Sounding Board: Loneliness

Sounding Board: Loneliness

Before the emergence of Covid 19, another epidemic was spreading quietly and inconspicuously across the world, less contagious but still damaging to health and wellbeing.  The epidemic of loneliness targets the connectedness which is at the heart of human flourishing....

THE CALL, THE HERO AND THE CHALLENGE

When Beethoven realised that he was going deaf and that there was little hope of a cure, despair called. He avoided this by casting himself as the hero who would not be deflected from fulfilling his true vocation. For Beethoven this was his art: his music. Although he...

The Handshake

The handshake is a Presbyterian ritual, as sacred as Psalm singing, sermon preaching and offering collecting. Each Sunday morning with the Benediction proclaimed, I make my way, accompanied by a grand organ voluntary, down one aisle to the vestibule. Then the quick...