Alexander Duff

I never thought some few months ago I would be living in the village that Alexander Duff preached and lived in before his Indian mission work. But here we are in Pitlochry area. So how do you find the church for you when you move to a new area?

Is it doctrine ...? Is it closest to your experience..? Is it catering for the family unit? Is it the church that invites with a warm welcome?

What about worship or should I say Praise accompanied or not modern What ever that means or traditional- what ever that means!

And the leader/pastor is there vision? has the church got behind the work ?

And finally you have to agree there is compromise...

The Church compromises and accepts you the way you are!
That is a sign of the kingdom. Happy hunting.

Suzy W Yaraei

Susi's song at My space worth a listen
Dance! Suzy W Yaraei

Changes

Pitlochry is a lovely place. Now that we as a family have moved we can begin to pick up the thoughts old and new. Thanks for holding on. I hope the meeting in Lairg have been fruitful.

Moving house

So Pitlochry is about to get a new family. The next few weeks will be hectic!
Returning to Perthshire was not really in the plans but as we adjust to the new chapter in lifes book there is a sense of real anticipation.
Dont expect much from me until the boxes are packed and un pack.
I am so pleased Connect Scotland has been a success... hope its dry for the rally in Edinburgh tomorrow.

Gathering of like minded people

It is encouraging to hear of some meetings coming up in Lairg drawing people from all parts of "stations" North of Inverness. Hope these meeting are fruitful and last. First on Friday 17 May.

New job new focus

With the speedy run around the country of late i have not been attending to you good readers. With a new job just started I hope to get back into routine soon.

Consider this:
Jesus could not go straight to heaven from the cross. He had all the sins of the world and there is no sin allowed in heaven. So he dumped them in hades and preached there before the Resurrection.!

PFKTC etc

The post of a few weeks ago The people formerly known as the congregation has had several updates. You might like to track the developments via achievable ends or the last comment version VII.

Meet the neighbours...

When the new neighbours came to town we were wondering what they may be like? What interests they might have and would they be good neighbours?

What makes a good neighbour?

They arrived recently and with a few more added to the offspring they already had, I hoped they will not be noisy. They settled in quickly.

Strange how we have got accustomed to their habits. They have really become part of the community. But I don't like it when they come in to my garden and lounged around...you got to draw the line somewhere. How will I tell them that they are upsetting that their approach is not to our liking? Would it be too forward to raise the issue?

I remember last year a party of French students stopped on route on their holiday travels and as it was a nice day thought they would sit on the grass to have a very European lunch. They kindly asked if they could sit in the garden for lunch. Because I was taken aback I had said yes without realising it. You could tell they were continental...wanting to sit on the grass... chequered cloth... eating French stick bread in Sutherland.

Well the French students had a good relaxing lunch and set off South. It was a first for these parts. We often get strange glances as we eat out in the garden in Sutherland. Our garden table from B & Q Huntington has been well used.

That reminds me I must get some paint and stop the enset of rust.

But as for the new neighbours they continually eat out and have taken to eat in our garden without a request to us for approval!

Well maybe we will have to tolerate their different habits... I suppose they havent carried out any damage and it does increase the numbers in the community.

Here is the proof of their anticts.

The neighbours...

Wating for a train...

"Waiting for a train waiting for a train the whole wide world is waiting for a train...but the train aint coming..." words to an old gospel song sung at many a beach mission in the seventies.

There has been tremendous changes since then.!

Kierkegaard meets the emerging church

It was only the other day that Soren A Kierkegaard embarged on a review of the emerging church.

He was reminded of his earlier thoughts in as much as the wider community around him was transforming in to a theatrical exsistance and stage sets.

He had concluded that society no longer consisted of individuals or groups devided in to social hierarchy. Its make up was of an undifferentiated mass, " the public". He had concluded that the mass "the public" was most dangerous and significant in power.

It , "The Public" would march as soon as someone said march! It would never ask the least of questions which could make it seen as the power more or less proportionate to its state of anonymity..

His observation of the mass and its "great levelling" had impact in the mass psychology of the age. It would also highlight the phenomenon of alienation. With the colapse of the social pyramid ( all have stations in the paramid higher or lower.) the levelling did not lead to equallity as such but to a rivary of one another as like in a game.

One outcome of this was that place were once there had been a fear of God was now a fear of man.

Kierkegaard said " close air always becomes noxious"

So Kierkegaard walks along the street to a cafe orders a Starbucks and reflects.
He gathers some around and tells the story.

A rare treasure that is the desire of everyone is located so far out on thin ice that whoever goes out to retrieve it places himself in mortal peril. But the hero who of course dares where others are scared rushes off, attended by the breathless crowd. The crowd would tremble for him and with him in the mortal peril of this decision; it would mourn him in his death:it would deify him if he gained the treasure.

But Keirkegaard repeated the scene to the listening group. This time the crowd less breathless and more a crowd of spiritless public that rationally calculates the extent to which such a feat of daring will pay off: “ They would go out there. They would stand where it is safe and sound, and putting on the airs of experts. They would evaluate the skillful skaters who could skate almost the the outermost edge... and then turn back.

Among the skaters there would be someone or other who was exceptionally talented: he would even manage the tour de force of going to the extreme edge, making yet an other attempt, replete with the deception appearance of danger, so that the spectators shout and I translate into Scottish ,

Dinne da that yur mad.... he's risking his life!.

But see he was remarkably skilled that in fact he was able to turn away at the extreme outermost edge, that is where the ice is still quite safe and the mortal peril has not yet begun.
Just as in the theatre the crowd would shout out “bravo” and salute him with acclaim; they would return home, bringing with them the great heroicness artist, and they would honour him with a sumptuous banquet. Reasonableness had come to predominate that it had transformed the challenge itself into an unreal stunt and reality into theatre.

While the passionate hero had been honoured because he alone ventured where none of the others dared go, the hero of reasonableness was celebrated because he understood how to simulate the seriousness of the danger – that is, how to “transform an inspired feat of daring into a stunt”. A twisted transformation of this sort is greeted with approval because, first of all, collective self-deception is easier to endure than envy of that single individual, and second, levelling has broken down the representative function formerly exercised by the hero in the days when he could “exalt the idea of what it is to be a human being”.

And the emerging church as it skates to the outerlimit not because it is there but to collect the rare treasure " the desire of everone" can continue to be passionate.

Then the establishment may not try and "level it out."

We so need feats of daring and not calculated stunts.

So I am left with the conclusion that Kierkgaard is most comfortable with the discourses happening around the globe as christian discover the Church is far more than a building or a group of likeminded people who are religious.

May the skating be spectacular.

Steam train return South 13 April

On time this day the return leg South.

Steam trains through the Highlands

Going North 12 April

The last two days have seen the steam train go North to Caithness and today(13/4/2007) return on its way south via Inverness.