• Congratulations to Isaac Poobalan and St John’s, Aberdeen

    Great blessings upon the Rev Isaac Poobalan and St John’s Church in Aberdeen for the story that has gone global from the Scottish Episcopal Church this week.

    Noticing that the neighbouring mosque did not have enough room and that people were praying outside in the cold, Isaac invited them into the church and made space for them to pray. It is a great good news story and one that made me proud to be an Episcopalian.

    A couple of years ago I was approached by some members of the committee of the local mosque here. Their building was being redone and was out of use for six weeks and they were looking for somewhere to worship for that time. We had quite a good conversation about whether or not they could worship in a church with so many images in it. However, they assured me that was not a problem with them and we discovered a shared story in that of Jibreel and Myriam (which is painted on the wall and known as Gabriel and Mary in St Mary’s). In the end, the mosque committee found somewhere else to use where they could all meet together – St Mary’s was difficult for them because the pews couldn’t be moved.

    However, I willingly offered them space and would have been glad to welcome that community into church.

    I was also pleased to invite a Muslim friend to read from the Qu’ran at our Carol service two years ago.

    It was good to see St John’s Episcopal Church, Aberdeen offer the welcome to the Muslim community that they have done.

    I see from newspaper reports that Isaac is now getting vile abuse written about this story via facebook.

    Sometimes there doesn’t seem much to be proud of in the church. This story made me feel proud to be a Scottish Episcopalian. Isaac and that congregation deserve all our support and encouragement and love.

    Peace and blessings be upon them.

    And upon their new Muslim friends too.

    Further Comment from Scottish Episcopal Bloggers:

    From Kirstin Freeman – http://revk.wordpress.com/2013/03/21/generosity-in-action/

    From John Penman – http://www.dougalthink.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/examples-of-grace.html

    On Beauty from Chaos – http://beautyfromchaos.wordpress.com/2013/03/22/breaking-barriers/

    From Rosemary Hannah – http://rosemaryhannah.wordpress.com/2013/03/22/isaac-poobalan-real-christianity-and-real-islam/

6 responses to “On the election tomorrow”

  1. Tim Avatar

    Ooh, Compass looks fun.

    For amusement, it says I’m: Green; LD; SNP; Labour; Tory.

    It’s got one of those right but I’d probably rejig the others a bit ๐Ÿ˜‰

  2. Neil Oliver Avatar
    Neil Oliver

    I got a very similar result to Tim and to be honest it reflects my vote quite closely.

  3. Tim Avatar

    The Compass attributes equal weight to all its questions, hence getting completely the wrong answer for me.
    There is precisely no chance I would ever vote Green while they persist in being in favour of “alternative medicine” and so unthinkingly anti-motorist with no positive transport suggestions to make.

    The only one it got sorta right is to put Tory last – and even that’s neglecting the fact that, if I were the penultimate humanoid on the planet and blue the only box to mark, I’d rather spoil the paper than vote for them. ๐Ÿ˜‰

  4. chris Avatar

    Thanks for link – got me just about right, which is good as I voted a fortnight ago!

  5. ryan Avatar
    ryan

    Lib Dems have an Orange Book?! That might of interest to stereotypical fans of the Glorious Glasgow Rangers who can’t support the SNP (non Unionist), Labour (obvious reasons), Tories (too posh) and find themselves unsure of who to vote for with only hours left to decide ๐Ÿ˜‰

  6. Gianmaria Framarin Avatar
    Gianmaria Framarin

    Please, lad, quit this continuous and totally wrong identification of Rangers fans as being anti-Labour or even right-winged… you’re talking about that hell of a minority we have at Ibrox who still go on chanting stupid stuff…
    Ibrox is FULL of leftists, Labour Party voters, even SNP, which seems to be the common trend. I hardly ever spoken to a Tory Rangers fan…
    Glasgow’s a red city, always has been for decades, Rangers are a majority in the city, how come they all be “stereotypical tories”???

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