While the blogosphere is working itself up into a pre-Lambeth peak of excitement .. hereabouts we’re doing a bit of light pruning in the Lord’s vineyard.

The Clergy Conference is nearly planned for next January – looking at worship and how it might meet the challenge in the Nine Marks … worship which transforms and renews.  And I’ve been down in Alloa this evening helping them to explore how a congregation which has developed a strong collaborative ministry ethos might grow and develop without losing that.

It would be wrong to suggest that the big issues of Lambeth simply aren’t relevant to the kind of church which will develop at local level.   But I find at that local level an absence of passion about the issue.  Concern and interest – yes.  But passion – no

I have to confess that my heart sinks a bit as I find myself listed among episcopal bloggers heading for Lambeth – look at this for example.  There is clearly an opportunity to give people in my own diocese and elsewhere a flavour of how it is.  But I haven’t worked out in my mind what the Chatham House or other rules for this ought to be.

At this moment, I’m busy trying to get to the point at which I can walk away and go to Lambeth.  I feel curiously uninvolved in it all – and rather uninformed and unprepared.  The good stuff?  I am very much looking forward to being part of such a big international event.  I haven’t experienced much of that in my life – just to be in that great multi-cultural mix will be very enriching and enlivening.

I don’t really expect this to be the sort of ‘make or break’ event that people expect.  Two reasons for that.

First that the people who are passionate at either end of the sexuality divisions tend to present their arguments in a way which ensures that no resolution is likely.  There is no space for winners and losers.  I saw enough of that in my former life in Northern Ireland.  It took me a long time to realise that it was sometimes the healthiest thing to acknowledge it and live through it.  But however much people deny it, there is always an inexorable movement towards dealing with the issue – everything leads back to the same place but it may take a while.

Second – there is movement taking place all the time.  But it happens ‘off centre’.  Just to take one example, I have been reading Kenneth Stevenson’s ‘A Fallible Church’.  Look at Bishop James Jones’ article about the impact which the triangular relationship between Liverpool, Virginia and Akure [in Nigeria] has had on him.  It’s through those kinds of long-term relationships that we grow towards one another.

I have just paid a flying visit to Northern Ireland to preach at the Eucharist at the Down and Dromore Synod and to offer some Home Thoughts from Abroad.

I think it’s always interesting to find out what someone says to a different audience …

Belfast Wayside Pulpits continue to win prizes for naffdom.  Lurgan Methodist offers ‘1 Man + 3 Nails = 4 Giveness’  My old favourite, Hillhall Presybterian, continues its ‘Sun and Sunblock’ theme with ‘Love the Sun?  The Son loves you’

In the multi-cultural category, I noticed the Thai-tanic Restaurant.

These are difficult times.  I seem to be in fairly constant movement at the moment – apart from being available for the Bogstead crisis – so I am having difficulty keeping up with all the blogs and websites.  But it looks pretty febrile.

I came away from our General Synod continuing to ponder what I think is one of the key challenges of leadership in a situation of conflict like this.  We all have personal convictions and values which we wish to assert.  If one is to do that, I think it has to be done  somehow without being partisan and without excluding others.

In my past life, I did much reading on sectarianism.  Not so much the ‘in your face’ stuff.  But the more subtle [and more dangerous] forms of it.   ‘Overlooking’ is what happens when you speak of your own group as if no other group existed.  Ian Paisley used to refer to ‘the people of Ulster’ as if the catholic population didn’t exist.  The Pope came to meet ‘the young people of Ireland’ as if the protestants didn’t exist.

And every time I hear somebody say, ‘We are a liberal church’ – that’s what I hear.  We are a church which has within its life the divisions which are present in world anglicanism.  We may be liberal in our ethos – but we are not exclusively so.  And we have to keep finding ways of saying that so that we honour and respect those whose ethos is more conservative.

I told you it was difficult.

I know there are things in the Anglican Communion which clamour for our attention but .. and only two weeks after the entire Bogstead sanitation system had been replaced.

