Humanist weddings have been legal in Scotland since 2005. It took only ten years for them to become the second most popular form of marriage in the country, and – in Scotland at least – they’ve almost become ‘the new normal’. I meet lots of couples who’ve only ever been to humanist weddings, but – … Continue Reading
This year, lets honour the people who risked everything to prevent war breaking out in the first place: Civil Servants.
Yesterday was the hundredth anniversary of the very first ceremony of Remembrance at the Cenotaph in London.
I meet a lot of people who describe themselves as ‘spiritual but not religious’. As organised religion continues to decline in the Western World, it’s becoming much more normal, but despite that I was surprised when my friend Onie told me that she was starting a new organisation called ‘Agnostic Scotland’.I have always believed agnosticism … Continue Reading
I’m delighted to announce that from now on, I will be a celebrant with Celebrate People, a new Humanist organisation led by two of Scotland’s best loved celebrants, Susan and Gerrie Douglas Scott. If you think you’ve heard those names before, it’s probably because you have. They were the first same sex female couple to be … Continue Reading
I heard an interesting story on the radio this morning: it seems that BBC’s Sunday Programme on Radio 4 has commissioned its own research into the statistics and found that couples who choose to marry in a Humanist ceremony are up to four times less likely to divorce. You can read the full story here and … Continue Reading
Should the poppy continue to be the flower of remembrance, or should we allow it, once again, to be the flower of forgetfulness?
The culture war over the poppy’s meaning continues.
To the nameless millions who lie in mass graves,
From the forest of Katyn to the killing fields of Cambodia,
From Treblinka to Shatila:
We will remember you.
I’ve long been a fan of Grayson Perry. Not just of his work as a potter which is as subversive as it is beautiful, but also of his clear-eyed attempts to understand and explain the human condition. He’s a gifted communicator, whose easy directness allows him to connect with people from all cultures and walks of life, and … Continue Reading