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
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I speak far too quickly
The lovely people at Luath Press have just shared a wee story about WE DO! on Instagram, with a link to the interview I did with Ellen and Nicole on Soundcloud. They took me a bit unawares, and perhaps because of that I didn’t realise that they were going to stream it: I had thought … 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

How to Have the Best Wedding Ever!
Big thanks to The Scotsman for this great Valentine’s Day present! You can read the article here
How to involve your family and friends…
I got my copy of the Scottish Wedding Directory Magazine today and I was delighted to see that their journalist Patricia-Ann Young spoke to two couples I married recently. If you want to see a little more detail, check out Ashley and Jamie’s story here And the full version of Claire and … 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

Remembrance Day 2017
I was honoured to be asked to deliver a Remembrance address to the staff of the Scottish Government at St. Andrew’s House in Edinburgh yesterday.
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
A celebrant’s role is not always about celebration
I was pleased to see my article in The Scotsman earlier this week: if you’d like to read it please click here