We’ve had quite a focus on rural issues recently – most notably with the publication of the Report of our Rural Commission at the recent General Synod. So it was interesting to visit the Royal Highland Show today and talk to people about the state of rural community today.

The thing which is most striking is the number of people employed in farming and all the related food production industries. It wasn’t just the people titivating animals before their show ring appearances – Lorna our Communications Officer has a particularly impressive picture of me with a prize bull – but the huge range of employment which depends on farming.

The rural population is predicted to increase – so we’re starting to realise that we are not necessarily facing a steady attrition of our rural congregations. But I think that we need to become much more interested in the issues which affect the state of the rural community – tourism, education, transport, health services, employment. I’ve written a bit about this for Saturday’s Scotsman.

Time for a quick trip to Iona for the dedication of new windows in the Chapel at Bishop’s House. The windows were given by the Friends of Iona.

Getting there is easy – 6.30 am start from Blogstead and a quick run on the Autobahn which now links us to Oban [which my Android predictive spelling changes to Obama] By 1045, the Passat and I were forging our way across Mull gently nudging tourist cars into the passing places on the 35 miles of single track road. And then things began to slow down .. the mobile phone signal vanished .. and then the radio and it was time to visit what they call a ‘thin place’ We were there by noon.

Anyway, we had a great time. Bishop’s House is in good shape under the leadership of Ben, its new Warden. You’ll find all the details here and they’ll be glad to see you.

Which brings us to the dedication of the windows. Once again I was on the look-out for mixed metaphors. So I did ‘light of God shining into our hearts’ and then ‘looking at the beauty of creation and worshipping the creator’. Then I felt ‘seeing through a glass darkly’ coming on and decided it was time to stop.

You will know that I have a ‘thing’ about cycling. I suppose we could shimmy left and think about what it is – maybe the mechanical almost-perfection and simplicity of a bicyle; or maybe it’s a way of revisiting childhood cycling; or perhaps there’s a freedom thing about it and a way of working off the adrenalin. So there’s the hybrid in the garage, the Brompton in the car ready for instant use – oh and half a tandem left behind in Ireland. So the bishop’s wife and I took ourselves down the former branch line from Leuchars to St Andrews – now part of National Cycle Route 1 – today including a crossing of the fairway for the 18th at St Andrews.

But I would rather have been carrying the Brompton in procession at the Blessing of the Bicycles at our St Mary’s Cathedral in Glasgow. But I am sure they got on fine without me. I wonder what the hymns were?

I’ve emerged blinking into the daylight after General Synod. Using the simplest measurement of all to decide whether it was a good Synod or not .. the number and quality of contributions from the floor … it was a good Synod.

The visit of the Presiding Bishop was an important event and there was maturity and generosity in the way we managed our diversity at that point.

You may be interested in the Primus’ Charge from the Opening Eucharist and this statement on the Anglican Covenant.

We engaged fully with the outside world, twittering, blogging, audio-streaming, updating our website, etc. Our Synod was widely reported on websites across the world. But the local media seem just to have given up altogether. The Scotsman on the opening day had a brief report on ‘Church to discuss sex and the environment’ below a much larger report on Fiona Bruce’s success as ‘Rear of the Year.’

So the Saville Report has finally arrived after 12 years and £195m. The responses to it suggest that justice has finally been done and people are ready to move on.

In 1972, I was a student in Dublin – living in Hatch Street above the appropriately-named Hatch Street Maternity Home. It was a dreadful time. I went on the huge march in Dublin which took place as the first funerals were held. I was in Merrion Square when the first of the attacks which led to the burning of the British Embassy took place.

At this distance, I find myself more and more often asking the ‘What if ?’ questions. So what if these killings had never happened? What if the Widgery Report had been less unsatisfactory as an account of what happened?

I fear that the reality is that the Bloody Sunday deaths were joined by many, many more .. as Bloody Sunday drove recuitment for the Provisional IRA, intensified and prolonged the conflict.

This is the Scottish African Gospel Choir at the closing service of the Edinburgh 2010 Service in the Church of Scotland General Assembly this afternoon. At something over three hours, it nearly lasted into this evening and next year as well – described by John Bell, who was attempting some ‘on screen’ editing, as ‘possibly the longest service in Scottish history. But I doubt that.

Archbishop John Sentamu talked about mission. But the most striking moment was probably when we are asked to sit down by categories – people from Africa, Roman Catholics, women … And the relatively few left standing were told that they were the only ones who were present at the 1910 Conference. We do make progress.

I’ve been doing some broadcasting from Belfast – all recorded from Dundee – for BBC Thought for the Day.

I’m afraid that some of it is a bit self-indulgent .. but you might be interested in successive Tuesdays – one, two, three and four

The week has moved on .. to the opening of the Edinburgh 2010 World Missionary Conference which marks the centenary of the great conference of 1910. That conference is generally held to have marked the start of the modern ecumenical movement.

Earlier in the day, I met the Anglican delegates and we had an interesting conversation about mission today – they came from everywhere including Brazil, Hong Kong, Canada, Uganda. Later I went to the opening ceremonies and found I was sitting at the meal beside Mano Rumalshah, recently-retired Bishop of Peshawar. His wife Benita was the leader of Alison’s Bible Study Group at the Lambeth Conference. The world church is both a big place and a small place.

We had much John Bell-led singing, greeting and praying. It’s been 10 years in the planning and there have been many ups and downs along the way. A great event and a credit to the organisers.

I suppose it sounds a little ungrateful – but I spent three hours today at Scone Palace waiting to greet Prince Charles at a Reception for the 800th Anniversary of Perth. Still the chat and the networking were good and I met all sorts of people that I wouldn’t have encountered without that. So.

But before that I had another of my ‘I hope I’m not getting out of touch’ meetings with a group of our clergy in Bridge of Allan. We talked of many things and they made me think hard about Anglican Communion issues – which I welcomed. And then a Casting the Net meeting with the Vestry in our congregation in Kirkcaldy – I’m meeting the Vestries when congregations decide to take part in the congregational development bit of the programme.

I’m still thinking about Invictus – the Mandela film which I watched on the way home. It’s all the stuff about his involvement with the Springboks – and their captain Francois Pienaar. There’s much debate about whether it was all as pre-meditated as the film suggests. But it reminded me again about the power of symbol – probably more often seen in its negative potential. But Mandela put on the Springbok jersey and the rest is history as it were. Part of the lostness of Ireland was that we never seemed to have people who could make that leap of heart and mind and use symbol creatively.

Time to be home. We have about ten days now before General Synod and lots of things happening between now and then – not least the Edinburgh 2010 Conference. I’m looking forward to meeting the Anglican delegates in Edinburgh next week.

It’s been a good experience here – three days of intensive training with a group of about 30 bishops. They are mainly American but also Canadian and Irish. We got a rerun of the ‘hat and stick’ session – can’t do that often enough – and I sat in the corner of the Year 1 Media Training which I did last year. In my view, it’s the best – how to sit, how to look, how to stay ‘on message’, how to disarm. And there was much more besides – like the 360 degree appraisal and Vocational Profile.

But I am more than ever grateful for the contacts and the chance of exploring where people are in a nuanced way. We didn’t happen to be at the same conference together – rather we’re having the same experiences together on equal terms so that creates a sense of belonging together. Meeting the same people again for a second year was a great help in deepening relationships.