Category: Blog Entry

 

I called in to have a look at the Walled Garden – another of the undiscovered gems of Perth. This is in the grounds of the Murray Royal Hospital and is run by Perth and Kinross Voluntary Action [PKAVS] as a series of projects with former psychiatric patients. They have gardening and carpentry and paint recycling and painting .. and best of all is the cafe with big buns. They work with about 45 people in the various projects. I thought it was a beautiful place – quite unlike the rather ‘interim’ state of the Blogstead gardens at present … where I continued to dig today while Spice stared fixedly through the gap in the fence for fully an hour hoping to catch a glimpse of Poppy.

Well, since we read this article in the Guardian about Oilseed Rape, our rural idyll here at Blogstead is no longer.  We are at present surrounded by a sea of canary yellow.  The deer are using periscopes and Poppy vanishes altogether.  The article cheerily tells us that ‘oilseed rape crops receive on average three herbicides, two fungicides and two insecticides during the course of a growing season.’  So when my Chaplain and I take the morning air in the lime tree walk, we wear full chemical warfare outfits.   The irony, of course, is that much of the crop goes to make biodiesel as part of the journey towards a cleaner and purer world.  Another example of brindling, I think.

So this afternoon I found myself in the middle of the Eucharist which ends a Cursillo Weekend.  People kept sort of half apologising that I might find its exuberance a bit hard to cope with – if only they knew about  some of the more extraordinary worship experiences which lie in my past and, indeed, those from which one yearned only to be released.  Obviously a very intense experience for the participants and an amazing level of support from former participants – the 4th Day.  I told them about the rather devastating question put to me on the phone last night be one of my former colleagues, ‘David, do you still believe in Jesus?’  It was the ‘still’ that troubled me.  Does she think it stops at Episcopal Ordination?

I feel helpless as I think about that community.  People talk about moving on – and maybe that makes sense on the level of standing up and going through the motions of daily routine because the alternative is what …. ?  But on the deeper levels, this kind of tragedy reverberates through the years and the generations in people and families.  And the ‘Who didn’t do what?’ witch-hunt gathers pace.  Of course we need to know.  But I can think of many times in Northern Ireland – another highly-stressed and gun-laden community – where I encountered people who were deeply angry, embittered – people whom I would have thought of as ‘scary’ – who plainly had at least a potential for violent outburst.  But which ones and when?  It’s the scale of the tragedy and the fact that it was not caused by disaster – natural or otherwise.  So people are denied any kind of closure or satisfaction.  They just have to carry it around with them.  Pray for them.

Well, as it turned out, not even the prospect of the College of Bishops and Standing Committee was enough to tempt me from my sick bed.  I did have a brief outing later in the afternoon for a hair cut but that was about enough.  Otherwise I’ve been filing and shredding and sending E Mails – Irish politics is all about making sure you do the right shredding before the other lot take over.  We’ll just have to see whether the AGM of Mission to Seafarers is enough to tempt me out tomorrow.

Poppy of course is enchanted by this new way of life which she regards as providing her with the 24/7 care to which she is entitled.  She has become very adventurous in her outdoor excursions.  The house martens have not yet returned to annoy her and she seemed foolishly indifferent to the very large bird circling ominously over the trees beyond the field.  Alison tried to get a picture of her stalking some pheasant but failed.

Word reaches me that my former parishioners are pleased that I haven’t forgotten them – but how could I? So here is the third Thought for the Day for BBC Northern Ireland

Meanwhile I’ve been struck by some mighty bug which has turned me inside out and destroyed even my already limited capacity for conscious thought. I feel like one of those opera singers who dies noisily and continuously while singing some great aria. But a meeting between the Standing Committee and the College of Bishops tomorrow morning should revive my spirits and set me up for the weekend.

On my way through Belfast, I recorded three of Thought for the Day for BBC Northern Ireland – being broadcast yesterday, today and tomorrow. It was an interesting task to find something to say and to avoid all the dangers of being disconnected/out of date.

This is Tuesday and here is Wednesday

I had a look at the Letterkenny Mail today and full of interest it was.  Firstly it has a Polish column – which tells you something about the new Ireland.  Upcoming events in this part of the world include the Karaoke Ireland Championships which are being held at the Voodoo Lounge in Letterkenny and the 50^th Anniversary Congress of Alcoholics Anonymous.  No sign of the Father Ted look-alike Contest – but then I haven’t enough hair.

Meanwhile, I’ve been re-reading old favourites as I tend to do in Donegal.  I’ve gradually been revisiting Susan Howatch’s novels about the Church of England – this time Absolute Truths where the Bishop ‘purrs along as effortlessly as a well-tuned Rolls Royce.’

Susan Howatch is described as ‘every bit as good as Trollope’ by the Liverpool Echo.  She seems much more interested in the theology – Trollope is mainly interested in the purity of ecclesiastical politics – and she seems fascinated by the idea that disaster lies in wait for smooth clerics.   But if I had to choose, it would be Trollope because he captures the real cynicism of which the ecclesiastical world is capable.

I’ve dipped into Arthur Ransome’s Swallowdale – and must do  something about getting a set of Biggles here.  Life would then be complete.

 

Well so it goes on.  I met the first Ferrari of the season in the lane today.  He probably had the Sat Nav programmed to locate the most expensive houses in the area.  This is madness on all sorts of levels.  As Ian rightly points out, the other side of it is young people with two hour commutes because they can’t afford to buy houses in Dublin.  Can it make sense for so much of the national wealth to be poured into static assets like housing? 

Meanwhile, the Irish Times explores the issue of Scottish Independence under the headline ‘Tartan Tide gathering momentu.’  It sets about a series of comparisons between Ireland and Scotland – similar population size; similar cultures; same economic challenge of building an economy on the edge of Europe beside a big neighbour.  But then it points out that between 1980 and 2005 GDP growth in Ireland averaged 5.2% while in Scotland it was 1.8%.

I’m agnostic on the Independence issue.  What the Irish Times fails to do, I think, is to demonstrate that the ‘missing link’ in the Scottish economy has been independence.  It does suggest that for Scotland to control its own fiscal policy would make all the difference.  But the link isn’t clear.  After all, for the first sixty years of independence, the Irish economy was stagnant and at times close to bust.  It is only within the last two decades that Ireland has ceased to export the cream of its young people

I’m still wallowing in nostalgia for the old Donegal.  In an old cottage across the valley, Andrew lives a simple life.  One New Year, we arrived to find all in darkness as the extreme weather had wiped out the power supply.  I asked Andrew, ‘Do you have electricity?’   ‘Yes I do,’ was the reply.  ‘Is your electricity working now?’  ‘No it isn’t’

Meanwhile the front page of today’s Irish Times carries a report of the qualities being sought by the Papal Nuncio in his soundings as part of the search for a new Bishop of Down and Connor.  Interesting reading: physical appearance; health; capacity for work; family background with particular reference to any possible hereditary condition; intellectual endowment and practical skills; temprament; judgement and balance; sense of responsibility; ability to establish ties of friendship.  It goes on: loyal obedience to the Holy Father … ; esteem for and acceptance of priestly celibacy as put forward by the magisterium of the church; respect for and observance of the norms governing divine worship and ecclesiastical attire.’

Our own Canon 4 sets out how a bishop is to be appointed/elected – but gives little guidance of this kind.  More helpful are the Anglican Communion guidelines as to the competencies required.  Meanwhile, in the absence of any better guidance, one just gets on with it.