Category: Blog Entry

Brrrr

Even as I was pondering the final cut of the Blogstead croquet lawn, winter has arrived.  Top of the road this morning on my way to Glenalmond, I was greeted by snow-capped mountains all around.

I’m not much of a coat person, mainly because I leave them behind everywhere.  But I dug out the overcoat today and managed to bring it safely home again.  The faithful Passat – now 153000 miles – is a bit limited in the heater department since I resolved the leak in the heater matrix [which turned it into a travelling sauna] by giving it a dose of Radwell.

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Remembrance again

Interesting responses on remembrance. I think that what disturbs me is this. Sacrifice is obviously a core Christian value. It is not absent from today’s [secular] society but it is counter-cultural – see the response to the Warwickshire firemen. The challenge of Remembrance Sunday is largely to do with how one honours sacrifice in war – while not getting drawn into honouring the very flawed sets of circumstances in which that sacrifice tends to be required. By that I mean the nationalisms – stretched between Horace’s ‘dulce et decorum est pro patria mori’ quoted as ‘the old lie’ by Wilfred Owen – and the partial truths which sustain them: ‘They don’t love freedom the way we love freedom’ – George W Bush. And there is also what is plain to see – that sacrifice tends to be called for by older people and given by younger people. And what I saw plainly in Northern Ireland – that sacrifice tends to be made by working class people rather than by middle and upper class people.

Dignity in Words

It sounds patronising and it’s not meant to be.  But I am overwhelmed by the ability of ‘ordinary’ people to say what needs to be said with dignity and almost without self pity.  The families of the Warwickshire firemen are remarkable – the bride of three weeks .. ‘married on October 9th .. happiest day .. meant to be together for ever .. keeping a place in heaven for me’ .. extraordinary language which moves in and out of the religious world with utter naturalness.  And the family of Meredith Kercher – particularly her sister – dealing with her death in what are obviously dreadful circumstances and yet quietly rescuing her dignity and value with gentle and powerful words full of humour and love.

Remembrance

I’m struggling with Sunday at present.  I get very emotional about the remembering thing – maybe because I’ve lived most of my life with strutting and posturing nationalisms and I detest them.  Done the war poets – I think I’ll go back to Sebastian Faulks’ Birdsong which remains the very best for me – the passage where the young soldiers write letters home on the eve of battle …

Connected

Our Mark got safely back from Thailand on Sunday.  He spent two weeks back in Bangkok – in the orphanage where he volunteered for three months just before last Christmas – using his physiotherapy skills with young adults, many with cerebral palsy.   Facebook allowed us to watch him arranging to meet Simon in Bangkok – Simon in turn is travelling in SE Asia en route to a year’s work in Australia.  Our children do the interesting travelling – I was on the 7 am flight to Luton this morning for interviews with the Mission to Seafarers.  It suddenly seemed so cramped that I could hardly open my newspaper.   Battery hen stuff.  Maybe it’s time for the sleeper – 11.18 from Perth arriving 7.30 in Euston.  Proper travel.

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Melody in the heart

Drove west this morning through Crieff and Comrie and the great symphony of autumn colours to Balquidder where Joan had organised a group of friends to play Dvorak’s Serenade for Strings.  A great experience – I mimed in the back of the Second Violins remembering the days before ministry gobbled me up and I could play the violin on a good day.  And then back to Perth to do a little light preaching at Choral Evensong in the Cathedral marking the end of an RSCM day for Choirs – marking too the fact that music and singing had a considerable part to play in my calling to ministry.  So you win some, you lose some.

Fits like a glove

There was a strong SEC turn-out last night to see ++Idris installed as Deacon of the Skinners and Glovers in Glasgow.  Quite an achievement for an episcopalian bishop [how do we stop people using that?] to find his way to the heart of a significant and historic piece of city life in that way.  Bishop James Jones talked about regeneration in Liverpool and Glasgow – saying it wasn’t worth much unless it had love and justice at its heart.  Sounded to me like the same speech as I once heard Bishop Desmond Tutu making to community workers in Belfast – not much point attempting to build peace unless it has spirituality at its heart.

Some things just grow and grow

I’m sure Bishop Proudie wouldn’t have concerned himself with such matters – what are Chaplains for, after all? I seem to have ended up deeply involved in various aspects of Blogstead management. Today it was the servicing of multiple boilers. Saturday will be the ceremonial emptying of all four septic tanks – I intend to be absent for that – playing sweet-scented chamber music in Balquidder. And finally we shall have the servicing of the septic tanks. Enough is enough, I think.

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Poppy Update

Poppy is getting along just fine – although the colder weather is not altogether to her liking.  She has become a mighty hunter – establishing firstly a ‘take-away’ mouse facility beside the fuschia plantation in the Blogstead garden.  We have to be careful to keep the doors closed when she is out – otherwise she arrives in the midst with live prey.  She has also established a ‘room service’ arrangement – depositing dead mice during the night at the top of the stairs and on her blanket in the family room.  We do not know where they are coming from

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Sunday

Another ‘it’s tough but somebody has to do it’ day as we headed off across Fife to the East Neuk in the early morning sunshine to join the members of our congregations in Elie and Pittenweem. These are beautiful little villages beside the sea and they have small and faithful congregations. As so often in the SEC, these congregations are full of fascinating people.

In Elie, we found Rev Professor Stuart Hall totally absorbed in the organ voluntary. In Pittenweem, the organist is Ursula who designed the two new windows which were dedicated shortly after I arrived.

And then on to a magnificent service in the Cathedral for the Ordination of Christine Barclay and the installation of our new Dean, Kenny Rathband, and three Canons, Jonathan Mason, Shirley Lobley and Alison Peden.  I feel that I have to quote the names in full because I risked a fairly complicated piece of welcoming at the beginning without a script in my hand .. and shouldn’t have.  All right to do a David Cameron for sermons but lists are different!

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