Well an interesting week.
I’ve been at a meeting of the UK Bishops in Oxford in the first half of the week. Basically that means the Church of England House of Bishops with the bishops of Ireland, Scotland and Wales. It’s always interesting to work out how to be ‘not the Church of England’ in a positive and helpful way. By the way some of the new generation of suffragan bishops are beginning to look somewhat youthful. Bad sign when bishops start looking young.
I got back to Edinburgh in time to go to Holyrood for the meeting between the Queen and the Pope at the start of the State Visit. I was able to greet both of them – which is much more than I expected. And when they had gone off elsewhere, I found myself in a tent with 400 interesting people from all over the UK. So I did a bit of networking.
Tomorrow I’m going to be part of the meeting with the Anglican Church at Lambeth and attend the Pope’s Speech in Westminster Hall and the Service in Westminster Abbey. These things don’t happen often – so whatever I feel about some aspects of all this, it’s a great privilege to be part of it.
And then it’s time for a family wedding in Dublin.
Ah, it was the UK bishops – that explains why mine went to West Cork instead.