It has been a long weekend….indeed a long week. I decided to reenter the Dawkins website, after reading an article and many comments on the debate between my friend Professor John Lennox of the University of Oxford and Professor Richard Dawkins – who apparently does not want to be my friend (I can’t understand why!). It was an interesting experience (leading once more to my being ‘trolled’/banned) and resulted in a week of debate which cumulated this weekend in taking part in a debate on morality on Premier Radio (see ‘unbelievable’ on www.premier.org.uk) and a debate in London with the British Humanist Society philosopher, Peter Cave. Overall the various experiences have left me exhausted, drained and astounded at the intolerance, arrogance and emptiness of secular humanism, and the fullness, depth and breadth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Why?

Saturday was an historic day in the history of the Church in Scotland. As I write this continues - I am listening to the ongoing debate online from the Church of Scotland Assembly. It is hard for me to emphasise how important the events of this weekend have been. For those of you who have not read a newspaper or have not heard, the Church of Scotland Assembly voted to sustain a call to a minister who is in an openly same-sex partnership.

Last week I became a statistic - one of the few who have been tested for swine flu in Scotland. Not feeling too well I went down to my GP's and as my symptoms were discussed, I mentioned that I had been feeling like that ever since my return from the US. 'Where?' she asked. 'Mississippi'. At which point other doctors and nurses were called in, and the various tests were conducted. Thankfully I was clear...Meanwhile I became another statistic - being the first 'other Scottish church' person to sign the petition at http://www.confessingchurch.org.uk/. The full statement is as follows:

Although I am still somewhat jet-lagged and suffering from some kind of flu, I thought I would let you know how the week in the US went. Firstly though let me thank Hugh and Mark for preaching on Sunday the 19th - all the reports were excellent! The week itself seemed a lot longer than a week, I will try and summarise it briefly:

There is a great deal of change occuring at St Peters at the moment. Sometimes it feels as though we have jumped off a cliff! Sometimes we wonder where it is all going - but one thing is for sure - it is going somewhere...indeed sometimes it is hard to keep up.