• New Year Predictions 2016

  01/01/2016

  1. Following recent revelations, this will be the year that former Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey finally shuts up. Expect no silly press releases on the eve of Church of England Synod. (From Carey anyway).
  2. The Columba Declaration recently leaked to the press will not in fact be adopted unamended by both the Church of Scotland General Assembly in May and by the Church of England General Synod in February.
  3. Solid vote in favour of first reading of legislation for removal of definition of marriage from the canons of the Scottish Episcopal Church opening the way towards a final vote in 2017.
  4. The Anglican Communion will move back towards being a fellowship of autonomous churches following the Primates’ Conference in January. Justin Welby will do the right thing for the wrong reasons. (ie he will accept the inevitable loosening of ties that stems from the global domination fantasies of his predecessors but not speak up for LGBT friendly churches).
  5. The SNP will win a landslide in the Holyrood Election. There will be UKIP representation in Holyrood for the first time.
  6. The SNP will continue to work for their preferred outcome in the European Union referendum – an overall majority in the UK in favour of staying in, a massive majority in Scotland for staying in and a majority in England for leaving the EU.
  7. The Democrats will retain the White House.
  8. Jeremy Corbyn will still be Labour Party leader by the end of 2016 and become a little more popular within the Labour Party the longer he is there.  The Labour Party will still seem unelectable at the end of the year. No major defections along the way. (There’s nowhere to go).
  9. A successful cyber terrorist attack on a major Western financial institution. (It is only a matter of time).
  10. Amateur drone crash causing loss of life.
  11. 3D printed food experiments in restaurants.
  12. More major news outlets closing down the comments sections on their websites as open comments become unmanagable.

Previous Posts

• A tale of two meetings

  08/12/2011

  I had two meeting scheduled today. One in Edinburgh at General Synod Office this afternoon and one in Glasgow in my office this evening. Both were threatened by the great storm that has hit Scotland today. (Forgive me for delighting in the fact that the online commentariate have dubbed the storm Hurricane Bawbag). The first…

• Three Best Ways to Support Equal Marriage

  08/12/2011

  Make your own response to the Scottish Government’s Consultation. (Using the Equality Network’s website it takes 5 mins) Get your friends and family to do the same. (Tell them it is urgent – the consultation closes on 9 December) Support clergy and congregations who have stood up for Marriage Equality.

• Same-Sex Marriage Consultation Responses

  06/12/2011

  The Vestry met on Monday evening and in the course of its business discussed how to respond to the Scottish Government Consultation on Civil Partnerships and Same-Sex Marriage. The full response is available here. This is the way in which the first question on Religious Civil Partnerships was answered: Question: Do you agree that legislation…

• All the Livelong Day

  04/12/2011

  Very commonly, people find it hard to get a handle on how St Mary’s hangs together and I suspect it is because of days like today. No-one gets to see everything that is going on. The organisation of it all is a series of interlocking systems which, by some miracle, mostly work well together. I…