Month: September 2011

Satis superque

If your Latin isn’t quite up to it, the above might be roughly rendered as ‘a bit too much of a good thing’

Which means that I have just come back from two days of College of Bishops meeting in Pitlochry – which is as good as any gathering of friends is likely to be. Unless you spoil it by having a massive Agenda. But we were at least in the rather sumptuous Atholl Palace Hotel because we had just hosted the biennial meeting of the Celtic Bishops.

Like many things Celtic, you might reasonably ask what it is – which is the bishops of the Church in Wales, the Church of Ireland and the Scottish Episcopal Church. So it was definitely a cheerful gathering. We were addressed by Professor David Brown of the Institute for Theology, Imagination and the Arts and Chaplained by Revd Roger Quick, Rector of our congregations centred on Pitlochry. Having moved from Ireland to Scotland, I am very aware of how little ‘in depth’ knowledge we have of one another. But there is actually considerable commonality – not least in the area of shifting identities and relationships. We invited local MSP, John Swinney, Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Employment and Sustainable Growth, to come and address us.

And before all that, I spent Monday taking Bishop Ashoke Biswas of our link diocese of Kolkata in the Church of North India around part of the diocese. We’re gradually developing a link – it takes a while – but it promises well.

Festina Lente and all that

Normal service resumed this week after the summer. I’ve just had three days in Edinburgh – one for the Faith and Order Board and two for the Mission and Ministry Board. We inch forward – slowly digesting the Whole Church Mission and Ministry Policy. We are basically trying to work out what it means to recognise that the place of missional energy has moved to the dioceses. I remain cheerful – however difficult it gets, people continue to smile and come back for more. We shall get there in the end.

This evening, as if my day was not complete already, I’m off to listen to yet another group of the most commmitted Anglicans on the planet telling me why they don’t like the Anglican Covenant. Nor, I think would my late grandfather, Canon Bateman.

I came home today to find that an ongoing search for family photographs has brought up a letter to the Irish Times written by him. Maeve Binchey had written an article poking some fairly gentle fun at the wedding of Princess Anne to Captain Mark Phillips – 14 November, 1973, just in case you were wondering. He writes to defend her right to do that while wishing the couple every blessing and happiness

Lord thou hast been our refuge from one generation to another

Canon 4 by 4

We’ve begun the process of electing a new Bishop of Edinburgh. It’s my fourth episcopal election but I’ll be living close to Canon 4 for the next while

This evening the Electoral Synod held its Preliminary Meeting in P’s & G’s. As is my wont on these occasions, I touched base with my thoughts on elections and episcopal ministry – so this is what I said

Last of the summer …

I thought I should offer you a couple of things just to mark the moment at which I plunge back into doing whatever it is that bishops do.

I’m deep in the Barchester Chronicles on my Kindle at present – it makes me a regular visitor to Plumstead Episcopi. I’ve always wanted to maintain the fiction that Blogstead Episcopi is a place not located in time or space – and this charming envelope from the hospital in Saumur which treated my pied gonfle bears witness to that. The address is approximately correct. But it also succeeds in honouring my Irish Passport and the Scottish Independence debate along the way.

Next is a picture of Tory Island which I visited last week – it lies about eight miles off the coast of Donegal across the open North Atlantic. I described the experience of getting there on the ferry as being akin to being strapped to a rubber duck in the bath.

And finally an example of the work of the school of painters on Tory Island. This was developed by English society portrait painter Derek Hill who was a regular visitor to Tory. The paintings are expensive!

Walking across the rubble

I’m off to take part in a Walk of Witness in Edinburgh tomorrow – marking the 10th Anniversary of 9/11. Part of me wonders if there is anything more to be said or done about this most terrible of atrocities. But distance gives perspective

Have you read any of Professor Alistair McGrath’s writing about the links between 9/11 and the rise of the New Atheism, Dawkins et al. If the planes were flown by religious fanatics, all religion must be dangerous. If all religion is dangerous, then it can’t just be regarded as a matter of personal choice in an otherwise secular society .. it becomes something which should be attacked and destroyed.

Meanwhile I turned to Rowan Williams’ little book, ‘Writing in the Dust’ in which he reflects on what it was like to be there as it happened. His most chastening words are at the beginning:

Something of the chill of 11 September 2001 lies in the contrast, The religious words are, in the cold light of day, the words that murderers are saying to themselves to make a martyr’s drama out of a crime. The non-religious words are testimony to what religious language is supposed to be about – the triumph of pointless, gratuitous lovel, the affirming of faithfulness even when there is nothing to be done or salvaged

9/11

One of the papers asked me for 150 words on ‘Where I was on 9/11’. So I sent them this:

I was with Phyllis, an elderly member of my congregation, in the Sheltered Housing at Edenderry Gardens, Portadown. We sat quietly and watched. Other residents joined us. I think we said a prayer.

Even then, I knew that this was a moment of history. I felt a personal connection. I’d been to the Windows on the World Restaurant. Our family had stood on the top of the North Tower and had a photograph taken inside. I thought about those people.

I was due to take a group from my parish to New York and Albany one week later. We who had lived with terrorism for many years would never allow it to change our plans. But people in New York were so shocked. They couldn’t think clearly. We delayed six months and stood quietly together at Ground Zero. I shall never forget it.

What price forgiveness?

The talk here is of debt forgiveness. The number of people more than three months in arrears with their mortgages is 55000. Dublin house prices are down 49% from their peak in February 2007. Overall property prices fell by 12.5% during last. Even those prices are notional since most houses are simply unsaleable.

A lady write to the Irish Times to say that she has a mortgage of €900000 on a property now worth €400000. A man writes to say that he cannot feed his family. We went to a huge hardware store outside Letterkenny this morning and were the only customers. Not much different in Dunnes Stores and M&S – in the wine section I noted a single line of bottles on the outside edge of the shelf.

This is economic recession on a level which we have not experienced in Scotland. Government can see that these levels of personal debt will never be repaid and that this is another issue which has to be resolved if there is to be recovery. And somewhere in the background is a dogged belief that this is not Greece – the trade balance is healthy – Irish young people are highly-educated, articulate and adaptable. I have a feeling that a more devastating clear-out of the political class even than we have yet seen is needed. But it will come.

Personal debt is a personal responsibility. But banks were pushing money at people. The regulators seemed to be asleep at the wheel. Working out the balance between personal and community responsibility is a matter for fine political and ethical judgement …