Thank you for all the kind words and prayers following the recent death of Sheila, my mother. She was very content to be in Scotland on her visits to us. People were kind and welcoming and she relished her role as ‘bishop’s mother’
We had a Memorial Service for her last Saturday in the parish to which she belonged in Belfast. You might find the eulogies from my sister, Helen, and myself interesting. My brother John contributed Widor’s Toccata.
All Saints, St Andrews, is a church of fond memories for many people – particularly former students at St Andrews University. It’s the liturgy and the almost tangible sense of prayer in the place.
If you don’t know the history of how it was gifted to the Episcopal Church by Mrs Younger, you can read about it here
I was there on Sunday – enjoying myself but having that sense of having turned up on the set of a rapidly-moving drama for which one has not been given the entire script.
A walk along the Tay at Dunkeld yesterday in the beautiful Autumn colours prepared me for the Development Programme at St Mary’s and for Confirmation/Affirmation of Baptismal Vows at St Mary’s, Strathtay.
Like most clergy, I view Stewardship or Development Programmes with some trepidation. In my Rector days, we did these things on a fairly huge scale – I remember organising a team of 75 visitors. And there were always those who responded to the challenge of sacrificial giving by getting their retaliation in first. The one that sticks in my mind was, ‘Quare time since the Rector stood in my house.’ The visitors tended to report these comments with the urgency of Dispatches from the Front and would be astonished when I was able to pinpoint exactly the source.
Anyway I got my retaliation in first this morning and this is something like what I said.
Sad day today as we shared in a Eucharist in St Paul’s Cathedral, Dundee, to mark the retirement of Bishop John Mantle after five years as Bishop of Brechin. John is retiring slightly early due to ill-health – today we said lovingly and firmly to him that he has done all that is needed to prepare the diocese for the next stage of its journey. We wish John and Gill a well-earned rest in their retirement. And this is what I said.
It was of course interesting to move in less than 24 hours from Clogher to Dundee – from what one of my predecessors as Primus, Alistair Haggart, once described to me as the ‘restrained classicism of the Church of Ireland’ to the rather less restrained piskie expression of Anglicanism. Yes – vestments, incense, wonderful congregational and choir music including a blast of Africa to greet the gospel. As I often say, I remain astonished by the quality of the liturgy in our cathedrals.
I was sorry I couldn’t get to the conference on Volunteering which was being run today in Bridge of Allan by our Church in Society Committee. If I had been there, I would have said that it is very important that we encourage people to volunteer service in the community. If service simply means ‘looking after the church’ we are never going to catch the imagination of people who may wish to serve and care – but have given up on the institutional churches.
I’ve been way out west in Northern Ireland this evening – further than the Wayside Pulpit at Hillhall Presbyterian Church where this month’s helpful message is ‘Forbidden fruit makes a lot of jam’; beyond the end of the M1 motorway; further even than that. And you get to the beauties of Fermanagh where I spent my childhood – in this case actually Clogher is in Co Tyrone. Beautiful Cathedral looking at its best for the installation of Kenny as the new Dean.
In the days when we were all struggling with the sectarianism of mid-Ulster, Kenny was in my view one of the clergy most to be admired. He has a gift of building relationships and encouraging people to move … and helping them to feel good about it at the same time. This is what I said.
I’m not great at blessing the inanimate – but I had a go at a set of gates today at St Michael’s, Elie, as we celebrated St Michael and All Angels with a bit of ‘Lift up your heads’ and some ‘rather a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord’
Anyway here is what I said. I wish I’d had more time to wonder off into angels unawares. I find that interesting.
Safely back home on Sunday night. Visits to the Scandinavian Lutheran Churches are always interesting – there’s a sort of solidity about how things are done. And then there’s the money. More than we could ever dream about – the Church of Sweden has over 300 people working in its headquarters. But now that the church tax is voluntary, that income is eroding very quickly. They are having to prepare to do as we do all the time – living out the miracle of the loaves and fishes. Not a bad metaphor for a church, I think.
I just happened to notice on Thinking Anglicans this evening a report that the Church of England is now interviewing candidates for episcopacy for the first time. Ah well. And tomorrow on Cumbrae, we hope to see the end of our most recent electoral process when the Episcopal Synod elects a new Bishop of Argyll and The Isles.
It’s hard not to like Copenhagan – apart from the prices. But the place that brought us the Danish pastry can’t be altogether bad. I’m here for the ceremony to mark the Danish church’s full membership of the Porvoo Communion.
The most obvious thing is the cycling culture – one third of the population cycles to work every day. The flat terrain helps. But Copenhagan is on the same latitude as Edinburgh so the climate is not altogether favourable.
That in turn can’t be unconnected with the absence of the obesity which is increasingly obvious at home. The charming incongruity is that in a land where all is trim, slim, green, organic and wholesome, there is more smoking indoors and out than I have seen in years.
