Clergy Conference

I’ll await the results of the evaluation – but it seemed pretty good to me.  The turn-out of clergy was very good.  We were looking at aspects of spirituality – some personal and reflective material with David Lunan of the Glasgow Presbytery of the C of S; some applied spirituality with Cecelia Clegg of the Dept of Theology and Public Issues at New College in the Univ of Edinburgh.  And they were both excellent.  The Green Hotel in Kinross turned out to be a first class venue and the extra-curricular activities were ..

We also took a look at our ‘issues of the moment’ – the proposed Year of Stewardship and the working out of our Diocesan Review process.  We seem now to have the confidence to talk about doing things which we know are going to be difficult – but not to talk ourselves out of doing them!  Can’t ask better than that.

And why spirituality?  Well, it’s what you would expect clergy to talk about.  But more than that.  Ministry today is very demanding in personal terms  –  we have to reshape it as we do it and the days when clergy lived in a conflict-free zone are long gone.  To be open and collaborative in your working and to offer authoritative leadership without being authoritarian, you need to have your spiritual well-being in good order.