Cornerstone No. 183, page 20
Now, do you think that local dialects count for much? Well, have a look
at my first sentence,
and then tempt me into a translation –
it all makes sense, as did the work of GS 59 – ask any Glaswegian. Now
let’s see what JS wrote and made available to the would-be listening
ears of the Scottish lowlands. At the tender age of 71, he ‘translated’ the
gospels into Glaswegian and the work was published! More than that, it
became a bestseller in Scotland. The ‘Scots Gospel’ was originally a
dramatic work based on the words of St. Mark – recently read and
studied in our Kirk services. Jamie Stuart took that dramatic work and
‘converted’ it into Scots and then into Glaswegian, leading to the
‘Glasgow Bible’ a tome that relates the stories of the New Testament,
but now in the daily parlance of the people of the mighty city of St.
Mungo. This bible is now in its 50th reprint. Away from the printed word
came the spoken one for our subject became very much in demand as
a story teller and speaker at functions both those religious and those
commercial.
Although warm, friendly, sincere and welcoming at his place of worship
(Carntyne Parish Church where he was an Elder) Jamie Stuart, like all
great men, was not afraid to step on a toe or two as when he challenged
and ‘traditional’ procedures of the Kirk
the accepted
Session. He did not wallow in nostalgia, reflecting fondly on days gone
by but was ever thinking up new methods and channels in order to bring
the message of God to the people of God (to coin a phrase...). When
asked (frequently) where his seemingly inexhaustible source of energy
came from he replied, quite simply “The power of prayer.”
was published in 2014 and in it the final
His autobiography
chapter is entitled
and here I quote a line from that
chapter “I’ve been blessed and no mistake.” Jamie Stuart died aged 95,
on July 28th this year.
Translation: Yes, well you’ve probably never heard of him; but stop what
you’re doing and get your head around this text then you might learn
something.
*Lullen (spelling varies) = use of Southern Scots dialect,
– see,
e.g., the works of Robert Burns.
John McKillop