I knew we were in trouble when I cast an eye out the window at around 7 am this morning and saw my Chaplain hoisting his cassock and wading across [well – let’s not say what he was wading across]  the Samuel Seabury croquet lawn.  Certainly a major issue which required immediate episcopal attention.  The brown tide was inexorably rising and already lapping at the doorstep of the Bishop Bell Conservatory when Jock and his men arrived with the elbow length rubber gloves and various rods and jets.  Manhole covers were lifted.  Rodding eyes were uncovered.  Baths were filled and loos flushed.  Jock was clearly waiting for that satisfying ‘Schlurpf’ sound which would tell him that all was well – but it never came.  More a gradual sense – more I think of trust than of firm conviction – that order had been restored.

Dave suggests that I must have been ‘busy doing what bishops do’.  Actually, I couldn’t elbow my way into the Synod wifi and was reduced to my data card – which, in cost terms, is the blogging equivalent of driving a 4 by 4.  But while others talked about how the church must embrace the eco-agenda, I commuted steadily on the Brompton [in which I do not have shares] wearing my Bear Scotland yellow waistcoat.

One never approaches Synod with over-high expectations … but actually there was some good stuff.  The worship for example – particularly the opening Eucharist and particularly its music.  Our diocesan representatives seemed to be very visible and most of them spoke and spoke well.  The dinner was as convivial as ever with a wonderful speech from the Minister of St Giles Cathedral who, in the course of a wide-ranging address, introduced us to potential of the rural phone box as a place of sexual assignation and potential.

I spent some time trying to explain to the Scotsman that, although Synod appeared to have been hesitant about the Anglican Covenant, we were still in there.  We just don’t like Covenants.   Some Synod members had a short, sharp introduction to the practice of Voting by Orders when the proposed canonical revision of the definition of Membership was voted down by the Bishops – not guilty, I assure you.

I was particularly interested in the way Ian Paton gently challenged the idea of ‘inclusive’ as a self-evident good.  It’s the invitation which is for all ….   It seemed to me that his contribution took the issue out of the area of rights and entitlement and placed it in the area of discipleship and undeserved acceptance.

Finally, I came away having been elected as Convenor of the Mission and Ministry Board.  It embraces everything from training to ministry and many more besides – many things that I feel passionately about.  It’s full of remarkable people doing wonderful things.  It’s a great opportunity and, almost certainly, a poisoned chalice.  But that’s what it’s all about.

Still travelling the diocese with the policy … I was reminded last night of my old friend Tom Keightley – a great man for the pithy comment expressed in the patois of Upperlands, Co Derry.  ‘All superstructure and no infrastructure,’ said Tom.  He meant, I assume, that we could have lots of bright ideas but nobody to put them into practice.  And I learnt a bit of that last night.  In shaping the policy, we haven’t said enough about how good practice might be shared from one congregation to another.  We’ve said a lot about organisation and not enough about prayer.  Interesting this stuff of asking people what they think ….

I’m doing a series of meetings around the diocese at the moment – reception process for our new Diocesan Policy.  It’s the outcome of two years work and much involvement of clergy and laity.  If you’re interested, you’ll find it to download from our diocesan website.   I  think what I’ve found interesting so far is  the way in which the underlying challenge becomes clear as we talk about it.  The SEC is a small church.  It has survived by developing a strong sense of its independence – the shadow side of that is a church which is made up of ‘people like us’ and doesn’t seek a strong involvement in the wider community.  The challenge is to turn outwards and engage .. in mission and service.  The question is whether we dare to believe that a church which does that may grow stronger – while a church which lives to itself will inevitably grow weaker.

Poppy is very much enjoying the fine weather – indeed she was missing yesterday for at least five minutes.  We thought she had probably gone to visit the Guide House across the road from Blogstead but she had just moved her bird-watching activities a bit further down the back hedge.

Meanwhile, as with all Burmese cats, her fondness for ritual action grows daily.  I did a bit of surfing to try and find some research about it – but it doesn’t seem to be there.  Under the spare room bed – some minor shouting – some pawing of the ground – some almost allowing herself to be caught and then not – and finally she plays dead cat at my feet and graciously allows herself to be picked up.

But I suppose she’s a bit preoccupied, what with preparing for Lambeth and all that.  If she shares her thoughts on that subject with me, I’ll let you know.