Destination Weddings

Despite all the uncertainty over the UK’s future, more and more couples are choosing Scotland as the place they want to tie the knot.  Just two days ago, I conducted the wedding of Julie and Nicolas, a French couple who brought their families over to see them getting married on the shores of Loch Fyne, … Continue Reading

Speaking at Funerals

I saw a story the other day that took me aback a bit. Father Joseph Anthony Toal is the Roman Catholic Bishop of Motherwell and he found himself all over the papers when an instruction he’d sent to his clergy was leaked to a journalist. He even made the Daily Telegraph. He told his priests to refuse requests … Continue Reading

The D Word

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

We Do too!

I was delighted to see this amazing double-page centre-spread feature article on my book in the Sunday Mail last month – until I spotted the major factual error in the body copy. If you look closely, you’ll see the article says ‘Humanist weddings, which are non-religious, now account for more than half of all weddings carried out … Continue Reading

Humanism in Pastoral Care

I was very pleased to see this story in today’s Guardian. It’s taken a lot of campaigning to allow humanists to be part of chaplaincy teams of any kind, so this is something to celebrate. I am more than a little confused however, by the related article from Andrew Brown in Comment is Free  Humanism is increasingly the … Continue Reading

Is Thought For the Day boring?

John Humphrys seems to think so. In an interview with the Radio Times, he said the slot is “deeply, deeply boring”, and argues for the inclusion of thoughts for the day from secular thinkers.  It’s not the first time that this claim has been made, but the BBC doesn’t agree, and it’s unlikely if Thought … Continue Reading