Well we’re off tomorrow for a slight mini-break in the sun – some snoozing and some reading. I have to run the gauntlet of the Cambridge Union en route – defending the cause of ‘religion as a force for good’. If I get a coherent speech written, I’ll let you have a look. Trouble is that I’m not sure I agree with the proposition – faith as a force for good … probably. But religion …. Not so sure. Anyway I hope the lions have had a good feed of Whiskas.

Anyway this brings a temporary halt to a busy period. I sometimes feel like Gilbert’s House of Peers which throughout the years ‘did nothing in particular and did it very well.’

So I took part in the signing of the so-called EMU Partnership Agreement between ourselves, the Methodist Church and the United Reformed Church. Something positive to mark the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. And it’s not just aspiration. We share an increasing amount of training and other interests.

I’ve just spent 24 hours in Dunblane at a meeting of our College of Bishops. It’s complex – so many relationships to work with. But we did get to the end of the Agenda.

I’ve been playing ‘catch-up’ rather ineffectively since the end of the Episcopal Election. Lots of exciting things – including an entire day with the Mission and Ministry Board.

I joined the Buckfast – or was the anti-Buckfast – bandwagon on Thought for the Day after the BBC Scotland programme on Monday. You can read it here.

The Passat passed its MOT. It seemed to need some of its lighting and suspension replaced. But the stop and go arrangements are in good heart – it should reach 200000 miles around the time of General Synod.

And I really did have a catch-up day today. I’m getting close to that point where one could invert the Inbox every day and start from the bottom. But I haven’t had the courage to do it yet.

You’ll read elsewhere about Gregor’s election as the next Bishop of Glasgow and Galloway – congratulations and blessings upon him!

Our Canon 4 process is something of a long haul. But in the end it produces something very important – a bishop with a mandate. As I discovered, you then have to set out and discover what that mandate means in the mind and heart of the diocese – but it’s a starting point and a good one.

If you want to find out what I said at the Eucharist, you can read it here.

And the extraordinary media interest – very difficult for the candidates and particularly for Alison. They dealt with it with grace and patience. Lorna, our excellent Communications Officer, put in a tough couple of days. In the end, we decided that this was an opportunity for us to talk about our church, its values and character. People in the church are sometimes ‘iffy’ about journalists and I have been less than happy about some my contacts recently. But I spoke yesterday to Sky, BBC, STV, Scotland on Sunday. In every case, I was asked sensible questions and given the chance to say what I needed to say. Thank-you.

Just back from two days with our clergy in a nice hotel in Kinross. We’ve been looking at the possibility of a balanced clerical lifestyle. As I think about that, I can’t decide whether it is an oxymoron or not. I’ve always believed that there is in the clerical lifestyle much inherent balance – it’s just that people of passionate commitment tend not to be all that balanced about anything.

Anyway, we did a bit of that .. some great music… were scared witless about diet and exercise .. and looked at the clergy-vestry relationship

And lurking around in the background is the current debate about clergy being bullied. Have I known clergy to be bullied? Yes. Have I known clergy experience abusive relationships in a congregation – short of bullying? Yes. And of course I have been in situations where clergy have acted in ways very close to bullying.

I can’t say that I fully understand how or why this happens. But clearly to have passionate or idealistic people functioning in a situation where boundaries and expectations are not clear leaves everybody vulnerable. That’s why we are putting considerable emphasis on the need to provide training and clergy and vestry members together.

Yesterday we reached another stage in the process of electing a new bishop for the Diocese of Glasgow and Galloway. The Electoral Synod met the candidates – next week the Synod returns to consider and vote.

You may be interested in what I said at the Eucharist at the beginning of the day. It tells you a bit about what I think about our Canon 4 process where the candidates speak for themselves – and about the tendency of church processes to invoke the Spirit ….

