Renewed in Spirit

Some reflections on faith and trust

Rev. Mark Duncan Allan

  • CIANALAS

    No, “cianalas” is not a word usually connected to Christmas, but it reminds me of Christmas.  In Scotland it is a Gaelic word that we have no direct translation for in English.  But it means a kind of longing for home and all that means.  It’s a yearning not just for a specific place but Read More

  • A LITTLE FAITH

    “Have faith”. Maybe somebody has said that to us.  Maybe we have said it to ourselves.  Most of us would say we have faith, but aren’t there times when we wish our faith was deeper and greater?  Aren’t there moments when we think our faith isn’t as strong as it should be, or as robust Read More

  • BELOVED CHILD

    The first of some video reflections I will be posting. Read More

  • One Year

    One year ago, this very day, I was already awake at 4AM when it was time to get ready to go to the hospital to have a cancerous tumor on my left kidney removed.    My wife Barb, and my son (who had flown halfway around the world to be there), were with me.  In the Read More

  • Rolling the Stone Away

    The way John begins his account of that first Easter is like this –  “Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb.” Easter begins in the darkness. On that Sunday, when Mary woke Read More

  • A Dark Day

    Each year of my ministry we offered a Maundy Thursday service of Tenebrae.  I have to admit that it was always one of the least attended services of the year, but it was also one that I found the most meaningful.  Yes, the last hours of Jesus’ life and his crucifixion are hard to hear Read More

  • Finding Faith in the Wilderness

    Recently, while flying home from Saudi Arabia, just as Lent was beginning, I looked out the plane window as we passed over the Sinai. This is the region where the Book of Exodus tells us that Moses and the Israelites wandered the desert for 40 years. The landscape I saw was stark and barren—truly a Read More

  • A Prayer to Begin Lent

    God, we thank you for the gift of this season of Lent. As we enter this time, may we be filled with your spirit, so that we might grow deeper in your love. As we begin this journey, we think about Jesus in the wilderness – being tested – we remember that he did this Read More

  • A New Day

    For most people, Christmas is a single day, but for the Church, it is a season—a season that lasts from December 25th until January 6th, the day of Epiphany. These 12 days of Christmas not only bridge two important days of our faith, but they also span the end of one year and the beginning Read More

  • Under Running laughter

    I once had a colleague in ministry who liked to ask people, “Where are you seeing God in your life these days?” I always appreciated the question, and I could see how it made people pause and really think about their answer. We can encounter God and his truth in many different ways—in his Word, Read More