It’s turned into one of those busy periods – some serious socialising both here at Blogstead and on the Perthshire hillsides.

We ran our ‘Sources of Growth’ Workshop yesterday as part of the Diocesan Review – one of those events where one says, ‘Let’s do this’ without having any idea how. In the event, about 65 people turned up – amazing in itself – and we ran a highly interactive event, planned to the minute. Talking heads are all very well in my view. But nothing as good as creating a format in which people share good practice, insight and vision.  The picture shows Rev Ann Mazur with Gordon Morrison who has acted as Consultant to the Diocesan Review.

Today, it’s Comrie and Lochearnhead followed by the Installation of Giles Dove as the new Chaplain at Glenalmond.

I found myself this evening at the launch of the Poppy Scotland Appeal. I’m happy to support it.  I’ve good reason to be grateful to service men and women.  I dread to contemplate the years of distress and disorder which those returning from Iraq will face.

But I am the MOST un-military person – certainly when anybody else is giving orders – the soldiers of Christ pride themselves on being permanently out of step so I fit in well. But I love the way military people talk and the way they designate rank as above – the BBC does it too. And words get mangulated – ‘deploy’ becomes an intransitive verb – theatre becomes a place of warfare rather than of enjoyment.

And then I was asked for comment on the rising numbers of people living together rather than getting married – an opportunity to get ‘bishop’ and ‘fornication’ into the same headline. No doubt there are many reasons for this change. But any parent of young adult children can see that one significant factor is the later age of marriage. Most of the weddings we go to – as last Saturday – are of young people getting married around or after the age of 30 after living together in love and faithfulness for a number of years. As I look back, one of the few things which really concerned me in parish ministry was people getting married around or before 20. I’m glad such weddings are much rarer now.

Over on his blog, Kelvin is sounding out opinion on the potential links to SEC bloggers on the new provincial website. It sounds good to me because, for some reason, blogging now seems fairly deeply embedded in the Piskie psyche. Is this because we actually like talking to one another – or just that we are entirely comfortable talking to ourselves.

I’m working at present on an article for Inspires about Episcopalian Blogging. At its best, the blogs seem to me to put on view bits of the vitality and thinking processes of the church which would otherwise be hidden. No doubt there is plenty of rubbish – but there is something about the relentless discipline of the every day blog which reveals however adroitly we think we can conceal.

We took my mother to church at St George’s in the centre of Belfast on Sunday morning. I sang in the choir here for a while – 40 years ago. My father was a pillar of choir and Vestry for many years and they were remembering his anniversary with faithfulness. So far as I know, it is the only Anglican church of catholic tradition in Northern Ireland. So I sat and pondered mission issues. It’s a church which has had hard times – much damaged by successive bombings in the city centre. The congregation grew few and frail – so much so that my father described them as waving to one another rather than undertaking the trek across the church to share the Peace. But times are much better now. The Choir is excellent and people come because it offers a distinctive style of worship and congregational life and does it well. And then Rector Brian used my name at the Communion Rail – as I used to do for my parishioners – and that suddenly seemed quite an emotional thing. What a strange business worship is!

Just happened to notice that Ireland has been rated best place in the world to live.  It’s the combination of all the new stuff with traditional values, etc., which does the trick.  And I am sure Scotland shares much of the same.  Taxi driver on the way to Belfast Airport this afternoon said, as they always do, ‘Sure this is a great wee country.’  To which everyone always replies, ‘If they could just put a roof over it.’

How could it not be?  After all we were prayed for by the whole Anglican Communion today in the Cycle of Prayer.  Not just a warm feeling – it makes you think about the loss should the Communion fracture.  But it’s been a very hopeful week there too.  There has been a remarkable graciousness from the bishops of the Episcopal Church – and an extraordinary achievement on the part of ++Rowan.

Meanwhile our bishops have just spent 24 hours on the island of Cumbrae in the Clyde.  If you haven’t visited the Cathedral of the Isles and the College of the Holy Spirit, you should.  Ten minutes from Largs on the ferry. 

I thought you might be interested in the room allocation.  I was in Charity – which seemed rather more aspirational than descriptive.  The others were: Primus-Fortitude; Brechin-Hope; Aberdeen and Orkney-Faith; Edinburgh-Kindness; Moray-Gentleness; Argyll-Peace.  But maybe you could suggest more appropriate allocations?  I noted that none of us was allocated either Temperance or Chastity.

I’ve been sharing the lot of the commuters today.  Thought about driving to Edinburgh this morning – but accident and one hour delay on the Forth Bridge put me on the train with Brompton.  Survived meeting on mission strategy and headed for the BBC to record Prayer for the Day.  Nice man at door said I could put Brompton in the basement so I told him to be very afraid because I might write about him in my blog.  Folded up Brompton and put it under the staircase.  Recorded scripts and cycled to Waverley.  Got on 1533 train home and they cancelled it.  Then my mobile phone battery ran out.  To my utter amazement, Scotrail put me in a taxi from Stirling to Perth – so that I could then drive to Comrie.

Tomorrow is Largs and Cumbrae for a Bishops’ meeting overnight – then Glasgow to Belfast for a wedding on Saturday and then home for a rest.

My struggles with the sermon call to mind one of the best and shortest ever – which my local Catholic neighbour, the great Father McGuinness, claimed to have preached in a time of some small local difficulty.

‘In nomine patri, etc., etc.

Could you tell me .. what purpose in the cause of Irish Unity or the Kingdom of Heaven was served when you burnt the bingo bus?

In nomine, etc., etc’

I do miss it sometimes.

Great line from Dougal when Mark and I were watching back to back Father Ted late last night:

‘Sure they’re only nuns, Ted’

The Gospel today was the story of the Unjust Steward.  Can anybody enlighten me with any kind of understanding of what it was about?  I did my best in Crieff this morning – linking it with Confirmation for good measure – but I don’t feel up to providing you with the link.  Indeed, my failure to grasp its meaning probably means that I could have linked it with almost anything without difficulty – the launch of a ship, the blessing of a new vacuum cleaner, etc.  No doubt +Bob on his first episcopal Sunday went through it like a knife through butter.