ‘Purpose Driven Life’ at Charis House, the local headquarters of Crossreach (the social service arm of the Church of Scotland).  Below is a summary of our first discussion.

Thoughts after Charis House 27 April 2011

Summary.

On Wednesday 27 April a number of us met at Charis House to discuss the beginning of Rick Warren’s ‘Purpose Driven Life’.  There were a number of reasons people came along: explore faith in a different or more accessible way; to discover a bit more about Rick Warren’s work and thinking; to refresh ourselves in his thinking and our own faith.

We started with the first chapter and its primary thought: it’s not about you.  To find our purpose in life, to find fulfilment we are asked to discover what God’s purpose is for us.  Finding ourselves by starting with ourselves is… click here to read more

I was recently told that Abraham Lincoln used to spend 2/3 of his address preparation time thinking about the topics or subjects that the audience wanted to hear.  He would then spend 1/3 of his time thinking about that which he was going to say.

What do people want to hear on Easter Sunday?
What is it that could bring to people the joyous celebration of Easter or perhaps the sense of wonder that something mysterious and ineffable happened on this day many centuries ago?

Many, I think, would like to get that sense of inspiration and joy that perhaps marked Easter Sundays when we were young.  That sense of celebration with bright colours, Easter bonnets, packed churches singing robustly wonderful Easter hymns such as ‘Jesus Christ is risen today’ or ‘Thine be the glory’.

Many, I think, would want to… click here to read more

As part of our Lent Lecture series we had Dr Cecelia Clegg of New College, University of Edinburgh talk on Religion, Violence and Reconciliation.  It was a fascinating evening and I thought it would be good to share the lecture and  Dr Clegg has kindly allowed us to post it on the website.  The full version (including footnotes) is available to view as a PDF file here.

INTRODUCTION

A Muslim community elder described to me how young Muslim women walking down the road wearing the Hijab scarf are attacked, have the scarf torn off their heads and are spat on. The speaker wasn’t describing some far off place or even England, he was telling me about some of the things his community face in Glasgow. I am sure that if you asked your Muslim neighbours in this area you… click here to read more

Two photos from Easter.

We started off with a service on the beach at 7am.  Strangely, no photos of this event.  Eyes too bleary.

After breakfast at 8am, a 9.30 communion and then the children met at the beach at 10am.  Kites, streamers and windmills to welcome Easter.  Here’s one of the set of windmills.

Easter windmills

After romping on the beach and some coffee/hot cross buns, it was an 11am service with communion.  The choir contributed Bach’s ‘Christians shout for joy’ as well as key bits of the communion liturgy drawn from James MacMillan’s St. Anne’s Mass.  Beautiful.  And now inserted between Curtains 1 and 2 by Rachael Thomas was the Easter Banner.  In front of the communion table are two kites made by the Breakfast Club during their overnight vigil and a prayer burst of sunlight.  A fantastic Easter.

For our evening communion on Palm Sunday Chris Galbraith, our probationer, teamed up with Linda Small, a member of the congregation.  They took the idea of a labyrinth and transformed it into a series of prayer stations.

Curtain (1 and 2) by Rachael Thomas

Introductory Thoughts by Stewart Weaver

Several months ago Rachael contacted St. Philip’s to ask if she could hang some of her final year artwork at the church.  The material suggested Holy Week and we initially planned to hang the works in the southeast and southwest corners of the church.  But when she arrived they pleaded to be placed more prominently.

Below you will find a general description of Rachael’s work, her description of Curtain (1 and 2) and a few ruminations from the minister.  He can’t resist putting his oar in!

Underlying Principles (Rachael Thomas)

My practice begins with the collection and recognition of mundane materials.  These substances, such as tin foil, cling film, chalk, cardboard and flour are steadily accumulated in my studio, their properties noted… click here to read more

A few photos of the church on Good Friday.

The curtains are the work of a final year art student at the Edinburgh College of Art, Rachael Thomas.  A description of her work and some of my thoughts can be found elsewhere on the website.

ST. PHILIP’S E-NEWSLETTER

8 APRIL 2011

COMMENT FROM THE EDITOR

Your editor is running a bit late this morning (oops…afternoon) and thus it seems best to get cracking.

THOUGHT

The Edinburgh Presbytery are encouraging congregations to take part in the TryPraying initiative.  On 12 April there will be a short prayer service at St. P’s from 7.30-8pm, on the same day that 15 other congregations will be having services in the city.  On 14 April our neighbours at the Old Parish will host a 24 hour prayer vigil with much of the time in the wee hours offered by Rev. Andrew Patterson.

In light of this, a lovely prayer your editor happened upon recently.  In this time of Lent an unusual… click here to read more

Today’s reading is a corker.

It’s the story of the dishonest steward from Luke 16.  One might think that Jesus is in fact condoning some disingenuous, underhanded dealing.  What to make of it?

William Barclay, the ever-reliable Scottish commentator, essentially suggests that they are all rascals.  The stewart is a rascal for embezzlement.  The debtors are rascals for allowing themselves to become involved in a scheme that they knew was unjust.  And the master is a rascal because he appreciated the shrewd brains behind all of this wheeling and dealing.

In the Gospel of Luke there are a few endings added to verses 1-8a which suggest that the early compilers and writers weren’t sure what to do with this story.  If we take the nugget of the story it certainly is tricky.  Perhaps, following Barclay, we might suggest that we should perhaps… click here to read more

As part of our Lent Lectures series Paul K. Chapman came to St Philips’ to speak about Faith and the Violence of Poverty.  Here is his lecture which makes for a very interesting and engaging read…

Paul K. Chapman

Priority Areas, Church of Scotland

I am very pleased to be asked to start off this Lenten series on Faith and Violence – topics that have consumed my thinking for many years, perhaps since the days of the Civil Rights movement in the United States when non-violence was the defining quality of that historic change in national values.  Interestingly, the same dynamic May be manifest in today’s struggle for social change in some of the countries in the Middle East.

I’ll begin with some definitions:  I think it is useful to look at violence… click here to read more