You may have picked up the silly season spat on Thinking Anglicans highlighting bishops’ concerns about the ability of clergy to do the job.  It all started with a report in the Daily Telegraph which was in turn based on a report of the Ministry Division in the Church of England.  Bishop Alan of Buckingham does a bit of helpful debunking and I don’t think it’s true either.

A number of other things seem to me to be worth saying.  I think the job is immeasurably more difficult than it used to be.  I think clergy aspiration to do it well and encourage growth is higher than it has ever been.  I think the confusion of expectations about what the task is is greater than it has ever been.  I think the diversity of backgrounds and life experience from which clergy come is greater than it has ever been – a richness but also a challenge for formation.

And what do clergy think about the competence of bishops?  I do my best but I have had no training for what I do other than 30 years of sometimes jaundiced episcopal spectating from the parochial trenches.  And then there is that wonderful and ever sharpening clarity about the role and function of clergy which you acquire when you don’t have to do it yourself.  I maintain a cheery [and occasional] e mail correspondence with Terence,  my successor in the parish.  He’s sent me one or two lately which seemed to be saying, ‘David, in the 19 years you spent here, were you aware ……?’  Well actually – no I wasn’t.

Since today seems to be the day for Barack Obama, I thought I might mention his book, ‘The Audacity of Hope’ into which I’ve been dipping my toe. It’s described [rather surprisingly] by the Daily Telegraph as ‘aiming a missile of decency at the White House.’

I don’t expect much from this kind of book at this kind of moment. He begins by describing just that cynicism: ‘a cynicism not simply with politics but with the very notion of a public life …. nourished by a generation of broken promises.’ He’s a very able person – the book is well-written, clear. And he’s obviously done a lot of listening.

The interesting thing, of course, is the point in all of us where that cynicism risks being turned into hope – hope that this might rekindle the dream of what we thought Kennedy represented – hope that the dreadful Bush years might fade into unlamented history. In its way, the hope is as unrelated to reality as the cynicism.

Still – I’m hoping. And if you want to read what an Obama-supporting member of TEC thinks, have a look at Miss Dagurreotype

The other American – I’ve been reading Bishop Gene Robinson’s ‘In the Eye of the Storm’ – of which more another day.

Standing waiting to visit a Nursing Home today and found myself reading a notice for families of residents.  They’ve set up a Skype facility – pictures included – so that families and have a chat to their elderly relative and see how they are.  Sensible and costs nothing use of the internet.

We’re having our pre-Synod meeting tomorrow.  You may be interested to see what Kelvin thought of the same exercise in Glasgow.  I sat down this afternoon and read my way through all the papers.  It was a bit difficult because I am in sole charge of Poppy at present and she kept getting between me and the excitements of Congregational Status.

There’s a lot there but I’m not sure ..  Like Kelvin, I wonder a bit about the Congregational Status material.  Obviously it’s really important that we deal with the issue of multiple Vestries which most of our clergy have to deal with.  It absorbs time and kills initiative.  But I’m not sure that canonical change is the primary way in which that change should come about.

For the rest, I think there’s a disappointing amount of uncertainty – at a time when I think we are actually growing in confidence as a church.  We’re not sure about administrative structures and dioceses or the definition of membership.   The Review of Journey of the Baptised and New Century New Directions gives us a new point of departure in the development of mission and ministry – but there’s a lot of work to do.  And that’s before we look outside ourselves and ask if we have a helpful contribution to make to world Anglicanism pre [and I suspect even more importantly] post-Lambeth

Always interesting to live through a moment of real change – and I think this is one of them.  Usually wrong when you make a statement like that – but …  The oil price may dip a bit from its peak – whenever that may come.  But the fundamental problem is that demand is increasing and there is no more supply to be had.  So that means changes of behaviour for all of us.  Blogstead is of course a rural idyll – but we have all the car-dependency problems of people who live in the countryside.  I am starting to read the bus timetables.  I am beginning to obsess about slow broadband which limits our ability to use e-conferencing.  Soon everybody will have a Brompton Folding Bicycle and I shall have to find another way of asserting my individuality.

The other really interesting thing of course is how fragile our society appears in a moment like this.  Of course the haulage industry is in trouble – but so is everybody else.   Oil is a world market and there is next to nothing that an individual government can do about the price – other than with vastly expensive and un-green subsidies.  But suddenly the potential for chaos looms ..  Fragile indeed.

