A walk along the Tay at Dunkeld yesterday in the beautiful Autumn colours prepared me for the Development Programme at St Mary’s and for Confirmation/Affirmation of Baptismal Vows at St Mary’s, Strathtay.

Like most clergy, I view Stewardship or Development Programmes with some trepidation. In my Rector days, we did these things on a fairly huge scale – I remember organising a team of 75 visitors. And there were always those who responded to the challenge of sacrificial giving by getting their retaliation in first. The one that sticks in my mind was, ‘Quare time since the Rector stood in my house.’ The visitors tended to report these comments with the urgency of Dispatches from the Front and would be astonished when I was able to pinpoint exactly the source.

Anyway I got my retaliation in first this morning and this is something like what I said.

Sad day today as we shared in a Eucharist in St Paul’s Cathedral, Dundee, to mark the retirement of Bishop John Mantle after five years as Bishop of Brechin. John is retiring slightly early due to ill-health – today we said lovingly and firmly to him that he has done all that is needed to prepare the diocese for the next stage of its journey. We wish John and Gill a well-earned rest in their retirement. And this is what I said.

It was of course interesting to move in less than 24 hours from Clogher to Dundee – from what one of my predecessors as Primus, Alistair Haggart, once described to me as the ‘restrained classicism of the Church of Ireland’ to the rather less restrained piskie expression of Anglicanism. Yes – vestments, incense, wonderful congregational and choir music including a blast of Africa to greet the gospel. As I often say, I remain astonished by the quality of the liturgy in our cathedrals.

I was sorry I couldn’t get to the conference on Volunteering which was being run today in Bridge of Allan by our Church in Society Committee. If I had been there, I would have said that it is very important that we encourage people to volunteer service in the community. If service simply means ‘looking after the church’ we are never going to catch the imagination of people who may wish to serve and care – but have given up on the institutional churches.

I’ve been way out west in Northern Ireland this evening – further than the Wayside Pulpit at Hillhall Presbyterian Church where this month’s helpful message is ‘Forbidden fruit makes a lot of jam’; beyond the end of the M1 motorway; further even than that. And you get to the beauties of Fermanagh where I spent my childhood – in this case actually Clogher is in Co Tyrone. Beautiful Cathedral looking at its best for the installation of Kenny as the new Dean.

In the days when we were all struggling with the sectarianism of mid-Ulster, Kenny was in my view one of the clergy most to be admired. He has a gift of building relationships and encouraging people to move … and helping them to feel good about it at the same time. This is what I said.

I’m not great at blessing the inanimate – but I had a go at a set of gates today at St Michael’s, Elie, as we celebrated St Michael and All Angels with a bit of ‘Lift up your heads’ and some ‘rather a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord’

Anyway here is what I said. I wish I’d had more time to wonder off into angels unawares. I find that interesting.

Safely back home on Sunday night. Visits to the Scandinavian Lutheran Churches are always interesting – there’s a sort of solidity about how things are done. And then there’s the money. More than we could ever dream about – the Church of Sweden has over 300 people working in its headquarters. But now that the church tax is voluntary, that income is eroding very quickly. They are having to prepare to do as we do all the time – living out the miracle of the loaves and fishes. Not a bad metaphor for a church, I think.

I just happened to notice on Thinking Anglicans this evening a report that the Church of England is now interviewing candidates for episcopacy for the first time. Ah well. And tomorrow on Cumbrae, we hope to see the end of our most recent electoral process when the Episcopal Synod elects a new Bishop of Argyll and The Isles.

It’s hard not to like Copenhagan – apart from the prices. But the place that brought us the Danish pastry can’t be altogether bad. I’m here for the ceremony to mark the Danish church’s full membership of the Porvoo Communion.

The most obvious thing is the cycling culture – one third of the population cycles to work every day. The flat terrain helps. But Copenhagan is on the same latitude as Edinburgh so the climate is not altogether favourable.

That in turn can’t be unconnected with the absence of the obesity which is increasingly obvious at home. The charming incongruity is that in a land where all is trim, slim, green, organic and wholesome, there is more smoking indoors and out than I have seen in years.

Another year of Back to Church Sunday – it’s growing steadily. We all understand the difficulties – not least that many people today don’t have a church to go back to. Going to church on BTCS is a ‘first’ and we’re delighted to see them. I also think that it makes sense to offer to our congregations a simple and practical ‘thing’ to do under the heading of mission

It makes me think of the nominalism with which we struggled when I was a Rector. The headcount was around 925 families. But, depending on where one ‘drew the line’ it could be anywhere from 600-1200. Church Offering envelopes were a sort of membership token for some – not to be used for their designated purpose. The definition of membership remains a difficult issue – and for us in the SEC.

