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We are going to be talking about Liturgical Formation next week at the General Synod. At a pre-synod meeting last night, I found myself wondering whether anyone else had the vague notion in their head that in some way, what happens in a cathedral is part of the liturgical formation of a diocese.  Does what…

My co-star and I had an agreement this morning not to upstage one another. We managed to keep to this agreement, more or less. I did wonder whether his insisting on taking his shoes off so that he could paddle in the font was perhaps taking things a bit too far, but no, he rightly…

Pentecost tomorrow. I’m baptising Joshua. Cue much water and flames of fire alighting on all the believers present. (Well, vigil candles, anyway).  Much thinking too about the Holy Spirit. Just as all of us who are about my age or younger in the UK are Thatcher’s children in one way or another, regardless of what…

There has been quite a lot of chatter about the Principal of Wycliffe Hall, Richard Turnbull. A video made of a speech that he made to Reform (the Nasty Party of the C of E) has even been commented upon in the papers. (Guardian here and Independent here). He identifies key marks of what Evangelicalism…

Might as well add a MySpace profile whilst I’m at it. Do I have any friends?

Can’t make my mind up about these social networking thingies. However, so many people seem to be living their lives through them that there does not seem any option but to join in. So, there is a new St Mary’s Cathedral group on Facebook. If you are connected with the Cathedral and have a Facebook…

Watched a debate from the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland this afternoon via their live web-feed. The Assembly is always impressive. Today, the standard of debate was, as usual, much higher than anything that we ever achieve in the SEC. Both the contributions to the debate and the way that the business was…

The BBC reports that +Gene Robinson will not be invited to the Lambeth Conference next year. The decision making process now becomes very local and very personal. The last time I asked any of the Scottish bishops directly whether they would go to Lambeth if anyone was excluded was a couple of years ago. Without…

Those arriving for the Ascension Day Choral Mass last night were greeted with a ladder stretching from floor to very high ceiling of the Cathedral. One of those little ironies – we had decided to play How many Episcopalians does it take to to change a lightbulb? on Ascension Day itself. Amongst other glories, last…

I’ve spent part of this week working in London. Flew down, sleeper back up again last night. In a rather tight schedule, I managed to fit a couple of extras in. The most notable of these was an all too short visit to the Sacred exhibition at the British Library and a night at the…