'GOOD tidings we bring': No one can fracture a Christmas carol better than a child! You will enjoy trying to sing along with these "adaptations" of old favourites!

AS I sit writing this message, I am in Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport.

"I NEVER imagined... I can't find the words..." stammers the lead character in a film I watched recently called 'Contact'.

THIS past week, a certain parliamentary party candidate faced local de-selection over a row concerning a past 'affair' with another MP.

IN connection with the current BBC4 series 'A History of Christianity', The Open University is running a survey.

"YOU loser!" Surely, this is one of the more distasteful popular taunts.

TRUST is a wonderful thing. You may see it in the face of a child or in the faces of those who love one another deeply.

ONE of the things that all human beings seem to share is an innate sense of justice.

IF it's ever happened to you, you'll know what I'm talking about when I say that the most significant day of my life, the most poignant and the most memorable was the day when I experienced what is commonly referred to as the "new birth".

FINDING treasure buried in a field is a dream that has obsessed many a young boy and, it seems, some who are a little longer in the tooth.

PAUL'S "Hymn of Love" in 1 Corinthians 13, which concludes: "Three things will last forever – faith, hope, and love – and the greatest of these is love", not only challenges us: "Do I have true, saving faith?" and "Do I have the confident hope of the gospel?" But even more searchingly, "Do I have the love of Christ in my heart?"

PAUL'S famous statement in 1 Corinthians 13, "Three things will last forever — faith, hope, and love — and the greatest of these is love" not only challenges us to ask: Do I have true, saving faith? but also: Do I have the confident hope of the gospel?

THE apostle Paul, in his quite matchless passage in 1 Corinthians 13, has said: "Three things will last forever - faith, hope, and love - and the greatest of these is love."

THE Bible is still right!

WHEN it comes to entertainment, we're really spoiled for choice these days.

OUT and about the other day, I saw a parishioner coming towards me with tears streaming down her face.

I WAS at Dr Gray's Hospital the other day – just visiting.

AS I write for the Gazette this week, I have to confess that I'm not really at my best.

A FEW years ago I went to Assisi in Italy, where two local saints are venerated and valued: St Clare and St Francis.

SAINTS are signposts of the Kingdom of God. They are reminders that it is possible for us to be devout people. Like us, they struggled with the snakes and ladders of everyday life.

Most people know that St Andrew is the Patron Saint of Scotland but do you know who the Patron Saint of Television is? St Clare lived from 1194 – 1253 and is known as the "Patron Saint of Television". Clare was the famous virgin foundress of the Minoresses or Poor Clares.

IT WAS not until the Christian Church was nearly 400 years old that it was decided what would comprise the Scriptures.

AFTER my wife and I moved here from Tyneside, we remarked to one another that there was something different about Sundays in Forres.

"THE works of the flesh are sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissentions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies and things like these."

A CANADIAN minister once related the following story at a Christian conference.

"...YOU will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth," declared Jesus (Acts 1:8, New International Version) and so it has been the case for the last 2,000 years.

CONSIDER the following scripture: "Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." (Romans 15 v13, Holman Christian Standard Bible).

OUT of all the things that Jesus ever taught, the one thing that almost everyone agrees with is his insistence that we should love one another.

WITH heads rolling all around us and the media continuing to cast doubt upon the integrity of those who rule over us, I am put in mind of the Scripture that declares, "There is no one righteous, no not even one... not a righteous man (or woman) who does what is right and never sins."

LOOKING back through history, we sometimes make the mistake of thinking that if we had lived back then, we would not have made the mistakes that our ancestors made.

IN a recent conversation with a friend, we both agreed that at this particular moment in history – on one level at least – things were not looking at all good for Planet Earth.

JESUS said: "Whoever believes in me will never die."

CHRISTIANITY is all "pie in the sky when you die" – a promise of heaven, while suffering in this life!

THE Resurrection – fact or fiction? Of all the major world religions the claim of Christianity – that its Founder rose from the dead – is unique. No other faith makes such an extravagant claim. Did it happen?

