Good Afternoon All,

Slightly different temperature today than when I wrote last week. One bonus of working for St Columba’s is that the building stays remarkably cool in the heat!

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Friends,

Wednesday 9th June was St Columba’s Day, which we marked in church last Sunday. So, last week’s newsletter carried a poem by Kenneth Steven who finds Iona, the tiny island much associated with Columba, so inspiring.

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Friends,

This Sunday is Trinity Sunday, a day to dwell on the trinitarian /threefold nature of God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It expresses the Christian understanding/verdict, “once all the evidence is in.” Yet, however deeply, or not, we think about God, we can never fully describe, explain or “capture” God; no human language has the breadth or fluency to achieve that. There is always more to learn and much that we may never understand.

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Friends,

Two prayers for us as we approach the weekend. This Sunday is the Feast of Pentecost. Fifty days after Easter, and ten days after Ascension Day, we mark the gift of the Holy Spirit to the disciples gathered in Jerusalem – sometimes referred to as the birth-day of the Church. A fitting Sunday to celebrate with our friends of the linked charge at St Andrew’s, Newcastle, as they reopen their doors for worship.

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Friends,
Last week we borrowed thoughts on elections & democracy from Revd Tom Gordon. This week I share some striking photos and accompanying article by another Church of Scotland minister, Revd Neil Urquhart. Neil is the minister of Irvine: Fullarton and back in 2012 he stayed in the church flat, while attending the London Paralympics, as part of the Games’ chaplaincy team. In the days leading up to Pentecost (Sunday 23rd May) and the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland (22nd – 28th May) Neil offers thoughts and images about change and challenge and where perhaps the Spirit of God is moving.

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