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Where does the Church of Scotland stand?
It has been a pretty confusing 24 hours for the Church of Scotland. My prediction yesterday morning that the news would be reported inaccurately was bang on. There have been very many reports in the media about the Church of Scotland that have been inaccurate. And you know what? The media are not the ones…
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Church of Scotland Debate
I’ve spent much of today listening to the Church of Scotland’s General Assembly debating their Special Theological Commission that had been set up a couple of years ago to report on the way forward for that church with regard to the possibility of gay people to be ordained and inducted and to have their partnerships…
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Church and Civil Partnerships
As I awoke in a bleary haze this morning, (today is a post-Ceilidh morning) I heard someone one the radio talking about how the Church of Scotland might be the first church to allow people in Civil Partnerships to serve as ordained clergy. It won’t of course. The Scottish Episcopal Church already has plenty of…
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Pirates of Penzance: Review
Rating: (This review should appear at Opera Britannia in due course) Scottish Opera and the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company have set sail with a sure-fire summer hit with their new production of Pirates of Penzance. A real crowd pleaser, this production deserves the success that it will undoubtedly have. It became quickly obvious during the…
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Design Process for Discussing Same-Sex Relationships
My General Synod papers arrived with a thud in the office today. Along with them is a briefing paper which is entitled “Briefing Note regarding design process for discussing same-sex relationships”. The short version is that the College of Bishops has invited the Mission and Ministry Board to establish a design group to create a…
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A question of gender
It seems to me that one rarely sees a priest who happens to be a woman happen to wear a maniple. Actually, one doesn’t see many people wear the maniple these days, for reasons that I’ve never quite understood. Why, when one does see such a thing, does it seem invariably to be sported on…
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Society Against Sundays in the Month
Why is there no church society for those of us who believe that Sundays-in-the-Month are one of the works of darkness that beset the church and tempt it into doom and decline? You know the kind of thing I mean – Matins on the first Sunday in the month and Eucharist on the rest. Or…
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Ordinary Sunday in Eastertide
We’ve a rare ordinary Sunday tomorrow – looking at the diary for the next few weeks it is one high festival after another. Next Sunday 19 May is Pentecost. The invitation is to everyone to wear national dress if they have it and on that day we all say the Lord’s Prayer in our language.…
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Sticking with being a welcoming church
There’s been a post on another blog that has been doing the rounds over the last week or so which really made me think. Indeed, I lost count of the number of times I saw people refer to it on Facebook and every time, it made me think some more. It was entitled: “We will…
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Pilgrimage
Here’s a video featuring Bishop Kevin and a fine hat.