LAST Sunday marked the beginning of Holy Week, during which Christians reflect on the meaning of Jesus' death on the cross, nearly two millennia ago at a place which still remains the epicentre of religious and political violence.

INCREDIBLE! During this month the Christian Church, throughout the world, will focus on an event that almost beggars belief – the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

A RECENT television series featured the homes of the rich and famous. It included everything from the large and gracious country houses of the gentry, to the glitzy modern homes of footballers and millionaire pop idols (I think I spelt that last word correctly!).

SPORT, in its many variants, takes up a lot of our time, mostly at weekends. A good and healthy pastime it is too, as my wife is wont to remind me and especially as I become a couch potato after slaving over a double sermon!

JUST imagine opening your curtains this morning and finding a large crowd standing in your garden with cameras at the ready!

PERHAPS it's the Scotsman in me, but I'm a sucker for free offers! You know the ones I mean? "Free Competition. No purchase necessary."

MOST people know that today is Wednesday and many people know that the Church calls today Ash Wednesday which marks the beginning of the Church Season of Lent – but why call the day "Ash" Wednesday?

REGULAR readers of the Gazette's Church View will recall that on February 4 I wrote about God shaping our lives and likened that process to God being a woodcarver, working away and taking off the rough edges to form us into His own image, to make us loving, caring people.

ARE you a member of the Forres Library or any of other excellent libraries in Moray? Perhaps you prefer to buy your books in bookshops or the Internet.

JANUARY always seems to be such a long month. Many of us get paid earlier than usual in December, we nearly always spend more money than we intended to over Christmas, and making our resources last until the end of January is often a bit of a struggle.

WHO'S in charge? This is normally asked when things aren't as people think they should be.

CHRISTMAS has passed and things are not the same – in this the bleak midwinter aftermath of joyful celebration.

LET me take this opportunity to wish you a happy New Year. I wonder how your celebrations went. I hope they went well. Don't they seem ever so brief, considering all the preparations beforehand?

AS I considered this last Church View of the year, I wondered what would be a good subject on which to leave 2008 and enter 2009.

IN whom do we place our trust? I wonder if you noted the recent news report concerning a problem with Microsoft's internet browsing software, Internet Explorer.

STAYING with the run up to Christmas theme I thought it would be good to think about the whole subject of joy.

PATIENCE: I have written about this subject before, but I think that it is well worth revisiting, especially at this time of the year.

WHAT does the way we "do" Christmas say about us as a culture?

IMAGINE what it would be like to find out the truth about life; to suddenly realise that there is a purpose to it all, and to find out what that purpose is.

THE idea of someone writing you a blank cheque has always had its appeal.

WHEN a great leader emerges on the world stage, there is enormous excitement. With the election of Barack Obama to the presidency, a wave of renewed optimism appears to have swept across the face of America.

I CAN still vividly remember walking down a street in Edinburgh some years ago and being confronted by a young man standing in a doorway who, as I walked by, looked me in the eye and spoke a single word that was to remain with me for many years to come.

SOME years ago now there was a very popular "God is dead" movement in theology.

A MINISTERIAL colleague relates an interesting encounter with a woman whom he called "The Ladybird" and who simply appeared at his Church.

MANY of us find it easy to keep a record of wrongs. How often have we found ourselves caught up in bitterness over someone who has repeatedly hurt us? Should we forgive, and how many times should we continue to forgive?

IN what surely must be one of the most bizarre Church pronouncements of recent times, a senior churchman, the Rev Dr Malcolm Brown, wants the Church to apologise to Charles Darwin in time for the observance of the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth next year.

BARONESS Helen Mary Warlock is one of the most influential figures in our national life today, and one of the most influential specialists in medical ethics on the international scene.

FOLLOWING my Church View last week, I was interested to read an article in the 'Opinions' page of The Times that illustrated my point.

THIS time last week saw the commissioning of the Large Hadron Collider on the outskirts of Geneva.

