Tag Archives: Jesus Christ

Christians call the week beginning with Palm or Passion Sunday Holy Week. On the face of it, there is little that is “holy” about it. Take any of the four gospel accounts of the passion and death of Christ, and we are faced with an unremitting account of betrayal, arrest, imprisonment, torture, political and religious intrigue, violence, mass hysteria, cowardice ...

  It wasn’t that long ago the then leader of the Catholic Church in Scotland, Cardinal Keith O’Brien, described homosexuality as “demonstrably harmful” and the then Pope, Benedict XVI, described it as “objectively disordered”. For those of us who are Catholics, those were dark days when we were being condemned and vilified, while clerical abuse of children was being swept ...

Supporters of fundamentalism and literalism argue that the authors of the Bible were directly inspired by the Holy Spirit, that every word is the direct word of God and that, as such, every word must be true. Adherents of literalism argue that the Bible provides an exact factual history of the world from its creation onwards. According to this logic, ...

In our weekly “Belief matters” column we have taken a look at various faith issues, often within the context of how they affect LGBTI communities – or from the perspective of LGBTI people of faith. Today, being Christmas Day, we are publishing a message from the Moderator of the Church of Scotland, the Rt Rev Dr Angus Morrison. While his ...

  The first Christmas after I was ordained nearly 20 years ago, I happened to come down sick before Christmas. My senior colleague had to take all the services instead of us sharing them and all I could do was drag myself to midnight mass and sit at the back of the church amongst the congregation. The lights were low, ...

We all think we are familiar with the Biblical Christmas story – we’ve all been to school nativity plays and heard the familiar, oft-recited tale of Angels and Virgins, Kings and Shepherds. And yet, in truth, it is difficult to make sense of the Christmas story – or, rather more accurately, the confusing and sometimes contradictory birth narratives contained within ...

  Today is St Andrew’s Day, a day in which many us take a great deal of pride – including our First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, who has today claimed our patron saint was a champion of minorities and the oppressed. But how did St Andrew come to be associated in Scotland, and what lessons can be learned from his life ...

  An imperialist tyrant instructs his staff to ensure everyone travels to particular locations to be counted, thus causing serious problems for many people. One couple, a blue collar worker and his pregnant wife, are forced to travel to a distant town, during which time they are not earning any money. After a long and difficult journey, they find there ...

During Christmas we recall the familiar story of Joseph and a very-pregnant Mary returning to his hometown of Bethlehem, where Mary gives birth to Jesus and ‘laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the upper guest room,’ according to Luke 2:7. The Greek word kataluma, meaning ‘upper room’ or ‘guest room,’ is correctly translated ...