Today I am a pilgrim. We are having a St Saviour's pilgrimage from Elie to Pittenweem along the Fife Coastal Path. Not a long way, but a journey nonetheless. The last time I went on anything described as a pilgrimage, it was the one at Haddington which happens in May. This was so very strange – almost everyone arriving by car and not walking the pilgrimage route at all and then separate services for RC and Protestatant, while Jack Glass and crew sang protest hymns outside. Hopefully today will be more wholesome.
Some Sundays the congregation is about 10%-15% ex Roman Catholic. And about 25% have probably been Church of Scotland (or something like that) at some time in their lives. There is a seminar in Perth this week on the future of the churches in Scotland, derived from the Scottish Church Census which took place last year. I cannot go, though I would have liked to. There will be input from the C of S Board of National Mission. I was wanting to make my contribution: the future of my congregation is guarenteed so long as the Roman Catholics keep their divorce policy and the C of S keep on linking and uniting congregations. I suspect that some would have found this unhelpful, so perhaps it is better that I am not there. Perhaps my pilgrimage will make me feel less cynical and more united with the undivided church of the Pictish saints.
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