I’m watching the unfolding story of the xenophobic violence in South Africa with sadness.  Like most people, I went there to have a look at the unfolding story of the rainbow nation.  But it was always obvious that the real issue is poverty – and HIV/Aids.  Some of it is the economic imbalance between black and white – and the emerging affluent black middle class.  More of it is just the unimaginable, grinding, undignified poverty of the townships.  There’s a race against time.  Children born as apartheid ended are already in their mid-teens.  They don’t know to be glad that they no longer live in the apartheid system – as if that might make poverty tolerable.  The other part of this sad story is about leadership which doesn’t act.  South Africa has made considerable economic progress.  That’s why there are power cuts.  But President Mbeki’s failure to address the Zimbabwe issue other than with ‘quiet diplomacy’ has left South Africa open to a tidal wave of immigration that can’t be sustained.

It’s an unbelievably beautiful country with wonderful people.  They deserve a bright future.

It’s been a long saga but today was the day.  So after some contemplation of the inner workings of the Bogstead Continuous Aeration Plant

Jock and his men were ready to roll their sleeves up and get down to it.

So by the time we came back from climbing Ben Effrey, the new tank was installed and ready to go .. as it were.

We did the walk at Acharn for the second time today.  We’ve been bad at getting out and about but a visit from friends nudged us.  Just beyond Kenmore on the southern shore of Loch Tay.  Up the hill through the woods – wonderful view of the loch and of snow on the slopes of Schiehallion on the other side.  Best of all – to hear a cuckoo.  I can’t remember when I last heard one.

++Rowan is considering not flying for a year.  That’s fairly daunting – it rules out America, for example.  Meanwhile, back at Blogstead, we anxiously read the updates on the Blackberry from the price comparison sites for diesel prices.

I attended the Church of Scotland Assembly on six days.  I stayed for two nights – car with Brompton.  One other day with car.  Two days by train with Brompton.  But the winner is a trip by bus from the Park and Ride at the Broxden Roundabout at £9.60 return.  When they run on time, it’s unbeatable.  It is amazing that there is no train from Perth to Edinburgh between 7.14 and 8.54 am.

But the faithful Passat rolls on.  Now 161000 and around 50 mpg.  Some slight variability in the temperature gauge area – but we’re all getting on a bit.  I did suggest to the nice people at Perth Garage that the brakes didn’t seem to be just totally the best.  Not that one ever needs to use the brakes in Perthshire – other than a slight check on progress when the deer loom up in the twilight.  So they are going to replace the bits and pieces and send us out for another spell of zero depreciation and exclusively downhill travel.

Well I was doing just fine until we got to Article 3 of the Articles Declaratory at the Church of Scotland Assembly. Which of course is very interesting. Think of the Labour Party removing Clause 4 and you have some sense of what Article 3 means to the Church of Scotland. It’s territoriality. It means that, on whatever be-heathered hillside one stands, one can be glad that one is within the pastoral reach of the C of S.

Dorothy Neilson is quite right – all mad. Get a life, etc., etc.

Except that the Church without Walls was sort of central to what was going on. And all clergy dudes – as Dorothy calls us – know that Synods and Assemblies are getting close to the heart of things when people seem to be excited about things that would make the Telephone Directory seem controversial. So the Special Commission on Structure and Change made the daring suggestion that ‘an ecumenical outlook would be more effective in reaching all Scotland with the Gospel’. It gets interesting when you couple that with the [slightly hidden] debate about what might happen at each level of the church – particularly the regional/Presbytery level. Which seemed to be code for ‘the centre has got far too powerful and the Presbytery plans are being driven by financial criteria.’

How interesting it all is. I put my smart card in the fancy slot and suggested to them that this was the same debate as we [ought to] have in the SEC about where the church is best energised for mission – in the diocese, in the local church or at the centre. No prizes for guessing what I think is the answer. And I think I shall see if I can cajole/sweet-talk/encourage the Presbyteries in our area into some talking about shared mission.

So there we are. I have to say that I actually enjoyed it. Great networking. I was very impressed by the quality of debate, the chairmanship of the Moderator and most of all by the excellence of the Convenors of the Boards and Committees.  They also do that wonderful thing of synods at their best – no matter how obscure or arcane the matter under discussion, somebody will always stand up and display expert knowledge.   And the lady in the cloakroom now knows that when I say I have come to collect my bike I mean the folded Brompton in the corner.