A new bishop

It was good to go with our Bishop Nigel to the installation of the new Catholic Bishop of Dunkeld, Bishop Stephen Robson. It’s three years since the greatly-loved Bishop Vincent Logan had to retire due to ill-health. So it will be good to have a new Catholic colleague. It was an interesting and very positive evening. Archbishop Leo Cushley preached an elegant sermon. The liturgy moved with the kind of confidence which we sometimes but not always manage. Mitres came on and off in a synchronised way. But it’s clear that ministry still means the ministry of priests rather than the shared ministry of clergy and laity

So I moved back to my reading in an anthology of writing from the Scottish Enlightenment. I believe that the attitudes and values shaped by that period – with the Scottish Reformation – shaped the distinctive nature of Scottish secular society. It’s a long, long way from Christendom.