• Predictions for 2022

    1. Boris Johnson will be replaced with a Prime Minister who is more competent, more right wing and more difficult to beat.
    2. A good year for Michael Gove (who is almost invisible at the moment).
    3. Church of Scotland General Assembly votes to allow same-sex couples to be married in church. More significantly, almost no-one leaves in a huff.
    4. No progress for those seeking marriage equality in the Church of England.
    5. US Republican Party do well at the November midterms.
    6. Midnight Mass will happen at St Mary’s Cathedral, Glasgow – some people will still be wearing masks but it won’t be mandatory.
    7. Lots of people discover that cryptocurrency is not the sure thing that they thought. (Losses will disproportionately affect young people).
    8. Nicola Sturgeon will be forced to announce a proposed date for an Independence Referendum against her better judgement.
    9. Lambeth Conference will take place but some people forced to participate virtually due to continued pandemic in developing world. (No new sanctions against pro-gay provinces).
    10. Working from home/hybrid working becomes normalised for big companies. Consequent increase in ransomware demands.

8 responses to “I seem to have been spared”

  1. Erp Avatar
    Erp

    Glad to hear you are feeling better. May you have a good illness free Advent for you and your congregation. (Is blue or purple the Advent colour at St. Mary’s?)

  2. kelvin Avatar

    The colour is purple, though sadly we don’t have a full high mass set for this time of the year.

    In my former congregation, we kept what people called “sarum colours” – blue in advent, unbleached linen in Lent.

    I believe the term sarum colours to be historically incorrect, but I rather liked the distinction between the two seasons.

  3. Marion Conn Avatar
    Marion Conn

    Hi Kelvin, glad to hear you are feeling better. In respect to “sarum colours” may i suggest this website, http://anglicanhistory.org/essays/wright/sarum.pdf

  4. Erp Avatar
    Erp

    Thanks for the distinction. One of the local churches (non-denominational university with one episcopal priest out of three ministers) here uses blue but I seem to have recalled purple from other places. I’m not sure where they got the blue candles though, they are a very odd shade.

  5. Ritualist Robert Avatar
    Ritualist Robert

    Speaking of Sarum, were there medieval uses peculiar to Scotland, Fr Kelvin? Presumably there may have been something like a St Andrews Use.

  6. ryan Avatar
    ryan

    Yeah, I think the Sarum rite sounds fabulous, but Advent candles should obviously be purple and pink :-).

  7. kelvin Avatar

    I presume that there was a St Andrews Use, though I’m no medievalist and there may be people better qualified to comment about it than I am.

    There certainly seems to have been a very spectacular Use at the collegiate church of St Mary and St Anne in Glasgow. There is some speculation that St Mary’s (with its side chapel dedicated to St Anne) might have some significant roots in that congregation, which met in a church where the Tron theatre now is.

    The ceremonies (and endowments) of this church were lavish. There is a little about it on wikipedia.

  8. Fr Dougal Avatar
    Fr Dougal

    Use of Aberdeen is very well recorded in FC Eels book on King’s College Chapel, rather like Sarum and Bangor.

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