ABOUT eight or nine years ago, the relevant government department decided to select our house to be included in the national employment survey.

A WEALTHY businessman was walking along a beach one day when he came across a fisherman sitting in his boat reading a book.

ONE of the joys for me on Sunday evenings is to watch "Songs of Praise".

A SIMPLE and innocent question put to me recently by a four-year-old made me pause and explore the depth of his question.

ABOUT 14 years ago an unexpected CD entered the charts.

IN 1935 King George V celebrated his Silver Jubilee.

LAST week I had my parents up here at Kinloss with me to celebrate 60 years of married life.

"SUMMERTIME and the living is easy." So go the words of the popular song!

A WIFE was making a breakfast of fried eggs for her husband. Suddenly, her husband burst into the kitchen.

I HAVE seen the following story in various places, but I do not know the original author:

THERE'S a man trying to cross the street. As he steps off the kerb, a car comes screaming around the corner and heads straight for him. The man walks faster, trying to hurry across the street, but the car changes lanes and is still coming at him.

"GOD is our refuge and strength", writes the psalmist, "an ever-present help in times of trouble... though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging... we will not fear".

IN many parts of the world today, there is the growing belief that in the very near future – perhaps within the next 30 years – the world as we know it will come to an end.

SOMETIMES it can be unbelievably difficult to persuade a child to eat something they've never tried before. You cook up one of your most mouth-watering dishes and they just won't go near it.

THERE was once a man who tried to sell soap - not just any old soap but the finest soap that money could buy.

WHEN we think of the seed we have sown in the earth, in our fields and in our gardens, we pray that God will bless our work and grant us in due time the harvest.

THERE are people in our churches today who give generously but, in the country as a whole, many are indifferent to the work and service of the church. No wonder our buildings are crumbling and falling into a poor state of repair.

ONCE again the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland is meeting in Edinburgh.

THE daring claim which the Bible makes is that all life has its origin in God who sent his son, Jesus Christ, so that people everywhere might come to enjoy life in all its fullness.

THE global procession of the Olympic flame has been, and quite understandably so, something of a political embarrassment for Beijing and Western governments as they have tried to fend off pro-Tibet and human rights demonstrators.

WATCHING the evening news can be an emotional roller coaster.

THE charges levelled against eight British Muslims, who deny conspiring to murder by blowing up planes flying from London to North America, make chilling reading.

WALK down the street today, and ask 10 different people: "What is the purpose of life? How did the world come into existence? How can we know what truth is?"

IT is difficult to believe that another Easter has come and gone.

"...HOW can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?". So asks the apostle Paul of an early church.

"IT is a story that's resonated for 2000 years, but what makes BBC1's latest retelling of Christ's final days so different?"; so reads the opening paragraph in this week's Radio Times article on the four part dramatisation of the Easter story – The Passion.

"WHAT do you want me to do for you?" said Jesus to the blind man who called out to him as he passed by.

AS the camera panned in slow motion it showed "Without love we perish" tattooed along the outside of his foot, up to his ankle.

JUST recently, I was reminded by a four-year-old child, just how very exciting the emergence of spring can be. For on a grey cold day, whilst I was gardening, my young helper, with great excitement, urged me to come and see the flowers that had "woken up".

LENT, the current season in the church's year, begins and ends with the cross, that simple structure, a tool used to inflict pain and death on those who were nailed to it. A death which for some was painfully slow.

EASTER is almost as early as it can be this year, falling on March 23, so last week on February 6 we began the season of Lent with Ash Wednesday.

TODAY is Ash Wednesday and marks the beginning of the Church Season of Lent, and it is a custom in the Scottish Episcopal Church to have a service today when we use ashes to make the sign of the cross on the forehead of those attending the service.

LET'S begin with a walk down memory lane. In Westminster Abbey I read the names on two gravestones. David Livingstone, missionary and traveller, and Thomas Tompion, maker of clocks.

WHAT is the difference between a thermometer and a thermostat? A thermometer registers the state of the atmosphere: a thermostat regulates it.

