Category: Blog Entry

Soderblom – Room 309 here in the Sigtuna Conference Centre where we are doing Porvoo stuff somewhere near Stockholm. It’s hard not to feel that one is marooned in an ecclesiastical version of Ikea – Soderblom being a stainless steel pedal bin. I fell asleep twice this afternoon in a session on Global Warming in Magnolia. Perhaps not surprising because the temperature was 23C and there is a foot of snow outside.

As you would expect me to say, Sweden is a wonderful country. But before we come back to that … the thing which I do appreciate here is the chance to observe some high quality leadership in the Scandinavian Lutheran Churches. Time to raise the game, I think.

Sweden .. etc, etc. I know they aren’t reading this so I can risk saying …. it always seems to be 1958 in Sweden. There’s a sort of unselfconscious wholesomeness about it which we couldn’t get near in Scotland. There’s money and a homogeneous society and a majority church … but then you find that budgets are being cut by 15% this year and Archbishop Anders is talking about the need to rediscover mission.

Which means that his job is harder than mine. Because it is always more difficult to provide leadership in a situation which is reducing and where people are experiencing a sense of loss. Much easier in Scotland where we are actually getting quite good at being christian community in a secular society. Which brings us to the Pope’s visit to Scotland – of which more tomorrow.

Obanagain today for more of the Episcopal Election. I shall miss it when it is over. Lochearnhead as beautiful as ever in the early morning – mirror smooth with the mountains and snow reflected in it. Still plenty of snow around and frozen lochs on the way to Crianlarich.

Meanwhile I’m continuing to read for the training – US recommendations are interesting just because they are a bit different. I’ve done with Spiders and Starfish and moved on to ‘Finding our Way Again’ by Brian McLaren. Seems to me to offer the best description I have read of that slippery idea that while the secular world has lost institutional religion [and could you blame it?] it is mad keen on spirituality.

For some time now, Poppy has been suggesting that she isn’t getting her fair share on this blog. So she has moved to her own Facebook page – if you want to go through the catflap, she’ll welcome you there at Poppy Chillingworth.

We went last night to Jane Eyre at Perth Theatre – well worth a visit. Co-incidentally, one of the stars was Beth from No 1 taking part in ‘her first professional engagement’ Strangely, her biog in the programme failed to mention how much she owes to her experience as a player in the Blogstead soap opera.

And finally … we marked this week five years since our arrival here. That’s both a short time and a long time, if you know what I mean. What seems strangest in retrospect is the fact that it never really occurred to me that it wouldn’t work out. Must be something vocational about that, I suppose.

Well it’s good to be back. I felt that I went straight from the Oxford high table to the breakfast muffin at Birmingham Airport.

Anyway, I was reading ‘The Starfish and the Spider – the unstoppable power of leaderless organisations’ while I was away. Spiders don’t function if you lop bits off or disable their central brain – starfish don’t have a central system at all. It’s on the reading list for the College for Bishops – I’m doing another week of training in May with the most recent three years of bishops of TEC – as a consumer, I hasten to add.

The suggestion is that organisations which don’t have any central organisation or direction – like Alcoholics Anonymous or Skype – energise people at every level. Efforts to stifle simply make them stronger. Organisations with a centralised structure stifle initiative and flexible response – and can be readily disabled. So that’s the Vatican dealt with for a start! But what of the SEC, one wonders?

Well – we are a church of small government compared with many. We have a fair amount of collegiality and collaboration in our DNA. But I find myself of divided mind. I like nothing better than to be surprised by something that happens at the ‘grass roots’ and we are attempting to create a culture which makes that more rather than less likely. But I suppose that an episcopal church recognises the need for a ‘minding’ function – a bit of protecting, a bit of making safe, a bit of creating a space in which all can be heard and alternative possibilities created. But the distance between that and stifling is very small.

Well, I try to get from one end of Canon 4 – the Election of Bishops – to the other. Keen-eyed readers will have seen a re-advertisement seeking nominations in the election for the Diocese of Argyll and the Isles. But I also continue to do the day job – some time ago we put May 15 in the diary for a large Casting the Net diocesan event. When there is snow on the ground, May 15 seems a long time away. But it isn’t. So we are having to do some rapid thinking about it.

