I’ve changed the status of my underused old skool rigid Specialized Hardrock from ‘ornament’ to ‘bike’ in the last couple of days.  This is partly because I need the exercise, partly because it’s not raining, but mostly because I really like getting outside and into the countryside if I can.

I have no car this weekend so the only way to go anywhere was on my bike… so I dusted it off and rode the Clyde Walkway to Chatelherault Country Park then rode out to the farthest bridge and back home.  I loved it and really need to get out on my bike much more.

Obviously I won’t be able to walk tomorrow…

I spent a couple of days in one of my favourite places in the world, St Andrews, this week with a small group of youth workers discovering a bit about myself.  That’s not the kind of thing I’m usually that keen on but I’m really glad that rather than spending the two days of ‘Integrate’ listening people telling us about youth work Dorothy Neilson helped us to listen to ourselves and to God.

Dorothy led us through the Enneagram, a tool which helps you discover your ‘personality type’.  I’m a bit of a cynic when it comes to these kind of things but I have to say I liked the Enneagram.  It made sense to me.  It has given me lots to think about and lots to work on.

I’m sure a lot of that had to do with both Dorothy’s open and relaxed style and with the other people in the group being prepared to be open and give it a go.

So, what did I discover?  Well, I’m a FIVE.

If you want to know what that means then for starters you could have a look at this free e-book by Mark McGuinness which introduces the enneagram or get in touch with Dorothy and have her come talk to you or your team.

In the meantime… have a look the enneagram and see if you can discover some stuff about you.

The new episode of the Something Beautiful Podcast features an interview with Lawrence Moore, director of the URC’s Windermere Centre and author of Disclosing New Worlds, a fabulous lectionary blog.  It’s his story of his journey from Zimbabwe  where he served as a police officer in special branch through the civil war to a realisation of what he’d been involved in and a changed life and understanding of who God is.  Well worth a listen!

I was invited to lead a workshop at Holy City in Glasgow last night.  I mentioned before that I was delighted to be asked but now terrified…

Well, it wasn’t that scary!  In fact, I liked it a lot.

I’ve known about Holy City for ages and it’s been on my ‘I’d quite like to go to that’ list but I’ve never got round to going.  I’m so glad I did, even if it took an invite to get me there (perhaps a lesson in that?).

People gather from 7pm for a chat and around 7.20pm new songs are taught for the worship later in the evening and the workshops are plugged.  Then at 7.30pm people choose their workshop and go there for an hour.

There was a great variety of workshops last night, all around the idea of ‘telling’.

Mine was called ‘Telling Signs?’ and I tried to encourage people to talk about what signs of new life they were seeing outside the church and to ask what the church’s response to those should be.  I think it was a good discussion but in many ways the ‘Emerging Church’ is so nebulous that it’s difficult for people to grasp which part we are talking about… or to want to categorise these communities at all.

Worship was the most subversive act I’ve seen in a church for a long time.  We thought about telling… and those who because of a decission by the General Assembly are not allowed to tell and the issue they are not allowed to tell of… sexuality.

Deep words, beautiful music, conversation and actions in an amazing space with great people.

I’ll be back… next term.  And if you find yourself in Glasgow on the last Sunday of the month then you could do much worse than spend some time at Holy City.

Dear PROJECTiles,                                  [release 1 distrib 280509]

Details are slowly leaking out for thePROJECT – In The Flesh which will happen somewhere in Edinburgh on June 20th.

You’ve been most patient, and that’s both much appreciated and deserves rewarding. So here’s the first of several updates on P:2 for yer info and delektashin.

Confirmed to date….A veritable cornocupia of wonders, including:

Musicality… IAIN ARCHER, WE SEE LIGHTS, JAKE TATTON.

Wordsmithery… ROB McKENZIE

Workshops… DOUG GAY, BEKI BATESON, STEWART CUTLER, ROSS LOVERIDGE… on art, faith, culture, emerging church, climate change challenges.

Creativity: Gentle City Walks, Videovoxpop, Scratch Mary Poppins, mibbe even a Big Knit

Worship: with Steve Butler & friends.

This is just for starters… so watch this space for more details… (and check yer emails!). Registration and ticketing details imminently.

the PROJECT (Scotland)
… a Scottish festival of arts, culture & faith

Questionnaire: thePROJECTquestionnaire
Web: theprojectscotland
Facebook: www.facebook.com/group
Bebo: www.bebo.com/theprojectscotland
Twitter: http://twitter.com/theprojectscot

I’ve been invited to lead one of the workshops at Holy City in Glasgow this Sunday evening.  The stop this month in the journey to discover the demands, delights and dilemmas of discipleship is ‘Speaker’s Corner’.