THE Bible says, "let us run with patience the race that is set before us...

CONSIDER the motto: "Look back in thankfulness, look up in worship and look forward in confidence."

HOW ends Scripture's record of the Nativity? The Shepherds, according to Dr Luke, returned "glorifying and praising God." For they had done what many have yet to do.

MATTHEW'S Gospel presents Jesus as King of the Jews and the contrasting responses to His reign over the lives of people. I wonder what your response has been to Christ the King this Christmas?

PRAYING and hoping for a better society, even a better world, must be coupled with faith and action.

SOME two thousand years ago, the Roman Emperor, Caesar Augustus, issued an order that the inhabitants of his empire return to the city of their family origin to be enrolled in a census and pay taxes.

WHAT is the message of Christmas?

IS IT me, or is the start of the "Christmas season" creeping forward each year? It had to be September when the earliest advertising began. I have this suspicion that most people actually dislike this and prefer to keep all the "hype" closer to the holidays. Do you?

"MANY that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the wise cannot see all ends." (from JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring).

"CHRISTIANITY, that is just a lot of do's and don'ts." In my experience this statement is probably the most common perception of Christianity; a set of irrelevant 'rules' that seem too over-restrictive to be worthwhile.

THIS time of year is rich with national tradition. We've just had Hallowe'en, Bonfire Night is upon us and this coming weekend is Remembrance Day.

ALMOST everyone in the world would agree that love is a positive thing - something that everyone needs. Everyone has within them the need to love and to be loved. Without love, this life can seem very bleak indeed.

IF IT'S ever happened to you, you'll know that there's nothing worse than being conned... when trust is betrayed and the quiet confidence you had at first gives way to that horrible realisation that you got it wrong - you've been tricked.

"WHAT do you think?" asks Jesus before sharing a parable with his hearers. "There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, 'Son, go and work today in the vineyard'.

FROM the very beginning, Jesus’ followers were led to believe that the world as they knew it would one day come to an end and would be replaced by a new heaven and a new earth that would, as it were, rise like a phoenix from the ashes. They believed that this would happen when Jesus finally returned to earth in glory.

WHEN he walked the Earth, the Son of God likened the Kingdom of Heaven to one who finds treasure hidden in a field, hides it again and in his joy sells everything he has and buys that field.

LAST Friday was International Day of Peace. The word 'peace' is mainly negative, denoting absence or end of war.

IN ISAIAH there are four sets of poems called Servant Songs. The servant has a task imposed on him by God, and it embraces the Gentiles as well as Israel.

THE Battle of Britain saved us from being an occupied country, and changed the whole course of our history.

WE ARE told that history is shot through with examples of sudden, rapidly developing periods of intellectual creativity.

IN HIS poem "The Hound of Heaven", Francis Thompson describes his running from God, and God's pursuit of him: "I fled Him, down the nights and down the days; ... down the arches of the years; ... down the labyrinthine ways of my own mind; and in the mist of tears I hid from Him ... From those strong Feet that followed, followed after. But with unhurrying chase, and unperturbed pace, deliberate speed, majestic instancy, they beat – and a Voice beat more instant than the Feet – 'All things betray thee, who betrayest Me'."

"RESURRECTION of religion in Scottish Schools" is the gripping headline in a recent national newspaper.

A REMARK in a recent sermon set me wondering: "Why is it so difficult for the Church simply to follow the directions it has been given?" I'm referring to how the Church functions as it seeks to make the kind of impact God intends it to have in the world.

"WHAT you do speaks so loudly that I can't hear what you say!" is one of those pithy sayings that contains volumes, and challenges every professing Christian.

A CHRISTIAN acquaintance, recently diagnosed with a terminal illness, tells movingly of the spiritual lessons he is learning through his ordeal.

WINSTON Churchill exemplified integrity and respect in the face of opposition.

TO BE a believer in today’s world can be a lonely business. Here is where "community" comes into its own.

I ONCE remember ­being told the ­story of a retired sea captain who, in his retire­ment, used to spend his days ­ferrying folk over to some of the smaller Western Isles.

