On the face of it, with no weekly blog since the middle of January, it looks as though I have fallen at the first hurdle in my determination to provide a weekly blog to our web-site. However, when you consider that we have been away in the Holy Land from where there has been a blog entry every day, I trust you will forgive me!

It has been a tremendous experience for all twenty-seven of us. All of the arrangements worked perfectly. Our hotels were superb and very different. We lunched in a different environment each day and each day was superb. Our guide, Nael, was magnificent and our driver Hassan was calm and capable.

And then there were the sites we visited. We started in Jerusalem which we explored in considerable detail, and from which we moved out to explore the surrounding areas (what a wonderful afternoon we spent in Bethlehem) and then we moved north to the Sea of Galilee where we walked in the footsteps of Jesus’ ministry there. I’m not going to describe in detail our trip because that can be found under the title Holy Land Pilgrimage on the Home Page. Suffice it to say that the trip was everything we hoped for, and a lot more besides.

Earlier today I continued a series of talks I’ve been asked to give as part of the University of the Third Age here in Duns. My subject is to look at the history of the Church of Scotland, or better perhaps, the Church in Scotland from the beginnings right up until today. It is a story of faith and courage, of history shaped by events and by individuals, and today we were looking at the two decades between 1540 and 1560, exciting and difficult times which shaped the Church today.

This next period is going to be a challenging one for us in Fogo — and for me as well. I’ve been asked to act as Interim Moderator in the charge of Gordon, Greenlaw, Legerwood and Westruther which will become vacant when the current minister retires at the start of May, although he will leave his post at Easter because of accrued holiday entitlement. I think that in some minds at least it is hoped that the pattern we are attempting to adopt in Fogo of a congregation which can stand on its own feet without a stipendiary minister is one which may be appropriate in at least some part of this charge as well. Today I have been asked about a course to enable some of my Fogo members to train as worship leaders, something a little bit more formal than the hands on training we have been sharing together. So that will go on the agenda for the coming weeks.

We also have to take forward the planning which started last month to create a mission strategy for this year. Our conference after Church threw up a lot of ideas and some of these have now been processed. My task is to take these ideas and draw up a vision of how our congregation and church might look if these plans were adopted. This plan will then become a discussion document or video which would be used as the next stage in the consultation process which will, I imagine, involve another congregational lunch followed by a congregational discussion.

So that’s where we are — and there will be a number of special get-togethers, I’m sure, to share photos of the Holy Land trip and perhaps to watch the old film ‘Masada’. We visited Masada while in the Holy Land and in the introductory display we saw clips from that film. I’ve bought it now from Amazon and am just waiting for an opportunity to show it!