• Sermon – The Proud Young Man

    I was preaching today for the first time in about six weeks and had a lot of fun doing so. You can hear what I had to say here or read it below.

    There is something terribly tricky about young men who get excited about religion.

    I remember a number of years ago. I was training to be ordained and was doing an internship in a congregation in Edinburgh in Scotland. Like very many Episcopalians, I did not grow up as an Anglican. I’d come from a background in the Salvation Army and been through many different types of congregation on my journey. I’d been baptist and non-denominational. I’d been just about everything as I searched for the truth.

    And finally, I found what I was looking for in the Scottish Episcopal Church. There I found a church which in which beauty mattered, holiness mattered, worship mattered. It was a church which could cope with the radical theology that had excited me at college and it was a church that had the exotica of every liturgical practise of the ages.

    You know how it is.
    (more…)

2 responses to “The Rabbling”

  1. Layclerk Avatar

    “brutal”, “lots of noise”, “lots of unease”, “rabbling”.

    Yes indeed, and that’s why I won’t be there next year. If I manage to find somewhere else with quiet calm dignity then I shall go there, otherwise I’ll be at home watching TV and not missing it.

    I generally like the services at St Mary’s, well, apart from Eucharist but that’s a personal thing, but I’m afraid to say last night didn’t hit the spot for me in any way shape or form. No dignity.

  2. kelvin Avatar

    I’d be sorry not to see you next year, Layclerk. I’d say that there was great beauty, peace and dignity at many moments during the Thursday evening, though not indeed during the Stripping.

    Arrests tend not to be pretty. But then you know that.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Previous Posts

  • General Assembly Vocabulary – Lesson 2

    Lord High CommissionerThe Lord High Commissioner is the reigning monach's observer at the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland when she herself cannot be present. He or she is effectively treated as the Sovereign for the week and ranks above everyone in Scotland except the Queen herself and the Duke of Edinburgh (Prince Philip)…

  • General Assembly Vocabulary – Lesson 1

    Crave       1   verb               to beg, to desire eg “Don't you just crave strawberries in May?”2   noun (rare)   the fundamental intent of a Petition or Overture in Scottish Presbyterianism eg “If the crave of the petition be granted, the General Assembly if so advised shall instruct the Presbytery to take the candidate o­n trials for licence.”

  • Sermon – 16 May 2004

    A few years ago, I spent an unexpected holiday in the Aegean hopping on and off ferries and hydrofoils visiting the islands and enjoying the food and the sun. It was a peaceful holiday moving up and down the Dodecanese islands. And the highlight of the holiday was a trip to the island of Patmos…

  • Church of Fools

    I remember about 10 years ago visiting someone in a university department who was working o­n virtual reality computing. Then it involved putting o­n goggles and walking about in a virtual world which, if I remember, was based o­n Egypt. (Pyramids were easy to do in those days). Now there is the Church of Fools…