Our General Synod ended on Saturday – and then I went off to Belfast to preach at St George’s Parish Church
So I haven’t really had time to reflect on all that happened.
For a start, I wanted to share the Primus Charge in which I tried to set the scene for what followed.
Then there were many things which one would just straightforwardly welcome. Synod was addressed by some of the most capable and articulate young adults that one could possibly hope to meet. We are continuing to see extraordinarily rapid development in the work of the Scottish Episcopal Institute which is training the next generation of clergy and Lay Readers – and growth in our number of ordinands combined with a fall in the average age. We have many real challenges but we’ll find a way.
Meanwhile, I need to come back to the issues around the proposed alteration to our Marriage Canon and the First Reading. I think that many Synod members – for quite a few spoke to me about it – felt that in the way we had addressed this question something very significant had happened. I’ll come back to that shortly. It’s a question about what kind of church we now feel ourselves to be. And I need also to address the related question of where we are in our relationship with the Anglican Communion. So a little more thinking time …