Everywhere I have lived has its own variety of humour, which may, or may not, translate, and can sometimes be misunderstood in ways that are rather unfortunate.

Glasgow humour is no different.  A lot of it seems to depend on puns, and this sign, in a cafe now shut for the duration, is a superb example of it.

Shut happens - and for now the nation is pretty much shut.  But open will come again, if not soon, at least one day.  This is hope.  This is resilience.  This is what faith is about... shut happens, but we choose to trust that open will happen too!

No, not that one (though, yes, I am TT, as, for various reasons, are at least half our congregation), this one:

Faith Leaders Pledge

It's Earth Day, and what could be more appropriate when, as I read somewhere, 'Mother Earth has put the humans in cages for a while' than to give thanks for our beautiful planet-home, pray for those who work in conservation, and commit ourselves to be more proactive in climate care.

I signed, and we have already got plans for this autumn, whatever the medium of delivery, as we play our tiny part in caring for creation.

Yesterday evening, I was chatting with a few other ministers, and one of them remarked, half in jest, that I live and work in the posh part of Glasgow. That rankled as it does with anyone in our church - we aren’t posh, we are privileged and we know the difference.

Today I deliberately turned left rather than right out of my front door for my permitted exercise. This takes me very quickly to areas of social housing, some of which is high rise.

 I took the photo above and turned 180 degrees on the spot to take this one too - it all depends which way you face what you will see. In any community wealth and (relative if not absolute) poverty coexist in close proximity.