The blurb for my bit says…

‘Telling signs?’
‘Emerging Church’ is one (of many) tags given to odd, quirky, marginal forms of being church that exist in or outside of the mainstream? What and where are they? What do they mean? And do they matter? A man who has his finger on the pulse of such things is STEWART CUTLER. He is Children and Youth Development Officer for the URC in Scotland.

Like all these kinds of invitations I’m delighted to be asked then gripped by fear about what to do!  I might talk about that.  It seems kind of apt…  After all, it is Pentecost.

Come and join us at 7pm in Renfield St Stephens, Bath Street, Glasgow.

My previous post on the petition launched ahead of the Church of Scotland’s General Assembly in support of the overture (motion) from the Presbytery of Lochcarron & Skye was my most viewed post ever.  I didn’t set out to say anything controversial and hoped to appeal to people to be calm, reasonable and gracious.

The question that I ended that post with was one asked by Christians all along the theological spectrum. ‘What would Jesus do?’.

This morning it struck me, and not for the first time, that one of the problems with this discussion is that Jesus said nothing specifically about homosexuality.  That leaves us with a bit of a vacuum when trying to answer the question ‘What would Jesus do?‘.  It means that we need to try to work out what Jesus might have said from his other teachings.  We also need to consider the rest of the Bible where again, little is said directly about homosexual relationships.

There are passages in the Old Testament in Leviticus, we read the stories of Sodom and Gomorrah and in the New Testament Paul has some words in Romans.

The problem for many is that these passages are in their view inconclusive.  For example, the passage about Sodom and Gomorrah tells of a host offering his daughters to visitors rather than them having sex with another man.  Not something we would see as acceptable now.  Paul’s words in Romans are the subject of much debate around the translation and context.  Is he talking about homosexual relationships or about the practice if ritual sex with young boys at the pagan temples?

I refer to these passages by way of illustrating the difficulty and complexity of the theological discussion.  Perhaps we need to move beyond throwing passages at each other and engage in a discussion about what the core of the Gospel is?

One of the biggest steps forward the Church could take is to begin these kinds of discussions is to start at the general rather than the specific.  As many will point out in the coming weeks, there are many things supported in the Bible that we have moved away from.  If the early church had not decided to admit those who were not Jewish to their membership then we wouldn’t be having this discussion at all.  Those decisions were often painful, often divisive.

So, let’s try to start again.

Let’s try to start from the question ‘How would Jesus behave?‘ because to be honest when I read the scriptures almost everytime I expect Jesus to do one thing He does something completely different.  What is consistent is how he does things.

You may have heard on the BBC Scotland news this evening that Queen’s Cross Church of Scotland’s right to call an openly gay man to be their minister, a decision endorsed by a majority vote of the Presbytery of Aberdeen, has been the subject of a complaint and the case will be heard by the General Assembly in a few weeks.

There are some in the church who don’t think that a homosexual should be ordained as a minister so a petition is being gathered to take to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland to call on them not to uphold the right of the congregation to make its own decision about who they can call to be their minister on the grounds of his sexuality.  Apparently 1/5 of the ministers of the Church of Scotland have signed the petition.

I don’t want to get into the discussion about sexuality here and now.  That will no doubt come in the future.

What I do want to say is that tonight people across Scotland and across the world have had their own prejudice confirmed.  Their own stereotype image that the Church of Jesus Christ is intolerant, bullying and homophobic has been paraded on the evening news.  Again.

There are ways to go about disagreeing.  Disagreements can be had with dignity and with respect.  Raising a petition, giving that petition to the press as an ‘exclusive’ and trying to raise a groundswell of support to pressure the poor souls whose turn it is to attend General Assembly into making the decision you want is not dignified.

‘What Would Jesus Do?’.  I wonder where ’start a campaign that will put someone under intense media pressure, drag them in front of the General Assembly and have their life paraded for all to see’ comes in the answer to that question.  I don’t think it does and tonight I am ashamed to be a member of the Church of Scotland.

So, no.  I won’t be signing your petition.  And I hope no-one else does either.  Not because I don’t belive in your right to have one.  Not that because I don’t think you have the right to hold your opinion.  But because I believe that we are called to love one another and to conduct our discusions with love and respect.

Another round of birthdays (pun intended) this week with Jack turning 7 and Ben 10.  Both the boys got some golf gear and today we headed down to Strathclyde Park Golf Course to try out their new bags, clubs, trolleys and Tiger Woods caps.

I’m sure it won’t be too long before they can both beat their dad!

Happy Birthday Jack and Ben!!!

My intrepid / crazy Brother-in-Law Scott completed the Maggies Monster Bike and Hike in the eary hours of this morning.

Scott and his collegues, who formed the prophetically named ‘Sair Knees’, completed the 30 mile cycle and 42 mile hike along the Great Glen in aid of Maggies cancer centres.

A BIG congratulations and I hope you enjoy your well earned beers this afternoon! You can still sponsor them if you feel suitably impressed.