Meanwhile I am in Belfast, having been to Dublin today for the funeral of one of Alison’s uncles. This was the delightful Uncle Harold who died on Tuesday, having driven himself over for lunch with his daughter. He always carried a measuring tape in his pocket just in case.

Then it’s home tomorrow. Oxford on Sunday to preach a Ladyday University Sermon in Oriel, my old College. I’m being met by a retired priest from Oxford with whom I did a placement 35 years ago. Then back to Edinburgh on Monday morning for two days of Faith and Order Board and the Mission and Ministry Board – where we hope to pick up on the outcomes of the Consultation on Mission and Ministry Policy for the SEC which we ran last week.

Vocation?

Well that’s unusual – politicians usually say ‘hands off’ if faith groups look like getting interested in political issues. So Secretary of State Jim Murphy’s speech suggesting that ‘religion should play a role in British politics’ gives pause for thought. He certainly got a robust response from the Cardinal.

The danger of politicians talking like this is that they may want to take the ‘faith agenda’ and ‘shrink-wrap’ it to fit a political agenda. But .. take it at face value .. the exercising of the informed Christian conscience … the careful measuring of political issues against the values of Christian and other faiths. What would the agenda be? Well here are a couple of things for starters….

Justice – the shaping of a new world order in trade and food
Global Warming – a real concern for creation
War and Peace – a new commitment to resolving international disputes without recourse to war
Education and Health – major priorities
Wealth – how it is created and how it is used
Society – how to build an inclusive and tolerant society

I am interested in genuine dialogue between faith groups and politicians – but it needs to extend beyond the issues which dominate that dialogue at present. Most of all, I would love to see a new substance to political debate – it seems to be almost entirely tactical at present.

It’s not often you get handed a sermon ‘on a plate’ as it were. Tiger Woods, in his somewhat uncomfortable ‘mea culpa’ this week, may have said that he is into Buddhism. But he produced a great sermon for the First Sunday in Lent and, because he isn’t playing golf at present, was available to preach it at St Peter’s, Kirkcaldy, this morning.

My journey to London later on provided more source material for my upcoming resource document on ‘Aircraft cabin announcements as liturgy’ This is of course a two-way street – as I discovered in America last year where one says, ‘You’re giving me some pushback on that issue.’

Seems to me that there are two key aspects to liturgy. One is that it bears constant repetition without being irritating – indeed repetition brings enrichment. Two is that it has the capacity to face a number of different directions, depending on how one plays the emphases. My experience of the liturgy of cabin announcements is that the life jacket and oxygen mask bit is pretty well all right – probably because it’s monitored very carefully. But the more random stuff just gets worse and worse …. as in ‘do not remove your luggage from the overhead locker until is IS safe to do so’ and ‘on behalf of Captain Bloggs and the ENTIRE crew’

Maybe if I ever need to get a proper job, there is a future for me in aircrew training .. and they could double up and do some Sunday stuff for us.

All calm on the River Tay this afternoon as we walked on the North Inch. During the week, I had a swift pedal on the Brompton up towards Almondbank – still searching for that balanced clergy lifestyle as suggested at the Clergy Conference.

Earlier today we had a gathering in Perth for clergy and laity from congregations which hope to be part of the Casting the Net movement during 2011. This is all about Mission Action Planning, the Nine Marks of Mission and all that. It seems to me that, at this stage, it is all about encouraging people so that they are prepared to take the risk of getting started – and persuading them that it will be worthwhile. And congregations are always much more persuaded by what others do than by anything which the bishop says.

Fortunately I didn’t have to say very much today. We have a great team of people who have that wonderful mix of being both passionate and hard-headed about it at the same time. I thought it was one of the most encouraging gatherings that I have been to in a while – I’m looking forward to the next stage.

Our congregation in Dollar is one of our more interesting congregations. It’s good at many things – particularly worship, children and hospitality. I also like going to churches when there is a vacancy – no harm to our endlessly supportive and hospitable clergy.

Anyway, yesterday was Feast of the Transfiguration and St Valentine’s Day and the Sunday before Lent and no doubt a few other things as well that I missed. So I did the best I could in the circumstances.