Author: Rebecca Gebauer

On the eve of Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral

April 16, 2021

I am writing this blog on the eve of Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral.  The service, the number of guests and other aspects of the occasion will be scaled down as a result of the current Covid  pandemic but paradoxically this is how Prince Philip would have wanted his funeral to be,  a minimum of fuss and low key.   I am sure that we all would wish to give thanks for his long service to the country and support for the Queen over the astonishing period of 70 years of marriage! … More On the eve of Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral

Holy Week Reflections: Good Friday

April 2, 2021

On this day, we gather around Jesus, in whose body is named all the violence of the world. Human suffering cries out to us in many forms; for me, it is summed up at the gates of a refugee camp I visited a few years ago, where nothing since has got better, and everything has got worse-more crowded, more squalid, more dangerous. I am both implicated and powerless in its face. … More Holy Week Reflections: Good Friday

Holy Week Reflections: Wednesday

March 31, 2021

I couldn’t help noticing last week that the first four doctors who died in the UK as a result of the coronavirus were all from an immigrant background. We in Glasgow know very well how much we depend on immigrants from all parts of the world in our health service, not just as doctors, but as nurses, porters, auxiliary staff, pharmacists, carers. We have often treated them in a less than gracious fashion, as the Windrush scandal demonstrated. Nor do we always admit the wider economic realities which brought them here in the first place. This too is a kind of betrayal. … More Holy Week Reflections: Wednesday

Rolling Away the Stone – welcoming you back to worship on Easter Sunday

March 30, 2021

We are nearly through our Lenten journey. We have more than 52 Sundays of digital worship under our belts, and we have not been able to be together in the church since Advent so it’s with great anticipation that we look toward Easter. We have final confirmation from Glasgow Presbytery that from Easter Sunday we will again be able to offer morning worship in the Sanctuary and after a year of worship in our homes and an Easter spent apart, it will feel nearly as new and exciting as rolling away the stone on that first Easter morning. … More Rolling Away the Stone – welcoming you back to worship on Easter Sunday

Holy Week Reflections: Tuesday

March 30, 2021

According to United Nations statistics, women do two-thirds of the world’s work. Most of this work is invisible to us; either because it’s far away in fields and factories on the other side of the world, or because we are so used to it that we simply take it for granted. But the coronavirus crisis has made much of this work more visible. Suddenly, we notice the work of carers, cleaners, health workers, teachers, shop assistants, mothers, precisely because their presence, or their absence, has brought home to us how much we depend on them. Unnoticed, their work poorly recognised; we can assume that this was the same in Jesus’ time. … More Holy Week Reflections: Tuesday

Read the Passion Story in Holy Week

March 28, 2021

There were two processions into Jerusalem that day – one expected, one unexpected – both acts of street theatre. Pilate entered Jerusalem from the west with full military phalanx, as was the custom for roman governors at the beginning of Passover. He might have taken the opportunity to show his Jewish subjects empathy and reverence for their religious devotion, but he didn’t. Pilate wanted to be in Jerusalem in case there was trouble, which there often was during this time of celebrating the Jewish people’s liberation from an earlier empire. As he rode astride a mature stallion to mandated shouts of ‘Lord’ and ‘saviour’ this procession was meant to remind the subjects of Jerusalem that the ruler of Rome was also the son of God – a roman god, but God, nonetheless. It was a theology that put the Roman ruler at the centre, backed by his army, and supported by the domination system of power, all with the complicity of the Temple. … More Read the Passion Story in Holy Week

Reflections for Holy Week 2021 by the Rev Dr Kathy Galloway

March 28, 2021

Holy Week …comes to gather us around the one true holy place of the Christian religion, Jesus himself, displayed to the world as the public language of our God, placarded on the history of human suffering that stretches along the roadside. This is a week for learning not management, bargaining and rule-keeping, but naked trust … More Reflections for Holy Week 2021 by the Rev Dr Kathy Galloway

Palm Sunday

March 28, 2021

There were two processions into Jerusalem that day – one expected, one unexpected – both acts of street theatre. Pilate entered Jerusalem from the west with full military phalanx, as was the custom for roman governors at the beginning of Passover. He might have taken the opportunity to show his Jewish subjects empathy and reverence for their religious devotion, but he didn’t. Pilate wanted to be in Jerusalem in case there was trouble, which there often was during this time of celebrating the Jewish people’s liberation from an earlier empire. As he rode astride a mature stallion to mandated shouts of ‘Lord’ and ‘saviour’ this procession was meant to remind the subjects of Jerusalem that the ruler of Rome was also the son of God – a roman god, but God, nonetheless. It was a theology that put the Roman ruler at the centre, backed by his army, and supported by the domination system of power, all with the complicity of the Temple. … More Palm Sunday