On Friday and Saturday this week I met with 'old' medical colleagues whom I had not met for 40 years. It was the 40th anniversary of the 1978 Gamma Year Club, the Medical class who graduated with me from Glasgow University in 1978. Time had worked on most physiognomies and some were unrecognisable, which was …
Category: Biography
My two Inverness landladies
One of my Inverness chapters came to an end this afternoon. I stood by the open grave of Isabel Margaret Grant (1927-2018), the first of my two landladies when I was a student for the Christian ministry during two years 1980-1982 in Inverness. On the gravestone were the names of her parents, above her brother …
Celebrating a grand lady
There have been a few ladies in my life. The first one was my beloved mother, and I suppose I need to mention my two sisters who knocked the awkward corners off my teenage life. The grand lady in my life is my good lady, Elizabeth, the Home Secretary, His Master's Voice and She Who …
Andrew Ferguson Boyd 1952–2018
Yesterday I buried my only brother, the first of my siblings to reach heaven. Being three years older than me, it seems that he was destined to be always ahead of me. He was ahead of me into this world, ahead of me into the kingdom of heaven, ahead of me into the kingdom …
Christian scribes
The scribes and Pharisees were opposed to Jesus and His teaching. Jesus accused them of hypocrisy: 'Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because you close the kingdom of heaven against mankind: for you neither go in yourselves, neither do you allow those entering to have entered’ Mat 23:13. He also exposed the inadequacy of …
10 years of Street Pastors in Scotland
The tenth anniversary of Street Pastors in Scotland was celebrated by a debate and reception in the Scottish Parliament on 19/12/2017. The debate was secured by Murdo Fraser, MSP, and can be viewed here. Inverness was the first place in Scotland to invite the Street Pastors initiative and pioneered its introduction to the Highlands ten …
Why did God create viruses?
Older people will remember the accusation, when they were young, against the existence of God – Why did God create viruses? It was intended to be a rhetorical question. Viruses are bad, full stop, so there is no good God. These shrill voices have been mute for some time, but why? The development of gene …
The liberation of Jerusalem 1917 and 1967
One hundred years ago today, Jerusalem was liberated during the first World War by the Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) led by British forces. It was a significant event in the long journey towards recognizing and re-establishing the state of Israel in the native homeland of the Jews. On 11th December 1917 British General Sir Edmund …
Signs of the Times
We are living in interesting and significant times, with a number of notable anniversaries co-inciding. 31st October 2017 is the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation and the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration. Martin Luther unwittingly commenced the Protestant Reformation when he posted his 95 Theses for discussion on the door of the Castle …
To see ourselves as others see us
I have just received this birthday card from one of my younger sisters: Or to use the language of our Scottish bard, Robert 'Rabbi' Burns, in his poem To A Louse: On Seeing One On A Lady's Bonnet, At Church, 1786. "O wad some Power the giftie gie us To see oursels as ithers see …
