Kairos

There is a moment – I missed it last year and doubt if I quite got it this year – when the famous Beech Hedge at Meikleour comes out in Autumn colours. And then it is gone. Meanwhile two miles away at Blogstead Episcopi we’re coming to the end of the potato harvest. Not personally, you must understand. But the roads and our cars are filthy.

I’ve been busy with Inter-faith and Ecumenical things. First, Cardinal Keith O’Brien invited the whole community of faith leaders to come together in Edinburgh to mark a similar gathering hosted by Pope Benedict in Assisi. There was a dignity and formality about the occasion which seemed to me to suggest that there is substance in what we share. And then two days of ACTS – Action for Churches Together in Scotland – Members’ Meeting. We can all see that we are in transition and so we are searching for vision and common purpose. I’ve never, to be honest, been much of a ‘one’ for the formal processes of ecumenical dialogue. But there’s clarity and straightforwardness – not always comfortable – in the mix at the moment. And that suggests that we are on the path to somewhere.