Category: Blog Entry

My apologies if you have been finding me hard to find of late.  The Blogstead Boffins are on the case.  There was a brief conversation about the updating of WordPress – brief because it was clear that there was little point continuing when I asked where WordPress was – on my computer or in cyberspace?  I really find it hard to grasp.  The doctrine of the Incarnation is a doodle in comparison.

On this 100th Anniversary of the Scout Movement, I think I probably find myself more in tune with concepts like ‘How to make a fire without matches’ and other pearls from Scouting for Boys.

I wonder if clergy everywhere are the same – my Palm is set so that Sunday is the end of the week. Interesting week too – interviews in London on Wednesday for Mission to Seafarers and Daily Service for the BBC in Edinburgh on Friday morning and all the usual stuff as well. This morning was Forfar where I attempted to say what I believe about prayer. They are between Rectors and cheerfully flourishing in the vacancy as congregations often do. This evening I took part in the opening eucharist of the first of the two Glenalmond Summer Camps. About 60 young people and a dedicated group of leaders – many of them giving up their holidays to be there. An unusual and welcome experience for me to be three times the age of most of the congregation – in Forfar, I was certainly on the younger edge of those present. And the best moment of the day was the evening sun through the magnificent west window of Glenalmond College Chapel.

So complicated life today.  Friends and admirers say that it is time I sorted out my profiles on Bebo and Facebook.  So I’ve started tinkering with it – which has had the unexpected parental benefit of enabling me to browse the party photos of all the junior members of the family.  But I’m a words person – like many of my generation.  So choosing a photo for my profile was too much – we settled in the end for this one of the day we sailed round the Fastnet Rock.  And the lighthouse is a faith symbol as well – or does it tell us other darker things about isolation or being all at sea or …

David – we’re going to miss you when you move to be Chaplain at Fettes. Meanwhile, when we came out of the Diocesan Review Meeting in Dunfermline, we were greeted by the sight of the faithful Passat and the Oriental Princess together. Combined age about 23 – combined mileage must be about 250000 – MOT’s passed must be around 17. It’s bangernomics and it’s greenish. Bangernomics, BTW, is the discipline of owning and running a car to the point where it has no monetary value. One therefore avoids the input of many barrels of oil in making a new one. Also and probably more importantly one negates the single greatest motoring cost – depreciation.

Todays flight on Easyjet lacked, shall we say, the urgency of my last experience where the girl jumped up and down in the aisle saying, ‘If I don’t get off this plane soon, I’m going to wet myself’

Today set the more mundane question, ‘Two passengers fail to turn up at the Boarding Gate.  We all sit and wait.  Do we gain more satisfaction from seeing them left behind – although we have to wait while their bags or taken off?  Or is it better to welcome them aboard with a round of applause?’  WWJD?

The lady sitting beside me gave her little girl a kiss after we landed.  I thought that was nice.  Reminded me of that dreadful Ryanair night in February …

My hairdresser in Portadown -who came from Dundee – told me that Perth is the place where people who live in Dundee hope to retire.  So Perth sounds like one of those places which has no social problems…. which is where CATH [Churches’ Action for the Homeless] comes in.  They have been running a Day Centre for the Homeless for about 15 years now – and have been developing all sorts of workshop/rehab projects to try and give young homeless people a new start.  They say that the number of regular ‘rough sleepers’ around Perth has fallen significantly – but, if the number of economic migrants increases, I suspect that they will become much busier.

Anyway, we gave CATH a cheque today from our Lent Appeal – a great relief to be thinking about something other than our own problems!  And they greeted us with a barbeque prepared by some of their young ‘service users’  You try to do things for people and …

Busy day on Saturday. My suggestion that the hawthorn hedge at the bottom of that garden might be left au naturel to provide a habitat for local wildlife fell on deaf ears. So it was ladder and snappers – and enough thorn to provide for our Good Friday Blogstead to Gallowhill Procession.

Then it was off to Glasgow where my neice Roisin and sister Helen were taking part in an unlikely exchange between the choir of Great St Mary’s, Cambridge, and the Backchat Youth Project from the Faslane Naval Base and the community at Helensborough. As always in Glasgow, we spent a while totally lost but did eventually arrive at Cathcart Old Church for the concert. No doubt about who won the prize in the ‘shake ma booty’ section – Backchat by a mile. The GSM choir sang with beauty and discipline – slightly muffled because the younger members were trying to read the new Harry Potter as they sang.

I did a little quiet research among the friendly members of the congregation afterwards … didn’t get around to Stewardship before it was time to go.

It’s always interesting down in Dollar – David was baptised and confirmed; Jan was confirmed and Ramsay was admitted to Holy Communion.  And, over the champagne which followed, I continued my mild professional researches from the previous evening in Glasgow.  The question is how [or why] this congregation sort of seems to gather people up almost accidently and certainly without making a fuss about it.  To be honest, the Diocesan Review does talk about creating ‘attractive congregations’ – but it doesn’t say how to do it.  And I doubt if it is accidental.  People here certainly feel a real sense of being a welcoming, caring, interested-in-people congregation – but it’s not just friendly, there is deep spirituality there too.  And there is leadership which is sure-footed and authoritative but which guides with a light touch.  And they enjoy themselves .. and the music is good.  Sounds like a fortunate series of accidents – which must mean that the Spirit found a way in somewhere.

Continuing sadness among junior members of the family at the collapse of the much-loved Magic Mic karaoke machine which Mark brought back from Thailand at Christmas. It’s clearly going to be replaced by either Mark or Simon – both of whom will be passing through Thailand shortly. Good news for the Blogstead OT’s – and, indeed, for the Diocesan Clergy Conference – because we have discovered that there is a christian add-on which would give us access to all-time greats like ‘Wide, wide is the ocean ….’

Thought you might like to see this happy group of residents from the close here at Blogstead Episcopi. We’re just back from one of our visits organised by the OT Department. They feel we should get out more. Spice is third from left. Poppy doesn’t do photos with Spice.

Meanwhile I spent an interesting morning with the Royal School of Church Music at their Summer Course in Dunblane – all singing their hearts out in that beautiful building. The RSCM is celebrating its 80th anniversary this year.  I realised with some concern that it almost 50 years since I attended my first RSCM course as a choir boy.  I had another look at the Dunblane memorial – never go there with visiting it and being moved by it.