Category: Blog Entry

I was in Blairgowrie this morning.  Like Portnoo in Donegal, the clear glass allows one to gaze through the windows while preaching.  Delightful people who can cope with us inviting ourselves to their Burns Night Supper on Saturday!  And if you want to learn how to build a small and attractive church hall and integrate it with the church – this is the place.
This [and Coupar Angus] are about as close as we get to having a ‘local’ – church that is.  I think that the Meiklour Arms meets the other need.  We took the opportunity of travelling from Blogstead Episcopi in separate carriages – so that Alison could arrive at the same time as the rest of the congregation.  So we missed sharing a magic moment in the local scenery.  End of our lane and turn left – a simply magnificent panorama of the Tay Valley with a circle of snow-capped mountains all around.  In ‘appropriate music’ terms, it would definitely rate final movement of Beethoven’s Choral Symphony.

Just coming to 24 years since I ceased to be Church of Ireland Youth Officer and headed back into the certainties, peace and order of parochial ministry. I attended my second meeting of the Provincial Youth Network in Edinburgh today – alas no copies of Cosmo or Closer to keep me going during the less exciting bits of the meeting. I must say that they manage to do a lot with very limited resources – but there is still that familiar feeling of having rowed across to an offshore island while the real business of the church is done on the mainland. And yet … most of the reading which I have been doing en route to our Diocesan Strategy which hits the table at the meeting of our Review Group on Monday says that age factors are critical for church growth. Age profile of clergy is critical and so is the presence of at least some people under 45 in the congregation. Meanwhile I spend my Saturday afternoon with people most of whom were not born when I left full time church youth work.

End of an interesting week – three nights away.  The insulation levels at Blogstead are so high that I am starting to feel cold almost everywhere else.  Or is it just the thinning of the blood.

I coined the phrase, ‘spiritual well-being in good order’ – about the theme of the Clergy Conference.  One of my correspondents inconveniently but reasonably wants to know what I meant.  I think that what we were exploring was not just the disciplines of the interior devotional life – although that is foundational.  Where we were heading was towards exploration of the nature of ministry and the personal and spiritual demands which it makes – that for the most part we don’t have professional skills or cut-outs to work with – rather it’s ‘nothing in my hand I bring …’  How do we deal with our fear?  How do we deal with other people’s anger – and our own?  How do we connect at the deepest level with people but, at the same time, maintain the space which makes ministry possible?  The answer to all of those question is, for me, inextricably linked to our spiritual and emotional well-being.

I’ll await the results of the evaluation – but it seemed pretty good to me.  The turn-out of clergy was very good.  We were looking at aspects of spirituality – some personal and reflective material with David Lunan of the Glasgow Presbytery of the C of S; some applied spirituality with Cecelia Clegg of the Dept of Theology and Public Issues at New College in the Univ of Edinburgh.  And they were both excellent.  The Green Hotel in Kinross turned out to be a first class venue and the extra-curricular activities were ..

We also took a look at our ‘issues of the moment’ – the proposed Year of Stewardship and the working out of our Diocesan Review process.  We seem now to have the confidence to talk about doing things which we know are going to be difficult – but not to talk ourselves out of doing them!  Can’t ask better than that.

And why spirituality?  Well, it’s what you would expect clergy to talk about.  But more than that.  Ministry today is very demanding in personal terms  –  we have to reshape it as we do it and the days when clergy lived in a conflict-free zone are long gone.  To be open and collaborative in your working and to offer authoritative leadership without being authoritarian, you need to have your spiritual well-being in good order.

I have to try and keep ahead of members of the clergy who are filing blog entries by carrier pigeon from the Diocesan Clergy Conference.  Well – a good time is being had by all .. wish you were here … etc.  Certainly my attitude to these events in the past has tended to be, ‘I have to go – so I’ll go’ and I have enjoyed them well enough when I’ve been there.  But I suppose I feel a bit different about it now.  I am very aware that our clergy are separated by very large tracts of moor and mountain – so it is important for us to spend some time together and develop a sense of what it is that we are trying to do together.

Cupar in Fife is one of those charming places.  It nestles in the folds of the hills in the middle of Fife.  It has some lovely buildings and plenty of character.  There are more and more young families because the house prices in St Andrews are so high.  Today marked the start of the new Sunday School – a real commitment to the future.

Cupar 2nd after Epiphany 14.1.07.doc

But of course the real story of today is that somehow or other we went off for the day leaving Poppy out in the wet and cold.  Neither of us is prepared to plead guilty.  Not a happy cat.  She doesn’t do unseasonal outdoors.

Off to Bridge of Allan today for the Institution of Rev Dom Ind – and a real feeling of hope and expectation. This congregation has come a long way under Kelvin’s leadership and it is clear that people are ready to travel further. Our church places a very high value on the sharing together in ministry of clergy and laity. But that lives in harmony with one of the key elements of congregational growth – the offering of leadership in the name of Christ and the accepting of that leadership. At the simplest level, it’s about consent – but it’s more about a peculiar mixture of trust and hope through which the Spirit works.
Institution of Dom Ind Bridge of Allan 13th January.doc

Some time since fans of Poppy had an update.  So here for the benefit of Miss Matilda, Thumper and other on-line felines ….  Poppy has been concerned as to whether her portrait exhibited in the Perth Art Society Exhibition [and on sale at £250 as ‘Poppy the Bishop’s Cat’] did actually sell.  She felt that, while it reflected the sleekness of her coat, it perhaps did less justice to the sleekness of her physique.

Meanwhile, she enjoyed a post-Christmas break in Edinburgh with Simon – indeed the cappuchino-belt of Bruntsfield seemed closer to her natural habitat than the grouse moors of Perthshire.  Simon did mention that, in terms of her emotional demands, she was pretty high-maintenance, but he loyally affirmed that they were glad to have her.

Since her return to Blogstead, the weather has been pretty inclement.  Indeed her tolerance of high winds is about the same at that of the high-sided vehicles on the Forth Bridge. But springtime is coming and the house martens will be returning ..

Heading for Edinburgh this morning on the train – on what they call around here a dreach day. Always interesting to see who gets on and off at Gleneagles Station – this time it was two elderly gents with posh luggage. One sank into his seat and said in those tones which reverberate around a carriage – ‘London by tea time and, if all goes well, Paris by bedtime’ ‘God bless you, sir,’ I thought. ‘And may the light tread of your carbon footprint speed your journey!’ And I continued on my way to the meeting of the Information and Communication Board …

But it set me musing into my laptop about how much more romantic train travel is than just hopping on Easyjet. And then I became nostalgic about the days when travel really was travel in the even older and more faithful Passat.  I thought about the ‘aire’ we stopped in once heading south on the Entre Deux Mers Autoroute where you could actually smell the warm southern wind coming towards you. The children – who were all bred to be stalwart travellers – but who had been asking since the outer suburbs of Stranraer, ‘Are we nearly there yet?’ at last began to believe that some time …

I was wondering why I didn’t seemed to have anything to say to the blog – it may be because we are working hard on the strategy document for our Diocesan Review.  Lots of research and much discussion – but in the end you have to try and write it down.  And of course the people who are writing it down are the people who have going to have to try and carry it out.  I’ve seen more than my share of these things over the years.  Greatest crime?  To raise hope but not deliver.  Second greatest crime?  To add to the burdens of clergy without taking anything away.