I’m becoming a regular visitor to the Weather section of the BBC website – no real sign of a change yet. Maybe all this is because Heather the Weather retired from BBC Scotland TV. We haven’t done too badly as regards snow. But the cold …

Anyway the Passat and I skied down to Bridge of Allan on Tuesday evening to discuss the Anglican Covenant with members of the Area Council. Who could possibly want to come out on a cold night to talk about that? Well 25-30 people actually. And we gave each other a conducted tour of ‘Anglican Communion Issues’ What interests me about sessions like this is a sort of instinctive ‘feel’ that people seem to have for the distinctive culture and quality of the Anglican way of doing things. They may not have much of the information – offered the question, ‘What are the four instruments of unity of the Anglican Communion?’ they might not do too well. But they seem to have a feel for the extraordinary balances and tensions with which we live and which make Anglicanism so special.

Last night was ‘Let’s arrange to go to the Nutcracker in Edinburgh after Christmas’ So we did. I couldn’t face answering the question from somebody digging us out of a snowdrift at Kinross, ‘What was the purpose of your journey?’ So we went by train. With time to kill on the way home, we went into a nice bar just above the bridge on the way down to Waverley. And then we were introduced to that great levitational mystery which is shared by Old St Paul’s. Down the lift, through two doors and cross the street … and you’re at Waverley. I still don’t know how it was done. Pure Alice in Wonderland.

A little sensitive at this time of year about the passage of time …

‘So,’ I asked the barman in Molly’s Bar where the head on the Guinness stands proud above the rim of the glass, ‘in what year did Dana win the Eurovision Song Contest.’ To which I got the answer, ‘Sorry – before I was born.’

Oh dear. The Irish papers were greeting the arrival of Carys Rose, Dana’s first grandchild. Dana – who won Eurovision in 1970 with that vacuous hymn to inclusiveness, ‘All kinds of everything remind me of you’. Dana – fixed forever in our hearts and memories at 19. Yes she was born two months after I was.

Dana also unwisely contested the Irish Presidential Election in 1997 on a ‘traditional family values’ ticket – one of her more robust opponents said that to attack Dana was like clubbing seals.

We also mark the passing of Cardinal Cahal Daley – former Archbishop of Armagh and leader of the Irish Catholic Church in difficult times. He was, I think, a real leader. A ferocious critic of the IRA, he faced the dark stuff on his own side and earned unpopularity for doing so. Leaders in all religious traditions should take note

We’ve been in Scotland almost five years but not seen anything quite like this.  We have about 6-9 inches of snow here – night time temperatures down to -10C.  The forecasts suggest that it’s going to be like this for the next ten days at least.

It’s very beautiful but moving around is a little challenging.  So it’s good that we are in that extraordinary space which follows Christmas …

Happy Christmas from the Blogstead Community.  Poppy is keeping the paws warm on the radiator

You’ve probably been following the story of Bishop Stephen Venner,  Bishop to the Armed Forces.  He got himself quoted in The Telegraph as saying that the Taliban ‘can perhaps be admired for their conviction to their faith and sense of loyalty to each other.

I contributed this piece to The Scotsman.  It gave me the opportunity of discussing the dangers of dehumanising and demonising enemies.  If I disagreed with his comment as quoted, it was in my feeling that faith of this kind is not necessarily admirable.  Rather it  shows what I believe to be a weakness in religion – its willingness to be used by political movements for short term gain but at long term cost.  That’s what sectarian violence is about.

Then there is the question of what actually happened – for that you need to read Paul Vallely’s comments in this week’s Church Times.  The story is of an interview given 12 weeks ago .. of subordinate clause turned into main clause.  Yes I know a bit about that – though nothing as dramatic or damaging has happened to me.  What happens is that the journalist does a general interview for a profile.  The profile is never published.  He then either begins to use bits of it in relation to specific news stories as they arise or – as happened to Bishop Venner – he brings it out in a different context and climate of public opinion.

Which is why – for the media-savvy bishop – live radio is ‘the thing’ because it is the most controllable.