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- Boris Johnston will achieve his longstanding ambition to become a former Prime Minister.
- Stock market higher at end of 2021 than at the beginning (FTSE – 6,460) but higher inflation too (most recent CHPI – 0.6%).
- No progress for those hoping for marriage equality in the Church of England.
- State based hackers turn their disruptive attention to open source software. (Watch out WordPress).
- Donald Trump will remain the centre of attention.
- There will be midnight mass in St Mary’s Cathedral, Glasgow next Christmas Eve. People will be wearing masks.
- A rocky year for Nicola Sturgeon but the SNP will be returned triumphant to Holyrood, despite their record.
- No vote on Scottish Independence this year but like it or not, constitutional change is a-coming.
- Attempt to repeal the Human Rights Act, removing the provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights from UK law. (It is a stepping stone to restoring capital punishment – the Brexiteers are not done with us yet).
- Legislation emerges in Scotland to restrict fireworks.
8 responses to “I seem to have been spared”
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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?)
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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.
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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
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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.
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Speaking of Sarum, were there medieval uses peculiar to Scotland, Fr Kelvin? Presumably there may have been something like a St Andrews Use.
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Yeah, I think the Sarum rite sounds fabulous, but Advent candles should obviously be purple and pink :-).
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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.
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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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