A FEW years ago there was a true story about a man in New York City who was kidnapped. His kidnappers called his wife and asked for $100,000 ransom. She talked them down to $30,000.

Psalm 12 v1-2: I lift up my eyes to the hills from where comes my help.

IN January, I received an invitation to visit friends in Germany, who live in a village called Tussling in Bavaria.

FIFTY days on from Easter Sunday, the Church celebrates Pentecost.

ON SUNDAY, May 27, the Christian Church celebrated the Feast of Pentecost. What was happening at Pentecost? Was it an extra dimension, on top of following Jesus and being born again?

TWO brothers were arguing about the wisdom of their parents.

REPENTANCE: The word literally means "a complete change around in the way one views things". Concerning sin, it means not only saying you are sorry, but with the help of God; changing your ways.

I HAVE no sympathy with the idea that our children have to grow up before they are converted; that is, come to faith in Jesus Christ.

"MOTHER," exploded the teenager. "I've heard all the religion business I can take. You and Daddy are always bothering me about it. I'm not interested!"

TO vote for Jesus is to be associated with the Jesus of the Gospels, the One who will forgive your sin, give you eternal life, who will make your mind become clearer, your insights and perception sharper, and then in the light of God’s love, enable you to see the fuller potentials of your life.

CAN people change? It's said that a leopard never changes its spots. Is this true? Is transformation possible for a human being?

ARE you very patient? I don't think I manage patience very well sometimes.Often, my impatience works against me. When I am approaching a road junction and pick the lane with the least cars I only find the car in front stalls!

THE last weekend of March saw the bicentenary of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade, of which Britain was a major perpetrator.

HERE comes the Easter weekend holiday, and so it seems highly appropriate to reflect a bit upon "the way we do Easter" as a nation.

THE Passover is the greatest of all the Jewish people's festivals. It commemorates the escape of the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt.

THE town of Olney in Buckinghamshire has a street not far from the church and the River Ouse where the poet William Cowper lived.

SIXTY years ago, the government announced a ban on mid-week sport to aid productivity.

"HOW wonderful this world of thine, a fragment of a fiery sun." The words of the hymn-writer.

THE question irked just a little: "What would people think?" It was asked in relation to a perceived failure on my part to face a particular situation.

"WHY should I believe in your Christ?" is a question asked by many outwith the Church and by not a few within, who have their moments of deep scepticism.

"LOVE and marriage...Go together like a horse and carriage," is how Sinatra's lyric goes.

WHEN Ruth died, her family and friends gave thanks. She had been in a nursing home for 12 years, and for the last 10 of those she had lain virtually motionless.

DO YOU have perfect recall? Or do you sometimes have to resort to the common explanation “I forgot”? What would you give to have a memory booster that could give you back all those names, places, and numbers you’ve forgotten across the years? Or maybe just the passwords and PINs you need each day?

A MAN and his wife were having some problems at home and were giving each other the silent treatment.

ONE day a fisherman was lying on a beautiful beach, with his fishing rod propped up in the sand and his solitary line cast out into the spark-ling blue surf. He was enjoying the warmth of the afternoon sun and the prospect of catching a fish.

'EPIPHANY' has been defined as "a sudden realisation or comprehension of the essence or meaning of something".

AS WE begin 2007, we naturally look forward. The Christmas holidays are past; 2007 has begun.

WHAT did you get for Christmas? "Well, was Santa good to you this Christmas?" That age-old question will be asked for evermore.

WELL, it's almost Christmas and as we rush about making the last-minute arrangements, snapping up those bargains in the shops of foodstuffs that we probably will not eat and buying those last-minute presents, I want to say to you STOP! And think about these questions.

HAVE you ever taken part in a Nativity play? If you have, I wonder what your memories are.

IN MATTHEW'S Matthew's Gospel, Chapter 18, verse 21, Peter said to Jesus "Lord if another person sins against me how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?" Jesus said to Peter "Not seven times, but I tell you seventy times seven."

