What is in Kelvin's Head?

Six Years – Six Whole Years

31/05/2012

Today marks six years, six whole years, since I’ve been the Provost and Rector of St Mary’s Cathedral, Glasgow.

It has been quite a journey, for all of us, hasn’t it?

I remember that day primarily for the service that took place which was one of the most exciting liturgical services I’ve ever been a part of. It wasn’t just me who thought that either – there was quite a lot of chatter about it for long time afterwards. It particularly centred on me singing the gospel (What?! a Provost who sings?!) and, it being the Feast of the Visitation, spinning round half way through it to allow the choir to sing the Magnificat, which features strongly in the gospel of the day. I remember what felt like a surge of adrenalin (or perhaps the Holy Spirit) rushing through the congregation as they sang.

Stanford in G never moved me more.

I also remember the choir singing the relentlessly beautiful Totus Tuus by Gorecki. I’m listening to it again as I type this.

Totus Tuus sum, Maria,
Mater nostri Redemptoris,
Virgo Dei, Virgo pia,
Mater mundi Salvatoris.
Totus Tuus sum, Maria!

I am yours completely, Mary,
Mother of our Redeemer,
Virgin of God, holy Virgin,
Mother of the Savior of the world.
I am yours completely, Mary.

The waves of holy minimalism were both beautiful and overwhelming and began, just began, to heal the wrench caused by moving away from Bridge of Allan where I had been happy and the people were both kind and good to me.

That was the night in which I started to get a glimpse of what worship might be like here. Eclectic, passionate and, notwithstanding the outstanding quality of the music,Â possessing a paramount interest in the words themselves.

Since the first time I let people know that I was coming to St Mary’s I’ve faced a curious question – “…but what will you do next?”

I don’t really know why people ask me this – they still do, quite a lot. Perhaps it was because I got the job here just a little sooner than some people thought decent – I was still, just, in my thirties. Mind you, new Provosts in their thirties have not been entirely unknown here.

I’m doing exactly what I want to be doing at the moment, thank you very much. St Mary’s has plenty of challenges and plenty of rewards too. Whenever I travel, I become more aware of our wonders. Worship that is compelling, surprising, emotional and engaging. People who are care about justice, beauty and the world around them. A congregation that is bewilderingly diverse, funny and yes, still growing. And that is to say nothing of the city, which still I love.

It is good to be here.

The last six years have been wonderful.

7 responses to “Reclaiming the web”

Paul Hutchinson

14/10/2015

Thank you for making me think in a different direction just before pausing for lunch. I have never had a blog, so came quite late to Internet social discourse, and have engaged more since joining one major network in 2010 and another in early 2014 – normally using those networks rather than a comment box such as this. Not all of us are natural creators of substantial original content, but like to be thoughtful in brief exchange, and so both those major networks, though cursed with many difficulties, serve those brief exchanges quite well. I do agree that the endless recycling of links (on both of them) can be wearying, and I do wish that some old friends would be a little more self-critical. But the price of any kind of social discourse is that one is vulnerable to the otherness of the other.
I feel I ought to be writing a more substantial comment here, but hope that this is enough. The time is not always there to offer deeper reflection: but sometimes a blogger needs to hear at least a small splash from the stone thrown down the well!

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1. Kelvin
  
  14/10/2015
  
  Thanks for the comment, Paul. I’m aware that not everyone is a content creator, but perhaps what I miss is the sense of discovering different communities online and keeping the comments more or less in one place helps with that.
  
  The glory days of 50 or more comments on a post are probably over. I suspect I mourn the sense of community being created even more than I miss the interesting reflections of others. Retweets and shares are always welcome – but they are the means of amplification. Becoming loud isn’t the same as becoming wise, nor the same as becoming connected.
  
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Seph

14/10/2015

It’s a damnable shame—and mostly the fault of Facebook. Twitter at least has an etiquette of sorts, wherein it is considered impolite not to respond to the original tweet, which is usually made by the blogger in question.

Facebook, in short, is the scourge of the Internet. I have often been in groups which have decided to do all of their organizing on Facebook, despite my protests that I’m not on Facebook and don’t want to be, and really an e-mail list would be just as easy, and would they like me to set one up. This inevitably leads to my marginalization within the group, as no-one bothers to keep me abreast of the discussions to which I am not party.

Can you tell I’m upset about this?

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Daniel Lamont

14/10/2015

I am only an occasional user of Facebook but I know what you mean, Kelvin. And indeed, I never read the comments ‘below the line’ on newspapers like ‘The Guardian’. You offer some useful advice. I read yours and one or two other blogs on a regular basis but don’t always comment. However, I can see that the author of a blog would like some feedback. I would be sad not to have the blogs that I do read because they do give me a sense of what people are thinking and an odd sense of community.

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Father Ron Smith

14/10/2015

My own contribution to the blogopshere is, I’m afraid, Father Kelvin, limited to comments I make on other people’s blogs (such as ‘Thinking Anglicans’ and ‘Anglican Down Under’ – a local NZ forum; plus my own blog ‘kiwianglo’, where i pluck articles that interest me personally from the web and provide my own commentary. This still interests me, personally, and provides my few readers with information they might not otherwise be bothered to glean for themselves. Like you, I am no longer an avid Facebook fan.

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David Campbell

16/10/2015

Hi Kelvin – thoughtful as ever – and yours is invariably the first blog I turn to each day. That you bring pressing issues to a wider audience and to people who know, or used to know, the church you serve is a great thing. I’m still blogging relatively strongly, but it’s certainly a different blogging experience when work is set in a very different context and especially community from previously, writing these days mainly for myself about things that interest me, although not quite at the address you have in your Blog Roll. http://www.limpingtowardsthesunrise.com is where it’s “all” happening.

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1. Kelvin
  
  16/10/2015
  
  Thanks David – nice to hear from you. I’ve amended the link.
  
  I don’t think many people use blogrolls to find blogs these days but whenever I remove it my mother complains…
  
  Reply