My true colours revealed with the Power of Linux.

(Warning. Not for little children and cry-baby adults.)

I am not usually a plugger of software on this site, but I have found Dropbox so useful I just had to mention it.

If you use more than one computer for the same work, or you simply need a backup space for essential work, then Dropbox does the job. It keeps up to 2GB worth of files sync’ed with a Dropbox folder on your computer.

Since I use a desktop at home and an old laptop for when I am on the road, it means I dont have to worry about moving files around since it is take care of automatically.

An added bonus for me is that if you click the following referral link, I get an extra 250MB space for free:

click here.

There is much to be applauded in the recent developments to encourage greater cooperation amongst Bible-believing, gospel-preaching churches, such as the development of regional gospel partnerships here in the UK (our local: MGP). Developments in the US, such as The Gospel Coalition and T4G, only serve to stimulate this movement further. A catholic spirit is vital in these days.

That said, there are are those with whom we feel a greater than average sense of oneness. My church is a  confessional presbyterian church. We believe that that combination offers a much fuller expression of the gospel to the world than anything else (and if you are surprised by that, you need to listen to the lecture I mentioned a few days ago that David Roberson gave at Twin Lakes – link here.) Naturally, we feel affinity with other presbyterian churches in a way that we simply can’t with other beloved churches.

Yesterday was a long day, but it was a privilege for four of us EPCEW guys to meet with four men from the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Northern Ireland and talk about working together with a view to unity. It was a good meeting – plenty of will to move forward, and a little brotherly argy-bargy – culminating in a plan for the way forward which we will take to our presbytery next week.

One really interesting point: we see a real need to keep our eye on other developments elswhere in Europe. For one thing, the Scottish scene may change in the months to come after recent Church of Scotland Assembly decisions. For another, we recently welcomed a small but growing church in Sweden into our presbytery, and we know there are others in Europe interested in this kind of relationship. Watch this space.

Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!

-Psalm 133:1

Peculiarly fetching result, methinks.

I have finally got the SPC website up and running – after a fashion. I had made the mistake after the last upgrade of the CMS of not archiving a complete copy. “Let that be a lesson to you!”, I hear in my head constantly as I do this. Always do backups.

The result is that, having re-installed the CMS and the template, I am slowly restoring the miscellaneous pictures and audio files to the right places. Give it a few days and we should be right as rain.

While trying to restore our church website (and not getting very far) I listened to David Robertson of St. Peter’s, Dundee, speaking at the Twin Lakes conference. Well worth listening to.

Some of you may have noticed that our church website has been missing for the last few days. That’s because it, and a vast number of other sites, have been hacked.

Hopefully we will be back up & running soon…

Quite a bit has happened since the disastrous decisions taken at the recent General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. The following is a collection of articles, blog posts and opinion pieces in the press that have resulted. I don’t claim they are exhaustive by any means.

The last link is not directly connected with the decisions that were made, but its contents will no doubt become important as events play out in the next couple of years.

Perhaps I will get to comment in more detail on the contents in the near future.

24 May

David Meredith (Free Church) – Queen’s Cross: nightmare or birth of a dream?

Willie Phillip (Church of Scotland) –Statement re General Assembly Ruling & Statement regarding the ruling…

25 May

John Ross (Free Church) – A New Church for Scotland?

David Anderson (Reformed Baptist) – What is a church?

James Miller (Church of Scotland) – Where do we go from here?

26 May

Carl Trueman (Reformation21)- Being Presbyterian in the Church of Scotland

Sheena Strain (former Church of Scotland?) – Recent goings on in the Church of Scotland

William Crawley (Anglican Mainstream) – Church of Scotland agrees moratorium on gay debate

James Miller (Church of Scotland) – Silencing Debate

27 May

David Anderson (Reformed Baptist) – Paul separated from the Jews

Alan Rennie (Stirling Observer) (HT: Shedden) – Gay minister furore mustn’t distract from bigger issues

Nicola Barry (The Press and Journal) – No room in the Kirk for prejudice and intolerance

28 May

John MacLeod (Scottish Daily Mail) (HT: Shedden) – From decayed to debauched: the moral collapse of the Church of Scotland

David Shedden (Church of Scotland) – Response to Nick’s post ‘The Kirk – An Outsider Looking In’

Iain D Campbell (Free Church) – The Church in Scotland

30 May

John Ross (Free Church) – Love, Death and the Kirk

31 May

Harry Reid (Sunday Herald) (HT: Kinsey) – A split church? Good

1 June

Ian Hamilton (EPCEW) – June Pastoral Letter

Richard Holst (EPCEW) – Reflections

4 June

Brian Donnelly (The Herald) – Church of Scotland investments crash by more than £89m