Drove west this morning through Crieff and Comrie and the great symphony of autumn colours to Balquidder where Joan had organised a group of friends to play Dvorak’s Serenade for Strings. A great experience – I mimed in the back of the Second Violins remembering the days before ministry gobbled me up and I could play the violin on a good day. And then back to Perth to do a little light preaching at Choral Evensong in the Cathedral marking the end of an RSCM day for Choirs – marking too the fact that music and singing had a considerable part to play in my calling to ministry. So you win some, you lose some.
Fits like a glove
There was a strong SEC turn-out last night to see ++Idris installed as Deacon of the Skinners and Glovers in Glasgow. Quite an achievement for an episcopalian bishop [how do we stop people using that?] to find his way to the heart of a significant and historic piece of city life in that way. Bishop James Jones talked about regeneration in Liverpool and Glasgow – saying it wasn’t worth much unless it had love and justice at its heart. Sounded to me like the same speech as I once heard Bishop Desmond Tutu making to community workers in Belfast – not much point attempting to build peace unless it has spirituality at its heart.
Some things just grow and grow
I’m sure Bishop Proudie wouldn’t have concerned himself with such matters – what are Chaplains for, after all? I seem to have ended up deeply involved in various aspects of Blogstead management. Today it was the servicing of multiple boilers. Saturday will be the ceremonial emptying of all four septic tanks – I intend to be absent for that – playing sweet-scented chamber music in Balquidder. And finally we shall have the servicing of the septic tanks. Enough is enough, I think.
Poppy Update
Poppy is getting along just fine – although the colder weather is not altogether to her liking. She has become a mighty hunter – establishing firstly a ‘take-away’ mouse facility beside the fuschia plantation in the Blogstead garden. We have to be careful to keep the doors closed when she is out – otherwise she arrives in the midst with live prey. She has also established a ‘room service’ arrangement – depositing dead mice during the night at the top of the stairs and on her blanket in the family room. We do not know where they are coming from
Sunday
Another ‘it’s tough but somebody has to do it’ day as we headed off across Fife to the East Neuk in the early morning sunshine to join the members of our congregations in Elie and Pittenweem. These are beautiful little villages beside the sea and they have small and faithful congregations. As so often in the SEC, these congregations are full of fascinating people.
In Elie, we found Rev Professor Stuart Hall totally absorbed in the organ voluntary. In Pittenweem, the organist is Ursula who designed the two new windows which were dedicated shortly after I arrived.
And then on to a magnificent service in the Cathedral for the Ordination of Christine Barclay and the installation of our new Dean, Kenny Rathband, and three Canons, Jonathan Mason, Shirley Lobley and Alison Peden. I feel that I have to quote the names in full because I risked a fairly complicated piece of welcoming at the beginning without a script in my hand .. and shouldn’t have. All right to do a David Cameron for sermons but lists are different!
Worship ‘n spirituality ‘n authenticity ‘n mission
Bosco Peters dropped in from what looks like a very comprehensive liturgy website in New Zealand. He’s interested in my more-than-slightly unfocused exploring of the links between worship and spirituality. I think it goes like this.
In a secular age, the church talks only to itself. If the church tries to do more than that, it is condemned for being irrelevant or for making vane attempts to be relevant or meddling in politics or .. But the secular age is not godless. It is full of people searching for meaning and exploring spirituality. Those people may recognise authentic spirituality/holiness when they meet it but the church is the last place where they would expect to find it. The church thinks that liturgy is about ‘getting the words right’. And the words have to be right. But actually liturgy is about communicating spirituality – which is why I am increasingly interested in how we ‘do’ liturgy or how we ‘are’ in liturgy more than in the words themselves. Which is where Benedictines come in. Because they just come into church and are. And it’s hard to miss the spirituality. So the challenge is to live and worship with an authenticity such that it communicates itself. Simple.
Active retirement
Busy day today. Alison and I were lined up on the steps with the staff to greet the second wave of retired clergy – about 35 of them. A good time was had by all – we’d opened up the little-used west wing at Blogstead so there was space for some whist in the conservatory – and a little light community hymn singing as the afternoon wore on. However, the Blogstead cellars stand in urgent need of replenishment.
Plone-wrestling again
I’m back to Plone-wrestling again – trying to do the final stuff to get the diocesan website into the light of day. Deep philosophical issues arise. What is the difference between News and Events? Even more interesting, what is the difference between ‘Published’ and ‘Published Draft’? And does it matter? So much for Content Management Systems. I have looked in the Rule of St Benedict but find no help there.
And finally
There is much about the Benedictine mindset which is very attractive – particularly their sense of what it takes to create a balanced life. I tripped over a definition of a person under stress – excitable, anxious, overbearing, obstinate, jealous, over-suspicious, quite unable to stop. I think I ticked most of those boxes. I liked the way in which the Rule describes the role of the Abbot – focused very much on the life of the community and dealing with disfunction. His guidance and teaching should be ‘almost imperceptible .. like leaven .. so that they think they have taught it themselves.’
And, by coincidence, as I drifted through Anglican-Episcopal World, I found a report of the signing of an agreement on a new ecumenical partnership between Canterbury Cathedral and the Abbey of Bec. The root of the link is that Lanfranc, Anselm and Theobald were all either Abbots or Priors of Bec and all later became Archbishop of Canterbury.
Retreat
What was also remarkable about the Benedictines in Rostrevor was that, of the six members of the community, five are French and the sixth – the Abbot – is from Northern Ireland. They came from the Abbey of Bec in Normandy – so they sang, read and prayed in the most delightful mixture of French/English and what they call over there Norn Irn.
In my time there, I found myself waiting for two things. One was the very beginning of Lauds – still dark at 6.45 each morning – when Bro Thierry would sing quietly three times into the silence, ‘O Lord open our lips’. And I found myself waiting to see Bro Eric reverence the altar. Something about the way he did it which summed up a life consecrated .. couldn’t tell you what.
And I also spent some time with the Rule of St Benedict – pondering its applicability to diocesan management. Of which more tomorrow.