AS A TEENAGER I was taught many things about a cross.

ONE day I was in Manchester, quite close to Albert Square, I listened to a preacher man, with people gathered there.

ONE of the most dreaded diseases in the world today is what we call "heart trouble". Every day we read of some person being cut down by a heart attack. This disease strikes the rich and the poor. It is no respecter of persons.

DURING the world wars of this century, and other wars, many men have made the ultimate sacrifice. They did so that we might live in peace and freedom. We remember them with gratitude. Many of you will also remember them with tears, as you knew personally some of those who died.

AT LAST, a drug for shopping! According to 'Ecologist’ magazine (Dec/Jan 07), Stanford University trials on an anti-depressant drug, Citalopram, have concluded that the drug was a 'safe and effective treatment for Compulsive Shopping Disorder’.

PEOPLE matter. Now there is a statement that many would whole-heartedly agree with.

ACCORDING to the UK HSE (Health and Safety executive) stress statistics in 2004/2005, 12.8 million working days are lost due to stress related illnesses.

CONSIDER these two statements made by Christ: “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all.” and “…he who is the least is the greatest.”

HAVE you noticed how the word solution has crept into more popular usage these days?

THERE is perhaps no better loved picture of Jesus than the picture of him as the Good Shepherd.

THE story is told of the message on someone’s telephone answering service.

IT IS now 66 years since the Battle of Britain was fought by the Royal Air Force.

WE ARE coming to the end of another season. The signs of autumn are in our midst with the longer nights, the colder days and the change in colour of the leaves.

THE present terrorism threat and utter chaos following the security measures to deal with it underscore a situation which almost beggars belief.

I DON’T know Mel Gibson. The chances are you don’t either. I watched his film, “The Passion of the Christ.” And while far from being convinced that such a sacred subject was an appropriate theme for a commercial film, I found it, in some respects, unforgettable.

ALICE in Wonderland ... you will remember the story, particularly the part when Alice comes to a fork in the road and doesn’t know which way to go.

WE ARE right in the season of weddings. The Church, historically, has always held to a high view of marriage.

HAVE you got a ticket? Wimbledon and the World Cup are over, and for the majority of us we will not have had a ticket for Wimbledon or the World Cup, so we will have stayed at home and watched the tennis and the football on television.

CAN you remember if it rained last Saturday, July 15? Chances are that if it did it will still be raining! St Swithun is apparently the saint to blame for rainy summers. It is said that if it rains on his special day, July 15, it will then rain for 40 days after that.

LAST week, I wrote about the possibility of schism in the World Wide Anglican Communion.

YOU may have noticed a headline in the Gazette of June 21, "Gator load of Cliff’s saintly golfing win" (I did not write it) that I recently enjoyed playing in a golfing competition in America.

ON FRIDAY, June 30, 1972, the Rev David Leslie Scott, Minister of Forres Castlehill Church, retired. The church was closed and the charge united with Forres High Church under the name of Forres St Leonard’s.

SUNDAY, June 18, the third Sunday in June, was Father’s Day. This is not a Christian festival or celebration, and unlike Mothering Sunday, has no foundation in the liturgy of the Church.

TRINITY Sunday, on June 11, is the Sunday when the Christian Church thinks about its mission to God's world.

THE Day of Pentecost - Sunday, June 4 - is traditionally celebrated throughout the Christian world as the birthday of the Church.

THERE’S something quite miraculous about the arrival of Spring after the long grey months of winter . . . something quite magical about the sight of trees dressed in new apparel . . . the newness of it all, with everything seeming to come out of nothing.

WE'RE all going to die! No two ways about it. That's how we'll all end up; dead as dead can be. Everything we've ever had, we'll lose.

IMAGINE what it would be like if a well-known public figure were to die, and then, after an interval of two or three days, reports began to emerge that the mortuary where their body had been laid was now empty and they had been seen alive by many who had formerly known them.

WHO can you believe? Who can you trust to tell you the truth about life... and death?