Across the boundary

Diocesan life in the Scottish Episcopal Church happens in relatively watertight compartments. So it’s been good today to break out of that.

I was in St Paul’s Cathedral in Dundee this morning. I couldn’t get to the Institution of Jeremy Auld as the new Provost. He’s taken on a challenging ministry and I was glad to join them this morning – a lovely building, wonderful music and a congregation in good heart. So this is what I said

This evening saw the Ordination of Valerie Walker in our Cathedral in Perth – the preacher was Bishop Mark of Moray, Ross and Caithness. We’ve set up Valerie’s curacy as a Diocesan Curacy – in which she will serve in Holy Trinity, Dunfermline, with St Margaret’s Rosyth and in St John’s Alloa. We need to provide good training curacies for our newly-ordained clergy. But we find it increasingly hard to find single congregations which can take that on. So holding it within the diocese enables us to broaden the experience for the curate – and give more of the diocese the encouragement of being part of the ministry of a newly-ordained person.