Well, I try to get from one end of Canon 4 - the Election of Bishops - to the other. Keen-eyed readers will have seen a re-advertisement seeking nominations in the election for the Diocese of Argyll and the Isles. But I also continue to do the day job - some time ago we put May 15 in the diary for a large Casting the Net diocesan event. When there is snow on the ground, May 15 seems a long time away. But it isn’t. So we are having to do some rapid thinking about it.

Meanwhile I am in Belfast, having been to Dublin today for the funeral of one of Alison’s uncles. This was the delightful Uncle Harold who died on Tuesday, having driven himself over for lunch with his daughter. He always carried a measuring tape in his pocket just in case.

Then it’s home tomorrow. Oxford on Sunday to preach a Ladyday University Sermon in Oriel, my old College. I’m being met by a retired priest from Oxford with whom I did a placement 35 years ago. Then back to Edinburgh on Monday morning for two days of Faith and Order Board and the Mission and Ministry Board - where we hope to pick up on the outcomes of the Consultation on Mission and Ministry Policy for the SEC which we ran last week.

Vocation?

Well that’s unusual - politicians usually say ‘hands off’ if faith groups look like getting interested in political issues. So Secretary of State Jim Murphy’s speech suggesting that ‘religion should play a role in British politics’ gives pause for thought. He certainly got a robust response from the Cardinal.

The danger of politicians talking like this is that they may want to take the ‘faith agenda’ and ’shrink-wrap’ it to fit a political agenda. But .. take it at face value .. the exercising of the informed Christian conscience … the careful measuring of political issues against the values of Christian and other faiths. What would the agenda be? Well here are a couple of things for starters….

Justice - the shaping of a new world order in trade and food
Global Warming - a real concern for creation
War and Peace - a new commitment to resolving international disputes without recourse to war
Education and Health - major priorities
Wealth - how it is created and how it is used
Society - how to build an inclusive and tolerant society

I am interested in genuine dialogue between faith groups and politicians - but it needs to extend beyond the issues which dominate that dialogue at present. Most of all, I would love to see a new substance to political debate - it seems to be almost entirely tactical at present.

It’s not often you get handed a sermon ‘on a plate’ as it were. Tiger Woods, in his somewhat uncomfortable ‘mea culpa’ this week, may have said that he is into Buddhism. But he produced a great sermon for the First Sunday in Lent and, because he isn’t playing golf at present, was available to preach it at St Peter’s, Kirkcaldy, this morning.

My journey to London later on provided more source material for my upcoming resource document on ‘Aircraft cabin announcements as liturgy’ This is of course a two-way street - as I discovered in America last year where one says, ‘You’re giving me some pushback on that issue.’

Seems to me that there are two key aspects to liturgy. One is that it bears constant repetition without being irritating - indeed repetition brings enrichment. Two is that it has the capacity to face a number of different directions, depending on how one plays the emphases. My experience of the liturgy of cabin announcements is that the life jacket and oxygen mask bit is pretty well all right - probably because it’s monitored very carefully. But the more random stuff just gets worse and worse …. as in ‘do not remove your luggage from the overhead locker until is IS safe to do so’ and ‘on behalf of Captain Bloggs and the ENTIRE crew’

Maybe if I ever need to get a proper job, there is a future for me in aircrew training .. and they could double up and do some Sunday stuff for us.

All calm on the River Tay this afternoon as we walked on the North Inch. During the week, I had a swift pedal on the Brompton up towards Almondbank - still searching for that balanced clergy lifestyle as suggested at the Clergy Conference.

Earlier today we had a gathering in Perth for clergy and laity from congregations which hope to be part of the Casting the Net movement during 2011. This is all about Mission Action Planning, the Nine Marks of Mission and all that. It seems to me that, at this stage, it is all about encouraging people so that they are prepared to take the risk of getting started - and persuading them that it will be worthwhile. And congregations are always much more persuaded by what others do than by anything which the bishop says.

Fortunately I didn’t have to say very much today. We have a great team of people who have that wonderful mix of being both passionate and hard-headed about it at the same time. I thought it was one of the most encouraging gatherings that I have been to in a while - I’m looking forward to the next stage.

Our congregation in Dollar is one of our more interesting congregations. It’s good at many things - particularly worship, children and hospitality. I also like going to churches when there is a vacancy - no harm to our endlessly supportive and hospitable clergy.

Anyway, yesterday was Feast of the Transfiguration and St Valentine’s Day and the Sunday before Lent and no doubt a few other things as well that I missed. So I did the best I could in the circumstances.

I spent this morning in our Cathedral in Glasgow for the Commissioning of Hilary Moran as the new Provincial President of MU in Scotland. All leadership in the church is difficult - so Hilary deserves the support and prayers of all of us. MU is an organisation of many parts - the MU website is well worth a look. In the days when I struggled daily with parochialism, it seemed to me that the international vision and rootedness in prayer which are part of MU are very important. Meanwhile, this is what I said.

If you want to see it in video

It was the buglers that did it for me. Seemingly every time one prepared to say something, there was another fanfare. But we enjoyed the Lord Mayor of London’s Dinner at the Mansion House for the Bishops. It was a good night out and ++Rowan talked about Dick Whittington and his cat. I didn’t hear him saying anything about the suggestion that cat people are more intelligent than dog people. But I am sure it was there between the lines.

Two things in particular were of interest.

Our host, the Lord Mayor, was very forthright in saying that the trust between the people and the banks had been broken. And it was good to hear that. I listened carefully - but in vain - for anything which suggested that he knew how such trust might be restored.

The other of course is to do with what it is like to wear my Piskie tee-shirt at the heart of such an establishment - or was that Establishment - gathering. There is great personal warmth directed towards us and what we represent - indeed I suspect that many look somewhat longingly at a church which travels light and is edgy, edgy. It’s a different world and I know which one I prefer.

The rains of Tenerife fade from the mind - replaced by the incredible beauty of Oban yesterday where I was pursuing my calling as the apostle of Canon 4. I sat with my back to one of the most incredible views in Europe as we interviewed potential candidates in the Episcopal Election for Argyll and the Isles. On such a day - with the ferries going in and out - who would not want to live and work there.

As always on such occasions, the mind takes the occasional excursion. Vocation is strange stuff. I have been known to startle people by asking either, ‘Do you know what you would die for?’ or ‘Do you experience vocation as a physical sensation?’ And yet at other times, one wears it like old shoes.

One of my friends used to talk about ‘needing your hands pre-drilled’ to work in a certain town in Northern Ireland - which shall be nameless. Lest one might get too stigmata-ish about this, Alison and I are pursing our vocation tomorrow evening at Dinner in the Mansion House with the Lord Mayor of London.