I’ve just finished writing the blurb on the Christmas card that we send round our Parish. In it I’m suggesting that we could all do with a minimalist Christmas. By this I mean unplugging all the light pollution that goes with Christmas so that we can see the real star. The thing is, I know, the Light still shines brightly for those who are looking, but some have lost their way with the tinsel and the tat.

We have a little Advent Bible Study group that meets every week with us in the manse. We’ve decided we’re going to do a few subversive things this year to draw people’s attention to the real light. Last Sunday at the Ceilidh we handed out little St Andrew Flags and invited people to write prayers for our nation and town. Last night our group of Advent Angels slipped don in the dark into our town and pinned all the prayers on the Christmas Tree in the Market Square.

We decided we’d claim back the tree, give it meaning. S we’re on the lookout for more Advent subversive things to do. If you can think on any please let me know. We’ll keep you up to date with our subversive ministry.

What can I  say Sunday was a great day. I really enjoyed the morning service , when it came to the evening it was great to experiment with praise music and Scottish dancing. I can recommend folks to try this out. It sounds corny and shallow but it wasn’t. it was one of the most inclusive  all age evenings we’ve experienced in the church. The food was great and the music was excellent. Have a look at the service click here What amazed me was that everyone joined in the dancing and also got involved with the worship and praise. I think it

just felt right. It wasn’t an import from some other place it had a real Scottish feel to it. I think we need to explore more ways in which we can connect our culture and worship. We then had an amazing meal together and what was really spooky was that all the seats were filled at the tables. yet had hadn’t sold any tickets. the right number came along.

We returned to the sanctuary for more dancing. this time Heather Niblo treated us to a Highland Sword Dance it was pure dead brilliant, as they say!

At the end of the day this is an opportunity to engage with families of all ages. I know I had a few chats with some teenagers that i never would have had if we had been running the usual evening service. reflecting on all this makes me aware that we need to be continually exploring new and not so new ways to be church. I’d love to here some of your comments on this part of post.

This week has been a pretty busy one. on Monday i was at 121 George Strret, the Church of Scotland’s central offices. I had a meeting with the committee that seeks to balance the budgets of the church. It was an interesting meeting a lot of things were discussed regarding the future of CWW, more discussions to take place, but and I’m sure when we’re finished CWW will be in a better place to attract funding from the church.

Tuesday evening saw me at the Presbytery and we were discussing reform. For my sins I presented the case to bring about a restructuring of our Presbytery meetings. The wonderful thing was that everyone seemed to be up for change. The proof of the pudding will be if we actually deliver what people seem to be looking for from Presbytery. We were asking the question, “What is the purpose of Presbytery in the context of the church today? Tomorrow I’m going to tell you about a little subversive act that some of us were involved with tonight. It can keep till tomorrow. I’m off to bed.