So I’m off on retreat for a few days. And everything will get on just fine without me – probably better. I’m surfacing again in Dublin on Friday with ten people from our diocese as we do some re-kindling of our relationship with the Diocese of Meath and Kildare in the Church of Ireland. We’ve a lot in common so it should be interesting.
Month: October 2007
A Record
I know I am a fairly hardened church-goer. But the two and a half hours of Mark Strange’s Consecration today in Inverness must be something of a record. The episcopal posterior was certainly hardened by the time we finished. But never mind – it was another day when the SEC pretended – with some success – to be 25 times bigger than it really is and Mark will bring a welcome shot of renewed energy with him. As always I sat and pondered – as always I find these things quite emotional. The words that ‘got’ me today were in the blessing as he was ‘seated’ – ‘May you lead with courage and guide with love’. I’ll ponder that one.
Housekeeping
I’ve spent a fair bit of today doing the filing – which really means that I have energetically moved things around and chucked out a huge amount of stuff. Ringing in my ears is the only thing I remember from John Truscott’s Training Course in Clergy Administration – ‘Remember it’s not a filing system – it’s a retrieval system.’ In other words, the test is finding it again. I welcome the fact that the postal strike will increase the number of sets of Minutes and Agenda which arrive by e Mail. I don’t keep paper copies if I can file electronically.
I’ve also been ordering some reading material to share with Rev Dom Ind who acts as my Chaplain and liturgical minder. We’re going to do some work on the ‘bishop in the liturgy’ to try and ensure that services like Institutions and Ordinations are as well ordered and choreographed as we can make them. After all they are a shop window for the church in a secular society.
Sources of Growth
Kimberly asks about what we did in the Sources of Growth Workshop. At the heart of the Review process is the aspiration that we would move from decline to growth. Our Consultant constantly pushes us to answer questions like, ‘Which people? How will be approach them? What kind of church do we need to become … ?’ The Workshop was set up to do some thinking about those questions and also to share good practice. We did it mainly by interviewing people about initiatives which are already under way.
We’re now in a phase of the Diocesan Review where four Working Groups are creating action plans for the future. This Workshop was intended to produce material which could be used by all four Working Groups. This is the Programme for the Day. The Newsletter gives a brief overview of the process to date
Catching up on the output
I seem to have turned out a quite of bit of stuff lately. Just in case you are interested, here are some contributions to Radio 4’s Prayer for the Day last week. You will also find this morning’s Thought for the Day for BBC Radio Scotland. And finally sermons from Comrie and Lochearnhead and from the Installation of Rev Giles Dove as Chaplain at Glenalmond – regard it as an introduction to the necessary skill of making what is essentially the same sermon serve a number of different purposes!
Mystery of Chaplaincy
We installed Giles Dove as Chaplain at Glenalmond College on Sunday – better picture to come shortly, I hope! I always enjoy being there, particularly in the beautiful chapel. It reminds me of childhood and the community at Portora Royal School, Enniskillen, where my parents taught. I kept an eye on the ‘fly-on-the-wall’ documentary makers who were filming and, I hope, not recording my sotto voce mutterings to myself.
Meanwhile, as the diocesan clergy and I joined the school community to celebrate the new ministry, I pondered the huge opportunities which Chaplains have. The Chaplain has access to the whole community of staff and pupils – he doesn’t have to run around trying to find people. And he has the Chaplain’s privilege – whether school or hospital or prison or service life – of being on the inside but not quite part of ‘the system.’
Loud and Clear
I spent yesterday morning with our congregations in Comrie and Lochearnhead – which are linked with Crieff in a group of three stretching out from Perth towards the Trossachs. Perfect Perthshire autumn morning – trees just on the turn – Loch Earn absolutely still – two beautiful little churches – faithful and enthusiastic congregations.
This the church at Lochearnhead
Research shows that the church tends to move from less to more pleasant places – and clergy may find themselves doing the same. These three churches will be seeking a new Rector soon – an irresistable call for somebody, I should think.
And now for the weekend
It’s turned into one of those busy periods – some serious socialising both here at Blogstead and on the Perthshire hillsides.
We ran our ‘Sources of Growth’ Workshop yesterday as part of the Diocesan Review – one of those events where one says, ‘Let’s do this’ without having any idea how. In the event, about 65 people turned up – amazing in itself – and we ran a highly interactive event, planned to the minute. Talking heads are all very well in my view. But nothing as good as creating a format in which people share good practice, insight and vision. The picture shows Rev Ann Mazur with Gordon Morrison who has acted as Consultant to the Diocesan Review.
Today, it’s Comrie and Lochearnhead followed by the Installation of Giles Dove as the new Chaplain at Glenalmond.
A Word from 1 I/C 4 Diocese, SEC Command
I found myself this evening at the launch of the Poppy Scotland Appeal. I’m happy to support it. I’ve good reason to be grateful to service men and women. I dread to contemplate the years of distress and disorder which those returning from Iraq will face.
But I am the MOST un-military person – certainly when anybody else is giving orders – the soldiers of Christ pride themselves on being permanently out of step so I fit in well. But I love the way military people talk and the way they designate rank as above – the BBC does it too. And words get mangulated – ‘deploy’ becomes an intransitive verb – theatre becomes a place of warfare rather than of enjoyment.
And then I was asked for comment on the rising numbers of people living together rather than getting married – an opportunity to get ‘bishop’ and ‘fornication’ into the same headline. No doubt there are many reasons for this change. But any parent of young adult children can see that one significant factor is the later age of marriage. Most of the weddings we go to – as last Saturday – are of young people getting married around or after the age of 30 after living together in love and faithfulness for a number of years. As I look back, one of the few things which really concerned me in parish ministry was people getting married around or before 20. I’m glad such weddings are much rarer now.
To Blog or not to Blog
Over on his blog, Kelvin is sounding out opinion on the potential links to SEC bloggers on the new provincial website. It sounds good to me because, for some reason, blogging now seems fairly deeply embedded in the Piskie psyche. Is this because we actually like talking to one another – or just that we are entirely comfortable talking to ourselves.
I’m working at present on an article for Inspires about Episcopalian Blogging. At its best, the blogs seem to me to put on view bits of the vitality and thinking processes of the church which would otherwise be hidden. No doubt there is plenty of rubbish – but there is something about the relentless discipline of the every day blog which reveals however adroitly we think we can conceal.