We are off to Kolkata for a week – eight of us from our diocese. The Diocese of Calcutta is our Companion Diocese and we are going for the celebrations to mark the end of the 200th Anniversary Year of the diocese. As always things get a bit complicated – what with the weather and the closure of the Forth Bridge. But Poppy the cat was safely handed over in the car park at Stirling Services so we are ready to go.
We are going to be doing a bit of exploring in the diocese and, probably, quite a bit of sitting in the Kolkata traffic. We have most of the contents of several Boots Pharmacies with us so all should be well.
I’ll be preaching at the Anniversary Service and we hope to meet the President of India who will be there. To put it mildly, there is still a bit of work to do on that. Rev Dan O’Connor has been briefing me about Thomas Middleton, the first bishop. And there is the colonial past and the Scottish part in that. And more recently the birth of the Church of North India as an icon of visible unity. A lot to think about.
Did you know that it was two Scottish brothers that actually set the tone for Indian Independence?
The initiated and founded the Indian national Congress, were prolific Business Men and they were the Yule Brothers.
There are other Scottish interests in Calcutta Such as the Calcutta Rangers Club founded in 1896 by the Scottish Sappers.
And of course my own personal Scottish connection. My Great, grandfather came from Scotland as a Judge. His name was George Jenkin Waters.