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A Praepostery?
It is a weekend of several Provosts. The Provost of the Cathedral of the Diocese of Gothenburg is here this weekend so I’m off to Kelvingrove today being a tourguide. Tomorrow, I’m hoping to meet the new Provost of St Paul’s Cathedral in Dundee. Thus, three Provosts are likely to meet in the same place…
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11%
The rate of growth of our main Sunday service 11%. By that, I mean that the average number of comminicants last year was 11% more than the previous year which was itself 11% more than the year before that. I’m currently finding myself talking about this growth in many of the internal meetings that I…
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Covenant Response
The Scottish Episcopal Church now has a published response to the draft Anglican covenant. Although I have one strong reservation about something that it says, I do broadly welcome it. My reservation is over the phrase, “There is much in the Draft Covenant which we wish to commend: we appreciate its rootedness in Scripture, …”…
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Divine Providence
I see that Aberdeen University is having a conference on Divine Providence. The aim seems to be to revive it. At least that shows an acknowledgement that belief in it is, (thank God), dying at the moment. Divine Providence is a doctrine that most Christians think they are supposed to agree with. The idea is…
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Congratulations to the Polis
Congratulations are in order to Lothian and Borders Police for becoming the most gay friendly employer in Scotland according to Stonewall. It is an amazing turn around – 20 years ago it would have been inconceivable to me that a police force could ever be named as a gay friendly organization. We should not underestimate…
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Blasphemy
The BBC is reporting that the government is going to oppose attempts to abolish the law on blasphemy. “A spokesman said ministers wanted to consult the Anglican community further before supporting such a change.” Goodness. Thanks for asking. On you go. Ban it. Without delay.
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Epiphany sermon 2007
Today is the Epiphany – the day we remember visitors from the East coming to worship Jesus, and bringing with them their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. The temptation, when preaching in the West of Scotland is to dwell on the idea of people coming from the East and tell jokes about people from…
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Thomas Becket
Let us pause for a moment to remember Thomas Becket on his feast day. The thing that he is remembered for is his death in Canterbury Cathedral – struck down by knights who believed that they were carrying out the orders of Henry II of England. His cult spread through Europe and I remember discovering…
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Post Christmas
A big thank you to everyone who helped get things ready for Christmas. The cathedral looked stunning, the choir sang magnificently throughout and everything that was supposed to happen did happen. Like others (Gadgetvicar and +David amongst them), I can report that numbers were up. Indeed, they were up significantly for all the services over…
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Midnight Mass Sermon
Most years at around this time, the same story appears in the press. A couple of years ago, I had a call 2 days before Christmas. It was a Sunday paper ringing to “just ask a couple of questions”. They were apparently ringing round a load of ordained people and asking them whether they believed…