Is what we all seek in our different ways. BBC Radio Scotland gave me a call the other day asking for my thoughts, so I joined the former Bishop of Edinburgh, Richard Holloway. to discuss how we can live more balanced lives on the Sunday Morning programme that goes out at an hour you’re still deeply asleep. The … Continue Reading
Archives
They’ve Got The H Factor!
I was very pleased with the first phase of the results from The H Factor campaign we ran in September, when we went all over Scotland to find out what humanists believe on a wide range of important moral issues, including same-sex marriage, physician-assisted suicide and sectarianism. The films feature contributions from more than 50 individuals, … Continue Reading
Have You Got The H Factor?
I’m really pleased to be able to announce the launch of The H Factor, the first ever awareness campaign from The Humanist Society of Scotland. As a celebrant, whenever I meet people to discuss a ceremony and ask them why they’ve chosen a Humanist one, they always begin by saying. “Well, we’re not religious but…” Then they … Continue Reading
Humanist Weddings in Scotland Are More Popular than Catholic Ones – it’s official!
We’ve been waiting a long time to see this story in Scotland on Sunday (and thanks are due to Marc Horne the journalist for breaking the story). Four years, in fact, ever since Gordon Ross, who was then the National Ceremonies Convenor, got his calculator out and ‘did the math’ as the Americans say.That was back … Continue Reading
I know where I’m going… Part 2
The day after the article on body donation appeared in Scotland on Sunday, I got a call from a producer at BBC Radio Scotland, who asked if I’d be prepared to visit the Anatomy Lab at the School of Medicine at the University of Edinburgh, where Dr Gordon Linklater would show me precisely what will … Continue Reading
I know where I’m going… Part 1
The School of Medicine at The University of Edinburgh. Not as a student, but as an object of study… Read this article by Peter Ross that first appeared in Scotland on Sunday The BBC obviously read it, because they asked me not just to go on the radio and talk about it, but to go … Continue Reading
Good Without God
When the Pope’s visit was announced some time ago, the HSS debated long and hard about how we should respond, and eventually decided that while we agree with all the arguments put forward by the Protest the Pope campaign, because of where we live and Scotland’s sectarian history, we’d have to do something different. So … Continue Reading
Let Me Choose
I’ve been a bit busy this week; not so much with ceremonies as with my volunteer job as Media Officer for the HSS. It’s taken us quite a while to get round to campaigning again, but as luck would have it we have not one but two new campaigns – Let Me Choose being the … Continue Reading
Chaplaincy Pilgrimage to St Andrews
My colleague Mandy Evans Ewing and I were invited to join the Chaplains from the various universities of Scotland at their annual meeting which this year was held in St Andrews. She’s the Humanist Chaplain for the University of Glasgow and Glasgow Caledonian University, while I’m the Humanist Contact at the University of Edinburgh Chaplaincy Centre. It … Continue Reading
Say ‘I do’ to the Humanist touch when tying the knot
I got a call the other day from Catherine Salmond at the Edinburgh Evening News. She was writing a story because Elizabeth Bell, the wedding co-ordinator at Houston House Hotel, had got in touch with the paper to say that 1 in 10 of their weddings this year are going to be Humanist ceremonies. So we had a chat … Continue Reading