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This summer, Christian Aid is asking people to walk the walk on climate change by joining the longest ever protest march in UK history.

The Cut the Carbon march started in Bangor, Northern Ireland yesterday (14 July), will last 80 days, cover 1,000 miles, and see marchers from rich countries and poor spread Christian Aid’s cut the carbon message to companies and politicians. The march ends at the London Stock Exchange on 2 October.

The march passes through Glasgow this Tuesday, 17 July, and there are a number of events planned, all in the Southside:

• 2-3pm, Newton Mearns Parish Church. Meet the marchers, listen to their stories.
• 5 pm onwards, Queen’s Park duck pond. Meet the marchers as they arrive at Queen’s Park. Join the marchers for a walk around Queen’s Park duck pond in the Glasgow “Put Your Best Foot Forward” event.
• 6pm Queen’s Park glass houses. Meet the marchers, listen to their stories.
• 10pm St Ninians Church, Glasgow. Reflection with the marchers.

Further information is on the Pressureworks site, and on the Cut the Carbon Facebook site (registration needed).

Update 21/07/2007: Read the BBC interview with Angela Rowe of Renfield St Stephens Church (just one block down Bath Street), who is one of the Cut the Carbon marchers.

Photographer: Paul McSherry

Roderick Buchanan’s ‘Histrionics‘ exhibition at the Gallery of Modern Art is a timely reminder that Glasgow’s social history is one tinged with unfortunate associations, which sadly some would want to keep alive.

I visited the exhibition representing the Baptist Union, a co-signatory to the joint statement from the major denominations in Glasgow “How they love one another”. This was a united attempt to demonstrate the Church’s regret in its participation in sectarianism and bigotry in the past with the determined effort that closer co-operation will eventually consign such bigotry to history.

As someone who currently teaches aspiring Baptist ministers on the topic of Sectarianism as part of their degree course at the University of Paisley I was happy to play such a small part in Thursday’s public display of commitment to eradicate sectarianism. The real challenge is of course to remove such attitudes from individual thinking and practice. Perhaps, in time to come…

Election results – Thanks to Silversprite.

That’s it. The election is over, the SNP are the largest party in the Scottish Parliament, and Labour have suffered their first nationwide electoral defeat for over 50 years.

All that we need to wait for now is the political horse-trading to take place. The two largest parties, SNP and Labour will try to negotiate a compromise with potential coalition partners, mainly the Liberal Democrats but maybe also the Conservatives and Greens. It is highly likely that this process will take weeks, but the parties have to elect a First Minister within 28 days otherwise there has to be another election!

Meantime, we can continue to pray for an effective, fair and representative government; we can also consider how we can best support, encourage and challenge our MSPs between now and the next election in four years time.