The Real Santa Claus

For anyone interested there is an excellent website http://www.stnicholascenter.org/ which is packed with historical information and teaching materials on Saint Nicholas aka Santa Claus. I was lucky to have spent some of my childhood in Bruxelles where Father Christmas was referred to by his proper name. The more I have read about St Nick the more I feel that this is great saint who has much to teach us today. The use of his large inheritance, his ministry as a bishop and his imprisonment during the Diocletian tyranny point to a spiritual giant. There is also compelling evidence that he was present at the Council of Nicea - something which the idiotic pseudo-historian Dan Brown would probably never concede. Just when so many are trying to rubbish the modern Church as a calculated invention of Emperor Constantine here is a friendly familiar voice from that era telling us otherwise. So here's parting thought, the next time you are in church with a child and you hear the Creed - tell them Santa wrote it.

A Cautionary Tale for Hall Managers

As I begin to wind down ministry at St Clements Aberdeen there are a few odd administration jobs I am trying to complete. The first is in re-marketting our excellent large hall with one of our parishioners appointed as a contact person for potential bookings. In the past we have had a pretty full schedule but recently the weekly usage has become a bit sparse.

So with posters placed around the precinct I was pleasantly surprised to find out that an enquiry was made the next day. However, our new contact person was in a terrible flap because she had not realised that the exercise class was based on POLE DANCING! Now I understand this is not a re-run of 'Calender Girls' and the participants keep their clothes on but if you are an anxious person like me then you can imagine the local paper headlines on this one.

Is there a patron saint for church hall? There should be. Regulation, health & safety, licences and equality laws make hall use a potential mine field. Luckily the pole dancing instructor saw this was not going to work and could do the church a lot of harm. Yet what if she had argued her case and said that I was discriminating against her? Would I have a leg to stand on? My understanding of the law is that if you offer a public space then you cannot pick and choose who uses it. A similar case happened to us last year when a 'New Age' Reiki healer wanted to book a regular evening slot. I said that this went against our Christian ethos and again thankfully nothing further happened. If anyone has any thoughts on this do feel free to post them.

One Solitary Life

For Sunday School we decided to ask the children how they wanted to be remembered - what for example in many years did they want written on their gravestones? At the end of this session this poem was read out. Its called the 'One Solitary Life' - I'm still trying to find out who wrote it.

Here is a man who was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman.He grew up in another village. He worked in a carpenter shop until
He was thirty.Then for three years He was an itinerant preacher.

He never owned a home. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. Henever had a family. He never went to college. He never put His foot inside a bigcity. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place He was born. He neverdid one of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but Himself.

While still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against him. His friendsran away. One of them denied Him. He was turned over to His enemies. He wentthrough the mockery of a trial. He was nailed upon a cross between two thieves.While He was dying, His executioners gambled for the only piece of property Hehad on earth – His coat. When He was dead, He was laid in a borrowed gravethrough the pity of a friend.

Nineteen long centuries have come and gone, and today He is a centerpiece of the human race and leader of the column of progress.

I am far within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, all thenavys that were ever built; all the parliaments that ever sat and all the kings thatever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has that ONE SOLITARY LIFE!