"My heart reaches out so far it thins to invisibility. They, my friends that have gone, have been travelling beyond death for years. They must have gone very far by now. I don’t find words, but I yearn that somewhere in the mystery of the universes, wherever they are, and in whatever form they are, they could be touched by the unconditional love I feel for them.

The intensity passes. Is it real? Do they exist anywhere?

How at one moment can one be surrounded by faith and see everything fit together , and at another moment feel so utterly lost in aloneness and unknowingness?

That uncertainty is how it always has been, and always will be, no doubt."

The final words in the autobiography of a dear friend Reverend Ian Mackenzie, I WAS INVITED.

Ian was a Minister of the Church of Scotland, organist , BBC Producer and all round such a great fellow. Yet like me doubts entered his mind.

At the end of 2007 and on the cusp of 2008, I wish all my friends well. They include:

All my Moslem friends I met in Pakistan as their Camp Manger in Mundihar

All the Jewish friends when I was the Camp Councillor 1972/73 at Camp Onota in the Berkshires of Massachusetts, USA

All Roman Catholics I worked with in St Modan’s Secondary School Stirling,

All the Presbyterians I worked with at the Presbyterian Church of Ghana 1973-78

All my wife’s Anglican friends and relatives in England

All my Agnostic and Humanist friends I have met on Children’s Panels when I was the Regional Reporter

And to you who have read this entry.

I ask you to Keep your Faith to yourself. Do not impose it on others but explain it when asked.

And when the doubts come to you, as they will, take stock to assess your belief. That is your right. Follow your heart into the nothingness which we all make efforts to understand.