The rest of the week? Where did it go … partly on a meeting of the quaintly-named EMU partnership – Episcopalian, Methodist and United Reformed. We need a better name than the bird that doesn’t fly. Alicia is on a well-earned holiday and we haven’t been able to appoint a new Secretary for me – so I’m in sole command of the Diocesan Office. I had to have a graduate-level lesson in working the franking machine.

Tomorrow I’m going to Copenhagan when the Danish Church becomes a full member of the Porvoo Communion.

And just in case you were asking, Poppy is quite a bit better – the most recent tests show a big improvement. We inject night and morning.

I found myself yesterday at a Seminar on Rural Churches – run by a group of architects, conservationists, planners and others. I think I was invited because of earlier blogging on this subject which arose from the Rural Commission Report which came to our General Synod in 2010.

I expected it to be all about the 101 uses to which redundant churches might be put – and no doubt they got down to that after I left. But what surprised me was the extent to which they wanted to know that the church has a vision of its future in the rural community – and an understanding of how it can contribute to the building and sustaining of community. Something seems to have changed. What is punished is not vision but lack of vision.

I’m grateful to Margaret Lye for an extract from the diary of Very Rev. G T S Farquhar which explains – in the eyes of the Incumbent of Doune – the reasons for Newman’s defection:

Apr. 24 1893. Not for the first time lately I took the duty at Doune yesterday. Old Mr Cole, who is one of our Canons & Synod Clerk, is very poorly there. I enjoy a quiet Sunday in such a place. The old man was telling me some of his reminiscences—how he used to hear Newman preaching in Oxford. Particularly he remembered going with Bp Selwyn on S. Simon & S. Jude’s day and Newman’s silvery voice as he began the Sermon “Of S. Simon & S. Jude but little is known” remains with him to this day. He declares Newman never would have seceded if he had met with any sympathy from the Anglican authorities; he was of a sensitive disposition and needed some one to lean on and when instead of sympathy he got abused and prosecuted he was secretly wounded and couldn’t manage to hold out in spiritual solitude and went where they were kind to him. So thinks old Mr Cole. The latter also told me how he was of Bp Selwyn’s party, when he first set off for New Zealand. They did so in a vessel of 400 tons that wouldn’t be considered good enough for coals now. For 105 days they were out of sight of land. And then for a while they sailed within sight of Australia, shining in the sun. The Bp was arranging a thanksgiving Service for a Tuesday and had half his Sermon written: the rations were served out to the steerage passengers: in honour of the end of the journey they shared their spirits with the sailors: one of these, having taken too much, went up the mast and Mr Cole saw him fall plop into the sea from thence; the ship was brought to but the man was lost and one of the men in the rescue boat was drowned too. The Bishop held the Thanksgiving Service but of course made an alteration to its tone. I am trying hard to get the Doune people to appoint James Burton, the son of our late Provost, who has fallen into ill health and has to resign Peterhead to succeed Mr Cole. I have had the fortune as a reviewer for the ‘Scottish Guardian’ to become possessed of Liddon’s newly published ‘Analysis of the Romans’. It appears to be a very masterly work. Elaborate and lucid. A book beyond which I need not go for that Epistle. A great mercy to get that happy hunting ground of ‘justification by faith alone’-ists, properly expounded by a master hand.

Margaret tells me that this diary will be on display at the Open Doors Day at our Cathedral in Perth on Saturday.

I’m still catching up with myself after being part of the Lambeth and Westminster bits of the Pope’s visit … maybe tomorrow.

Well an interesting week.

I’ve been at a meeting of the UK Bishops in Oxford in the first half of the week. Basically that means the Church of England House of Bishops with the bishops of Ireland, Scotland and Wales. It’s always interesting to work out how to be ‘not the Church of England’ in a positive and helpful way. By the way some of the new generation of suffragan bishops are beginning to look somewhat youthful. Bad sign when bishops start looking young.

I got back to Edinburgh in time to go to Holyrood for the meeting between the Queen and the Pope at the start of the State Visit. I was able to greet both of them – which is much more than I expected. And when they had gone off elsewhere, I found myself in a tent with 400 interesting people from all over the UK. So I did a bit of networking.

Tomorrow I’m going to be part of the meeting with the Anglican Church at Lambeth and attend the Pope’s Speech in Westminster Hall and the Service in Westminster Abbey. These things don’t happen often – so whatever I feel about some aspects of all this, it’s a great privilege to be part of it.

And then it’s time for a family wedding in Dublin.