We’ve been at Simon and Kerry’s wedding today in Belfast – and a great day out it was. I took the risk of a few wedding words. Risk because the feet of clay always feel very obvious in that area.
By the way, early risers and insomniacs will find me on Prayer for the Day on Radio 4 all next week.
How could it not be? After all we were prayed for by the whole Anglican Communion today in the Cycle of Prayer. Not just a warm feeling – it makes you think about the loss should the Communion fracture. But it’s been a very hopeful week there too. There has been a remarkable graciousness from the bishops of the Episcopal Church – and an extraordinary achievement on the part of ++Rowan.
Meanwhile our bishops have just spent 24 hours on the island of Cumbrae in the Clyde. If you haven’t visited the Cathedral of the Isles and the College of the Holy Spirit, you should. Ten minutes from Largs on the ferry.
I thought you might be interested in the room allocation. I was in Charity – which seemed rather more aspirational than descriptive. The others were: Primus-Fortitude; Brechin-Hope; Aberdeen and Orkney-Faith; Edinburgh-Kindness; Moray-Gentleness; Argyll-Peace. But maybe you could suggest more appropriate allocations? I noted that none of us was allocated either Temperance or Chastity.
I’ve been sharing the lot of the commuters today. Thought about driving to Edinburgh this morning – but accident and one hour delay on the Forth Bridge put me on the train with Brompton. Survived meeting on mission strategy and headed for the BBC to record Prayer for the Day. Nice man at door said I could put Brompton in the basement so I told him to be very afraid because I might write about him in my blog. Folded up Brompton and put it under the staircase. Recorded scripts and cycled to Waverley. Got on 1533 train home and they cancelled it. Then my mobile phone battery ran out. To my utter amazement, Scotrail put me in a taxi from Stirling to Perth – so that I could then drive to Comrie.
Tomorrow is Largs and Cumbrae for a Bishops’ meeting overnight – then Glasgow to Belfast for a wedding on Saturday and then home for a rest.
My struggles with the sermon call to mind one of the best and shortest ever – which my local Catholic neighbour, the great Father McGuinness, claimed to have preached in a time of some small local difficulty.
‘In nomine patri, etc., etc.
Could you tell me .. what purpose in the cause of Irish Unity or the Kingdom of Heaven was served when you burnt the bingo bus?
In nomine, etc., etc’
I do miss it sometimes.
Great line from Dougal when Mark and I were watching back to back Father Ted late last night:
‘Sure they’re only nuns, Ted’
The Gospel today was the story of the Unjust Steward. Can anybody enlighten me with any kind of understanding of what it was about? I did my best in Crieff this morning – linking it with Confirmation for good measure – but I don’t feel up to providing you with the link. Indeed, my failure to grasp its meaning probably means that I could have linked it with almost anything without difficulty – the launch of a ship, the blessing of a new vacuum cleaner, etc. No doubt +Bob on his first episcopal Sunday went through it like a knife through butter.
It was a great day in Aberdeen as, with a little help from the Spirit, we sent Bob on his way as the new Bishop of Aberdeen and Orkney. Provost Kelvin said that it looks as if there has been a bishop inside him all along – it looked right and it felt right. The liturgy was magnficent and the music superb. Trevor Hart managed to get Trollope into the sermon but must have left out the Father Ted section – I’ll forgive him for that.
As the moment arrived for Bob, I thought about how much he will give of himself without letting himself get in the way. And I thought about what an extraordinary gift this all is – the trust which is placed in you, the wave of goodwill and prayer on which you are carried along, the brave hopes that your leadership may point the way forward, the surprise when people seem glad to see you. Then I saw the other pictures – the endless travelling, driving alone at night; the impossible meetings, the festering problems, the administative stuff.
It’s impossible – but Bob will be made equal to it and more. I do believe in the grace of ordination. That’s the wonder of it.
It’s tempting to write about the trivia of Blogstead and diocesan life – is that real life or is it not? But I’ve been continuing to read the news from the Bishops’ meeting of The Episcopal Church on Thinking Anglicans
The 30 September deadline – or is it a deadline? – looms. It’s not that the issues don’t affect us in Scotland. They do. And we are not good at dealing with them. But what is happening in New Orleans will deeply affect all of us in the Anglican Communion. And there is virtually nothing which we can do – apart from pray.
Those of you who aren’t part of the charmed inner circle of life in the close here at Blogstead might be surprised to know that I don’t spend much time at our Cathedral – St Ninian’s whose very day it is today. It’s not that I don’t want to and don’t find it congenial – more that episcopal ministry is actually worked out in the trenches of diocesan life more than in my seat in the Cathedral.
So imagine my surprise when I went in today and found that it had changed out of all recognition. I think it is a beautiful building anyway – but new lighting has enhanced its proportions. The floor has been lightened so that it reflects the light and enhances the overall effect. The pews are gone – replaced by comfortable chairs in the most delicate shade of episcopal purple.
In our Diocesan Review, many of the clergy suggested that we needed to pay attention to our buildings – to make them bright, inviting and able to convey a sense of the numinous. St Ninian’s now does that in the most wonderful way – it speaks of a church which is serious about its ministry and its future. Drop in when you are passing.
I drove back from Edinburgh on the M90 today listening to the reports of the dreadful crash and loss of life on the M4 at Newport – car pursued by police turns onto motorway heading in the wrong direction. A couple of years ago, I was driving on the M1 back to Portadown from visiting my mother in Belfast – passing some lorries on a long straight stretch – car in the distance – coming towards me. It is an extraordinary thing when you expect a car to be travelling with you to find that it is closing at 150 mph. I found a space between two lorries and dived. My sister was with me: ‘I heard somebody screaming and realised it was me.’ We were very lucky.
The driver of the other car had a history of drug abuse – had come onto the motorway and been involved in a minor accident. While being interviewed by the police, he got back into his car, turned around and drove off. He was killed in a head-on collision about a mile behind us. Fortunately the occupants of the car he hit had only minor injuries.
Like the chap that I am, I headed off down to church and conducted Evensong. We didn’t sing, ‘O for a closer walk with God’
Sorry I forgot to bring my camera to the 150th Anniversary of our congregation at St Ninian’s, Alyth, today. You haven’t been to Alyth? You don’t know where it is? It’s a most beautiful small town just to the east of Blairgowrie with a little river running through the middle and a wonderful hardware shop in the square. It was a great celebration. The church was full and there seems to be confidence and hope in the future.
My attempt to link St Ninian and the Northern Rock crisis brought forth an answering and spontaneous response from the leader of the intercessions. I do find the sight of depositors queueing up to get their money back strangely disturbing. In my case it would be more likely that the banks would be queueing up outside Blogstead. The only exception to that is our oil supplier with whom we are astonishingly in credit because of the warm winters, the efficiency of the Blogstead boiler and the high levels of insulation – thermal, theological and emotional – in which Blogstead is wrapped.
