Category: Blog Entry

As I deal with the intractable and the intangible … I find myself pondering what risks becoming a sort of mantra: ‘Never allow anybody to say a final and definitive “No”‘ Why not? Because, once they have done that, everything locks. It then requires a measure of face-losing climb down for further movement to take place. So I sit in sometimes difficult meetings trying to keep things fluid and open and hoping that I can find an agreed way forward – and that the Spirit will move.

Paradoxically, back in Northern Ireland, it sometimes seemed to be the right thing to allow somebody to say ‘No’ – indeed people often said No/Not an inch/ No surrender with great gusto. Better in those circumstances to know where you are. Better to hear the flat negative than the softer words which seemed more open but were not really so.

A pleasant Sunday morning with a quiet and faithful congregation – and then off to Glasgow to visit our youngest child – and because of the impending house move a quick – quick? – visit to Ikea. Have you seen the Ikea car park at 3 pm on a Sunday afternoon? Enough to bring on an attack of agoraphobia. No wonder the ‘Turning the Tide’ figures suggest that there aren’t many regular churchgoers in Scotland – they are all in Ikea.

And to make it more interesting … on our last visit, one of the staff cheerily said to Alison that the Ikea catalogue was the second most popular book in the world after the Bible. A comment reminiscent of John Lennon’s suggestion that the Beatles were better known than Jesus Christ.

But how did the two experiences compare?

Solid respectability. Roots deep down in things that matter. We’re here because we’re here .. Unchanging truth spoken and lived. Let the world rush about in the search for change and novelty and short-term satisfactions – we hold the deepest truths about life and how it should be lived. Like the prodigal son, they will come back.

Today’s readings actually challenge that way of thinking.

The River Tay is the biggest feature of the landscape around here. Apparently it is the longest river in Scotland – 120 miles. When I was learning how to find my way around here, I very quickly discovered that it really matters which side of the river you are on. It’s a big river and there aren’t many bridges.

So how about a Saturday afternoon walk along the river? Fine – except that it is quite hard to get to it. We chose a spot with a Roman fort and walked and walked and walked across the flood plain. And we got there eventually and found the huge river running through an almost empty landscape.

Stick to the walking guide next time, I think.

Not a section from the instruction manual of my vacuum cleaner. But models of the church as described by Peter Neilson in his book ‘Church on the Move.’ He suggests that most of us work on the suction model of church – hoping to draw people in through the doors. The slipstream model, by contrast, is about believing that God is at work out in the community and that a different kind of church should form in the slipstream of that movement of grace …

Meanwhile, I’ve also been reading that cheery book ‘Turning the Tide’ – Report of the 2002 Scottish Census – which charts the inexorable decline of churches in Scotland. Canute tried to stop the tide coming in – my job is to stop it going out. But it does tell me that the number of people in the Scottish Episcopal Church describing themselves as being of liberal churchmanship rose by 36% between 1994 and 2002. Now that’s what I call a niche market!

It is still mind-numbingly cold here – particularly out on the wide open spaces north of here where we shall be living in two months time after the second house move …

So time for a look at ‘Bike Scotland’ – 40 great routes from central Scotland – particularly as my tandem riding partner is coming over next month and expecting a bracing cycle. At least I have the book and can choose the flat ones. How about 43km on the flat round Loch [keep using the Irish ‘lough’] Rannoch or Killiecrankie and the Soldier’s Leap. Perhaps not the Grand Tour of Loch Tay at 142km and 9 hours [flat sections interspersed with some very tough climbs]

Well, maybe. At least it’s good to think about that endless daylight coming soon and the amazing scenery. It’s memorable in the car but absolutely unforgettable on a bike. Maybe I could make it part of the clergy ‘body, mind and soul’ discipline?

I suppose they wouldn’t have let me go into Perth Prison if that had been my declared agenda. You wouldn’t expect a place like Perth to have a prison. But stand in Tesco’s car park and there it is – and it is enormous. Twenty years ago, I was on the Board of Visitors at Crumlin Road Prison in Belfast. So I know a little about prisons. What I saw of the physical environment of Perth Prison was fairly forbidding – frankly, the planned rebuild of much of the prison accommodation can’t come soon enough.

Amazing weather here – Perth has been sub-zero for days. The Independent writes with ever greater fervour about global warming and the risk that the ice cap may melt. They could tow it down here. Thought about that as I fumbled my way past Scott’s ‘Discovery’ at Dundee in the fog yesterday – and about Captain Oates who stepped outside the tent where the temperature was -40C with the immortant words, ‘I am just going outside and I may be some time.’

I’ve been in sole charge of Poppy these past few days. I note with some alarm that the Scottish Executive is preparing to introduce a Charter of Rights for pets. Better hurry home from Edinburgh tomorrow in case she rings her legal adviser and sues me for neglect.

I’ve been there before. As you get older, you find you’ve been there before with many things. This time it’s meeting a number of Consultants who may help us with a process of change over the next two years – some tidying up of structures and decision-making; an attempt to describe what it is that we believe we should be doing in this society.

Why the deja vu?

Sermon at Loughearnhead 29.1.06 Presentation of Christ

We’re using the readings of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple – the feast that falls next Thursday – 40 days after Christmas. The story of Jesus presented in the temple by Mary and Joseph is a favourite of mine for two reasons. One is about families and the other is about faith.