Category: Blog Entry

Roland Walls again

I was intrigued by his description of the Scottish Episcopal Church .. ‘that almost its sole raison d’etre has been to be a non-Catholic form of sacramental Christianity …. through thick and thin they did preserve that sacramental tradition in the face of a highly non-sacramental church.’ That’s interesting as a statement of what we are for – a sacramental counter-balance to the Kirk. But of course there are other things that we seem to be for – a liberal expression of Christianity … a marker of the identity of a distinct cultural group. The danger is, of course, that if we are mainly defined in adversarial/over-against terms, we may never manage to be a church with a mission to the whole of society expressed through a living tradition which we value.

Meanwhile back at Bogstead, we are dealing with an issue to do with our septic tanks. Like Tutankhamun’s tomb, they consist of a number of interlinked chambers which need to be emptied and filled in a particular sequence. Should anything go amiss with that ordered sequence, terrible problems result. Of which more tomorrow ..

One?

My Facebook homepage records that ‘I think I have had enough for today’.  Our twice-yearly meeting with the Catholic Bishops was followed .. by a nice lunch .. and then by a lengthy meeting of the College of Bishops.  On the train home, I finished ‘Mole under the Fence’ – conversations with Roland Walls, a wonderful mystic of a man who served as Priest in Charge of the famous Rosslyn Chapel .. became a Catholic .. established a religious community.  I don’t think he would have found our meeting today particularly exciting.  He said, ‘I’m not one of those who despise formal ecumenism.  It’s all been part of a very necessary process in the simplification of faith’  Would that it were so!

Callander Youth Project

I dropped in today to the Callander Youth Project which lives in the Leisure Centre in Callendar.  I’m glad to be able to say that the SEC is one of its financial supporters.  With a staff of seven and close links to McLaren High School next door, they offer 12 different youth initiatives and projects.  I took a look at Compass – described as a dedicated support service for young people in the High School.  I asked all the questions about young people in the rural community.  I suspect that there are many young people who are isolated and bored and have all sorts of issues and problems – and working with them is demanding.  The results, as always, come slowly – but, when it happens, there is something magical about seeing young people gaining confidence and interacting positively with the world.

Early Christmas

Quick weekend trip to Dublin to deliver presents to our extended family in Dublin.  People there are pre-occupied with the belief that the Celtic Tiger has taken a one way trip through the cat flap.  I would think that any fall in house prices could only be welcome if it made it possible for first-time buyers to buy houses, etc.  Readers of Hillhall Presbyterian Church’s Wayside Pulpit in Belfast will want to know that it now reads, ‘Seven days without prayer makes one weak.’  And the Sunday Times had an interesting article on strategic choosing of godparents.

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It’s the vision thing – or is it?

We’re still pushing along at the Diocesan Review process.  And it’s moving steadily.  I have almost lost count of the number of times I have been ’round the houses’ with this kind of process.  People think it’s about visionary leadership.  I suppose it is – new ideas, new approaches, new angles on old problems.  But I think it’s even more a process of working out which five of the hundred and twenty-five bright ideas you are actually going to pursue – persistently asking, ‘But what are we actually going to do?’

So I’m hoping to be able to call it ‘Done’ by the Diocesan Synod in March – tho’ it will take a bit longer than that to work it through properly.

Aids Week

Coffin Shop – all sizes – across the road from the entrance to the Ulster Carpets factory in Durban when I visited. HIV rates were in the high 30%’s at that time. My most challenging moment? Sitting in a township house near Port Elizabeth – plastic sheeting to keep the rain out – with a lady who was obviously terminally ill with Aids. She hadn’t seen a doctor and had got medicines that other people suggested. We talked about it – falteringly – while an American medical soap played on the TV in the room. Medicine as entertainment in the presence of terminal illness. Then the priest I was with said, ‘David, will you pray with us?’

Subtle Sectarianism

Just one more about this. At the Sectarianism conference, the Moderator raised a question about the way in which sectarianism inhibits open debate between churches. I think she was expressing the hope that we could reach a stage of maturity where churches could take issue with one another without the media and others placing that debate in a sectarian context.

Is it true that the latent and subtle sectarianism of our society hinders open debate? Yes I think it is difficult to debate issues such as faith schools or the social and moral positions set out by the Cardinal. It’s not totally the fault of the churches – just that some element of sectarianism enters in or is imputed to the debate in a way which makes it very difficult to conduct. It’s as if there is always more at stake than the issue itself.

And that in turn takes me back to Northern Ireland – where one of the signs of the presence of sectarianism was the presence of anger or passion which was out of proportion to the significance of the issue itself.

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Sectarianism

I took myself to Glasgow yesterday for a conference on Sectarianism.  The east of Scotland is largely free of ‘in your face’ sectarianism although that probably means that I haven’t grasped the nuances of it yet.  The west of Scotland is a different matter.  I got my ten minutes at the beginning with representatives of other churches.  Since I left Northern Ireland, I have become more aware of some of the unintended effects of sectarianism – chiefly the way it actually becomes at low levels part of the glue that holds communities and churches together.  It produces a illusory sense of solidarity rooted in ‘us and them’.  In that way it creates a false strength in churches while hollowing them out from the inside.  Some of the fragility in our churches here in Scotland is precisely because that glue isn’t there – and, difficult as it is, we’re the better for it.  By the way, I still believe that the ‘English Church’ tag is sectarian because it carries the combination which is at the heart of all sectarianism – a mixture of religion with one of the other strands of identity.

Outside In

I did a bit more exploring of the ‘outsider’ issue which has been around in the comments on the blog.  Down in Bridge of Allan today, we had five confirmations and celebrated Christ the King as their Patronal Festival.  If I understand it properly, Dom and his congregation – with some assistance from the Spirit – are busy drawing in outsiders.   They are a warm and welcoming community.  And what we had today was worship of high quality in the catholic tradition – which is the heartland of the identity of the SEC.  Today’s congregation was very diverse – friends and family of those being confirmed.  But even those who came from very different traditions could recognise and appreciate the authenticity of today’s worship.  I think that may be the genius of the SEC – nothing to protect and everything to share.  The sermon was something like this.

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Culture

Bit of culture today – the Joan Eardley Exhibition at the National Gallery. This is ‘Three Children at a Tenement Window’. It was good. I do have a tendency to lapse into people-watching in these moments – Edinburgh is unparalleled on that front. I also liked the idea that she kept on painting the same things – Samson children and her cottage in NE Scotland – bit like Monet and the Water Lilies. I thought maybe that this showed a lack of creative imagination until I realised on reflection that I am about to have my 31st attempt at the Christmas sermon. And I don’t expect to get it complete this time either.