1 – The UK will lose its triple A credit rating.
2 – The Scottish Episcopal Church will have poor statistical returns this year prompting very quiet wailing and gnashing of teeth except in Argyll.
3 – At least one Church of England bishop (and maybe a pair) will be outed. (Only time I’ve retained a prediction from one year to the next).
4 – The Scottish Parliament will vote for new legislation allowing gay couples to get married. (But no such weddings this year). The details of the new category of “belief marriages” will be substantially changed and much more heavily regulated than is suggested in the recent consultation response from government.
5 – Sadly, I expect renewed campaigning for straight people to be able to enter Civil Partnerships with preparations being made for a legal challenge for 2014.
6 – The Coalition will have lower public opinion ratings by end of year due to public concerns as austerity measures bite. It will record one of the lowest public opinion rating of any UK govenment in modern times.
7 – The Church of Scotland will have a difficult General Assembly, but one characterised by fine speeches. They will approve a report which suggests having a theological study into blessing civil partnerships but not actual marriages of gay people. (This will please no-one who has any opinions about the matter and will thus be regarded as a success by those who don’t).
8 – The Church of England will be unable to agree a way forward on opening the Episcopate to Women.
9 – Justin Welby won’t put a foot wrong.
10 – The new Bishop of Durham will come from a relatively small congregation in London.
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Film Festival
The opening movie in the Film Festival last night was Ae Fond Kiss – Ken Loache’s new inter-racial romance set in Glasgow. Having spent two days last week going backwards and forwards to Pollockshields, it was rather fun to see real life portrayed in a film. Arranged marriages, children not doing what their parents expect…
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Harvest Sermon – 3 October 2004
The interesting thing about harvest is that people have become more and more keen on celebrating it the further they have got from being the ones who gather in the crops in the fields. The harvest festival is a festival which most people think goes back into the mists of time. We imagine joyful peasants…
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Psephology
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Ordinations
Several people I know have been ordained this week. Inevitably, it makes me think about my own ordinations, first to the diaconate and then to the priesthood. Tomorrow I’m going to Glasgow to a first Eucharist. No doubt I’ll be thinking of my own first mass. It was outside in the open air, in the…
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