Word reaches me that my former parishioners are pleased that I haven’t forgotten them – but how could I? So here is the third Thought for the Day for BBC Northern Ireland
Meanwhile I’ve been struck by some mighty bug which has turned me inside out and destroyed even my already limited capacity for conscious thought. I feel like one of those opera singers who dies noisily and continuously while singing some great aria. But a meeting between the Standing Committee and the College of Bishops tomorrow morning should revive my spirits and set me up for the weekend.
David im glad to see that you have mentioned that your former parishoners havent forgot about you because you are 100% right. They havent!
God Bless. Neil
Well that’s a cheering thought which I shall share with my dynamic and cosmopolitan colleagues. And of course we have no truck with hierarchies – no archbishop or primate. And, given the independent-mindedness of the SEC, there is hardly room for bishops at all.
I’m always intrigued by the collective terms for bishop – in Scotland it is a college, something that sounds dynamic and cosmopolitan; in Ireland we have a house, rather more static and domestic; in England it is a bench (stemming, I think from their presence in the English parliament), and a bench is, well, wooden.