Quartz
I draw during the 11 O’clock service. The pencil and paper help me to explore the familiar surroundings and repeated words. Perhaps this is similar to taking notes in a lecture theatre, even if the text is available online. Writing helps focus the mind and activate more of the brain to aid retention. For me […]
How the digital world can help us worship at 6pm on Sunday the 29th of January we will be gathering in St Johns to use digital technology to worship together, and also explore ways in which access to the digital world can help us live out the Missio Dei, the mission of God. In the […]
The view from the Crichton QFC on January the 15th, 2023 It had been a drich few days before we met. Record flooding levels in Dumfries saw businesses washed out, some perhaps beyond their ability to recover. I wasn’t sure if some of our proposed activities (follow the link to see the plan) would work […]
To what extent is salvation given or worked out through living? I suspect that the issue of how “Grace” and “Works” relate to one another is an example of #SensingMystery, although like all mysteries it involves a confusion of certainty that keeps us going and awareness of the unknown so we have to keep asking […]
The experience of being challenged and moved by experiences including love, beauty, goodness, joy, compassion, injustice, evil, suffering, death.
Meet outside Crichton chapel at 2pm on January the 15th, 2023 “Why must people kneel down to pray? If I really wanted to pray I’ll tell you what I’d do. I’d go out into a great big field all alone or in the deep, deep woods and I’d look up into the sky—up—up—up—into that lovely […]
Sensing a changed quality in awareness. Often described as the feeling of being ‘at one’ with nature, oneself and others. We often slip quickly into thinking about ‘things’, or thinking about or experience of things. #SensingAwareness is more about being in a state of awareness of direct experience, mindfulness. The Divine in the world, creating […]
It is the eve before the new year starts! Well, that is, before the calendar year we use in Scotland starts. The financial year, the academic year, and the agricultural years have different starts. As do the multiple liturgical years observed by people living and settled in Scotland. There is also the lunar year which […]
Did you know that part of the inspiration behind the name “Quartz” is the shining or sparkling white of St Ninians foundation at Whithorn? It can be argued that the whole of the British Isles gained the name “Alba” in antiquity because of the “chalky white” cliffs in the south. “Candida” Casa uses a word […]
As part of the “Christmas Light” collaborative installation we have been working with pupils at Dumfries High School. In their class they have been thinking about the meaning of Christmas for Christians, and also the symbolism of light. As part of this they have been thinking about how they can be “Lights” in the world […]