Neil’s Blog
Most Mondays Rev Neil blogs on issues that get his soul, cells and creative juices working. It’s a discipline he has valued since blogging from Delhi’s CW Games in 2010.
Neil loves connecting with people and especially enjoys comments and conversations resulting from his blogs. Locally, The Irvine Times print his blogs and photos, while internationally they reach a wider audience and community of world-wide bloggers.
Wonderful Wee Mum!
Sadly, my wonderful 96year old Wee Maw, Mrs Brenda Urquhart (nee Young), died on 15th January after 2 weeks asleep in Crosshouse Hospital’s Stroke Unit receiving exceptional loving ‘end of life care’. It gave our family time to say our ‘au revoirs’ & assure her of our deep love. Tears are never far from my eyes at the best of times & I’ve been a [...]
Colours of Kindness
After a year of fallow on the Shoes Brothers’ Christmas song & dance front, and in the wake of Fr Willie’s move to another parish, we have a ‘Min in Black’ (short for ‘ministers in [...]
Bacon & Haggis
(Top Picture - Mount Florida) Having grilled Danish bacon in extra time, 27 years since they last qualified, Scotland are in the 2026 World Cup, Yass! As I write, Scots are remortgaging houses & selling [...]
Traitor or Faithful?
Jonathan Ross’s exit speech on the BBC’s Traitors was momentous, “I am and always have been faithful … to the Traitors!” and off he skipped, banished from Ardross Castle leaving behind a mixture of excitement, [...]
Whispering God
Do you want God to prove himself to you with fireworks & something dramatic, to speak clearly to you? But, what if God’s main speech is to whisper into your ear, head & heart? Elijah [...]
Spirit Slipstream
“Honk, Honk!” Have you noticed the wild geese flying overhead in V-formations? “Honk, Honk!” you hear them before seeing them, such is the din of their in-flight entertainment. What is going on up there and [...]
Come Spirit Blow & Flow!
On Retreat with our United Irvine ministry team at Kilmalieu, near Ft William, in the middle of that recent glorious spell of sunny weather, I sat for hours in a dry riverbed. Rivulets trickled by [...]
RIP / RIG Pope Francis!
Rest in Peace & Rise in Glory Pope Francis! There is a certain sacred symmetry to Pope Francis’s death from double pneumonia on Easter Monday. His last official act as head of the Roman Catholic [...]
Repent or Repaint?
Sunday’s sermon was ‘Repent or Repaint?’ Across our United Irvine worship centres, were in Luke Chapter 13:1-9, prejudiced people pointing fingers at some northern neighbours (these Galileans!) killed in a political tragedy. But for every [...]
Need a Bigger Tent!
On Sunday we brought our 4 worship centres together in ConneXions to celebrate God alive among us. We were well short of the aggregate of our 4 usual Sunday morning services, but had a tremendous [...]
Jealous God
‘Jealousy’ gets bad press today: a ‘green eyed monster’, sin to be slain. Yet God is a ‘Jealous God’, “…Don’t bow down to idols and don’t serve them because I am God, your God, and I’m a most jealous [...]
Bog Brush Birthday
Imagine influential & wealthy people like King Charles, Donald Trump, Vladamir Putin, Ellon Musk, Taylor Swift, & Renaldo relinquishing their mansions, palaces & power for the poorest of housing, getting on their knees to serve [...]
Compassion
African Swahili for ‘empathy’ is ‘poli’, literally “I feel your toothache!” If ‘sympathy’ is to say, “That must hurt”, ‘empathy’ is trying to feel yourself into someone’s situation, shoes, gums, bones and soul. Observers of [...]