An Urquhart Stone come to Pluscarden

As part of its quite radical reorganisation, in view of declining numbers, the Church of Scotland recently closed its long standing parish at Urquhart. Urquhart is a small village some 5 miles or so East of Elgin. There, some time between 1130 and 1150, King David founded a Benedictine Priory, established as a daughter house of Dunfermline Abbey.

Building Progress 6 August 2024

It has been two months since the last report on this web site about our current building operations.

Externally during this time, daily change has become somewhat less dramatic than during the early months of building. Nevertheless, very much work has most certainly been done. Without question our new St. Joseph’s guest house will be a very fine and very substantial building.

The Ordinariate Mass at Birnie Kirk 3 August 2024

Not far from Pluscarden, just on the other side of the River Lossie, stands the small Church of Birnie, dedicated to St. Brendan. By repute St. Brendan himself is said to have visited the site, and indeed to have established a Church there, in place of a pagan shrine, in the early 6th century.

Homily for the 8 o’clock Mass (also St. Margaret’s, Forres), 28 July 2024 Sunday 17B: John 6:1-15

As everyone here is intensely aware, this year our Sunday Gospels are generally taken from St. Mark. But because this Gospel is so short, when we come to the feeding of the 5,000, the lectionary switches instead to Chapter 6 of St. John’s Gospel. This Chapter begins with St. John’s account of the feeding of the 5,000, and then continues on with the long Bread of Life discourse that follows. We shall read extracts from that discourse over the next 4 Sundays.

Homily for Sunday 16B, 21 July 2024, Ephesians 2:13-18

When St. Paul fell off his horse on the road to Damascus, blinded by light from heaven, his life, his outlook, his mission was turned upside down. What Paul saw, or encountered then was Jesus Christ. And in that moment he understood, with unbreakable conviction, that he had been wrong, wrong, wrong. Jesus was not an enemy, a blasphemer, a false prophet, a corrupter of Israel, as Paul had previously thought.