Shortly after I’d come to Elgin as a parish assistant, I realised that many of my compatriots living in that area were struggling because they didn’t speak English. Dealing with simple, everyday hurdles caused problems, as their inability to speak the language required massive hand signals or finding an interpreter. The solution seemed obvious: help them to learn English. So…
-
-
In a series of three meetings last Advent, we were considering different aspects of the story given in today’s gospel: the journey of the wise men to see the newborn king of the Jews. The meetings were pretty interesting and a bit controversial a couple of times – someone even told me that I had ruined their Christmas. My guilt…
-
My home town was part of Germany to the end of World War II; after the war Poland as a country was ‘shifted’ westward as a result of the agreements between Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin. In such a way previously eastern frontiers of Germany became western frontiers of Poland. During World War II Nazis built a massive POWs camp a…
-
Last Sunday night I was planning my route in the Scottish Hills for the next day. Despite being a very keen hill walker I felt a rather peculiar reluctance and unwillingness. I was weighing up all important factors, but eventually my gut feelings prevailed and I decided not to do any serious climb on Monday. Instead I went for a…
-
This route was my second choice, as I lacked will-power to climb the hills. It was very pleasant, undemanding, though a long walk. It led to the remains of Balvenie Castle, Glenfiddich Distillery and then, from Dufftown Train Station, along the old (dismantled) railway to Craigallachie and along the river Spey to Aberlour. Practically all the time it was going…