What is in Kelvin's Head?

  • Teaching for the Diocese

    Oh, what a jolly afternoon yesterday, teaching a development session for folks from the diocese on how to use WordPress in general and the new Scottish Episcopal web template in particular. I’m not sure what it was that made me agree to the foolishness of such a teaching session on my first day back from holiday – must have been the difficulty of several diaries needing to play off one another. However, I’m glad that I did it. I’ve not been in a computer lab for years and there was something rather fun about doing it. My best moment for the afternoon was getting people to learn how to use drop-down menus in less than five minutes and see their faces light up with joy.

    The whole thing was very typical of the Scottish Episcopal Church, of course. I suspect that there are not many people in the Anglican world who run a Cathedral who would find themselves teaching webskills on a Monday afternoon to folk from the diocese. I actually like the fact that our church is a bit like that. Our church being like that makes for a very varied life and rewards the generalist who has a bit of skill in a lot of things rather than the specialist who is good only for a narrow range of skills.

    I was very interested that the gender balance of the group was 10 to 1 in favour of women. I don’t know what conclusion to draw from this. Could it be for any of these reasons:

    • Women do communication and men don’t
    • Women think communication is important and men don’t
    • Women are more ready to admit they don’t know something and go for training whilst men presume
    • Men are more likely to tinker and get something going themselves
    • Communication isn’t regarded as important and unimportant things are “women’s work”
    • Women are communication positive, men are information positive
    • Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus

    Anyway, I’m very grateful to all those who were there. It was a very enjoyable afternoon and I got a lot out of it myself. Just like when I did the pilgrimage days in the Cathedral a few months ago, I find myself realising how much I enjoy teaching – something I would never have guessed about myself when I was younger.

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4 responses to “How shall we pray for our elected representatives?”

  1. Meg Rosenfeld Avatar
    Meg Rosenfeld

    I’m reminded of a remark which Senator Dianne Feinstein (D- California–which happens to be my home state and political party) made regarding our current President, to the effect that it would be better if we could help him to be a good president than if we merely got rid of him. Oh, my, did that ever provoke angry outpourings! At the time, I was attending a parish retreat, so it seemed appropriate to mention during a group discussion that this nice elderly Jewish lady was actually quoting Scripture and saying that “God desireth not the death of a sinner, but rather that he should turn from his wickedness and live.” This didn’t go over very well, but there you are. God bless our elected politicians, indeed.

    Reply
  2. Gordon Avatar
    Gordon

    Amen. We don’t usually pray for the Queen, but we often pray for politicians and leaders. Good challenge about MEPs and those who make international government – EU, Council of Europe, UN etc – work.

    Reply
  3. Kathleen Jowitt Avatar
    Kathleen Jowitt

    Amen. I’m wondering whether this point works in reverse, as well: “If collectively, as a people, we had been more thankful for the EU, would we have prayed more for its welfare?”

    If, collectively, as a people, we had prayed more for the welfare of the EU, would we have been more thankful for it? Might we have felt more like a part of it? It’s difficult to know the answer to either formulation.

    Reply
  4. Rob Avatar
    Rob

    this Sunday I was the lay intercessor at morning Eucharist at our church. In preparing the prayers, I looked at the last ones I had done, in Mid November, and used this one virtually unchanged as it seemed as relevant now as then.

    “In our country, political leaders are struggling to agree terms for our exit from the European Union. Our politics seem ever more polarised and confrontational, and it seems that any possible outcome could cause further strife and division.

    Almighty Father, we pray for all who have important decisions to make, and especially for our own country at this time.

    Guide the decisions of those who govern so that they may strive for justice, freedom, peace and the common good.

    Give those of us who are governed wisdom, love and courage, and the resilience to find ways to grow and flourish, whatever the future may bring.

    Lord, in your mercy, Hear our prayer.

    Reply

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