What is in Kelvin's Head?

  • When you see a rainbow

    Here’s the Moment of Reflection that I gave on Radio 2 yesterday.

    There it was in the sky – clear and bright. Arching right over the Scottish Parliament on Tuesday just as gay marriage was being agreed by parliamentarians.

    Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet – a perfect rainbow stretching across the sky.

    It made me smile as rainbows always do because when I see them, I remember singing in Sunday school – “When you see a rainbow, remember God is love”.

    Of course, God doesn’t control the weather – the sun shines on the righteous and the unrighteous and rainbows appear to everyone. But when I see rainbows, I remember several things. Firstly they make me remember that the world is inherently beautiful. Then the many colours remind me of the glorious diversity that is what creation seems to be all about. And then they remind me of love because of that song I used to sing when I was little.

    After this week of storm and flooding, many are suffering. As I’m praying later today in church, I’ll be praying for compassion, comfort, hope and help. Oh yes, and for love. For all who need love most.

    You can hear it here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01s0xjn

    (At time of writing, whoever is updating the BBC website seems not to be able to spell “reverend”).

    ,

3 responses to “Thuribles of the week”

  1. Stewart Avatar
    Stewart

    The comments by JN1034 are very interesting especially considering the practice I observed in Hong Kong – see http://bonnyton.fotopic.net/p39681149.html

    Reply
  2. JN1034 Avatar
    JN1034

    V Rev Kelvin Holdsworth, dear sibling in Christ: Thank you for bestowing upon us your esteemed Theological Thurible Award, albeit we’re far from worthy. Though we’re overcome by surprise of your kindness and gratitude, we hope that which we caused you to ponder are good things, all to the glory of the Triune One and of God’s gods. Considering that censing is a multi-millennia-old religious convention, we’ve a deep appreciation of thuribles in our shared traditions, and for their practical mystical expressions in the daily lives of the faithful. Censing marks our homes and families, our weeks and years, our lives and hearts, our Church and God. Censing is a constant element of our histories imprinting a sensual memory of the life of the whole incarnate Church, both at home and in our parishes. When we smell it in our local parishes, our olfactory senses read the aroma as homemade; everything connects; nothing in our world seems detached from God and from us; we transcend spacetime and the universe is one at that fragrant ephemeral instant. And if we smell incense in another’s home, or at a different parish, it all comes together as an unified moment, and we are home wherever we are. We pray God continues to bless you with grace and mercy as you lead your community at St Mary’s Cathedral. Remember us in your prayers. Yours in the shared service of Christ our Lord, JN1034+++

    Reply
  3. Kirstin Avatar
    Kirstin

    Angels and thuribles, that reminds me, I have a rescue to plan. I wonder if my daughter left any camouflage paint!

    Reply

Leave a Reply

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

Previous Posts

  • Lambeth Conference of Bloggers

    I’ve seen one or two articles recently, both in traditional (ie dead tree) media and online, noting how much blogging has influenced the current Anglican crisis. There is some truth in this, but I’d be the first to say, it ain’t all our fault. When it comes to the Lambeth Conference, the only person that…

  • Chapel going

    BTW, I’m preaching in the Chapel in the University of Glasgow tomorrow morning. Service starts at 11 am. This can be witnessed either live and in person, or live online. The Chapel has a live web-stream which seems to operate day and night. Try it out here. UPDATE Here is the Order of Service

  • A Praepostery?

    It is a weekend of several Provosts. The Provost of the Cathedral of the Diocese of Gothenburg is here this weekend so I’m off to Kelvingrove today being a tourguide. Tomorrow, I’m hoping to meet the new Provost of St Paul’s Cathedral in Dundee. Thus, three Provosts are likely to meet in the same place…

  • 11%

    The rate of growth of our main Sunday service 11%. By that, I mean that the average number of comminicants last year was 11% more than the previous year which was itself 11% more than the year before that. I’m currently finding myself talking about this growth in many of the internal meetings that I…