From the receiving line …

I suppose it sounds a little ungrateful – but I spent three hours today at Scone Palace waiting to greet Prince Charles at a Reception for the 800th Anniversary of Perth. Still the chat and the networking were good and I met all sorts of people that I wouldn’t have encountered without that. So.

But before that I had another of my ‘I hope I’m not getting out of touch’ meetings with a group of our clergy in Bridge of Allan. We talked of many things and they made me think hard about Anglican Communion issues – which I welcomed. And then a Casting the Net meeting with the Vestry in our congregation in Kirkcaldy – I’m meeting the Vestries when congregations decide to take part in the congregational development bit of the programme.

I’m still thinking about Invictus – the Mandela film which I watched on the way home. It’s all the stuff about his involvement with the Springboks – and their captain Francois Pienaar. There’s much debate about whether it was all as pre-meditated as the film suggests. But it reminded me again about the power of symbol – probably more often seen in its negative potential. But Mandela put on the Springbok jersey and the rest is history as it were. Part of the lostness of Ireland was that we never seemed to have people who could make that leap of heart and mind and use symbol creatively.