A wee boy was sitting in the pew and looked with confusion at a priest in front of him. The priest was holding something white in his hand, both his hands raised above his head; clearly, the priest was showing something. The boy’s confusion sprang from the obvious disparity between what was being shown and the words uttered by the…

I really didn’t feel like going to church this morning. I tried to negotiate with God and decided to flip a coin. For tails, I’d go back to bed; for heads, I’d watch the telly; I’d go to church if the coin landed on its edge. I tossed the coin up in the air and it landed into a small…

Weasel, worm, sloth, slug, vulture, snake, pig, rat, dog, cow, chicken, fish, shark, monkey, wolf, dinosaur… That’s just a tiny selection of animals used to describe people. We use them to express our tender affection towards those we love or to express our dislike of others. Sometimes we use such phrases to vent our frustration or to clearly show our…

Five hundred years ago a monk called passionately for reforms of the Catholic Church in order to return it to its evangelical roots. All his ‘Ninety-Five Theses’ were summarily rejected, and the monk in question was urged by Pope Leo X and the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V to follow suit. He refused and, as a consequence, he was excommunicated…

Ten years ago, I took part in an introductory weekend course for clergy and religious from abroad who had come to work in Scotland. The main goal of that weekend course was to give us a better understanding of the country, including its historical, cultural, religious and political background. One talk was about the political framework of the UK including…