They’ve been electing a bishop for Aberdeen and Orkney today – to replace Bruce who will be taking up permanent residence here at Blogstead Episcopi when he returns from the US. It brings back memories of the same process in St Andrews two years ago. The SEC has an extraordinarily open way of electing bishops – they would not have ended up with me otherwise. Indeed Canon 4 is a sort of hobby for the church – constantly fine-tuned and adjusted. Still for today’s candidates – as it was for me – it was a fairly daunting task to go in and speak to over 100 people on the ‘future of the diocese and the role of the bishop’ – supported only by the Spirit and my minder’s efforts to ply me with sherry out the back. One thing surprises me – I recently revisited what I said in my presentation and was surprised by how much of what I believed then about the diocese and its future I still believe now. Which means, I assume, that either I knew what I was talking about – or that I didn’t then and still don’t. Time will tell.