What is in Kelvin's Head?

  • Willkommen! Bienvenue! Welcome!

    There have been quite a lot of new hits on the blog over the last few days, not least because of the Rudolphus post, which is currently receiving comments about the quality of the Latin. The comments are in Latin too.

    Seeing all these new hits come in, I decided it was time to update the About page on this blog. It now says a little more about what I do than the two line one that was there before which just had my job title and links to twitter and facebook.

    If you are reading this as a new blog subscriber a particular shout out to you. Willkommen! Bienvenue! Welcome! Thank you for signing up to receive updates by email. I hope you enjoy reading all this. Do join in the comments. This is a lively community which I learn from and which often makes me laugh.

    This is what I’ve said on the new About page. (Many thanks, as usual to Gordon Smith who took most of the photographs).

     

    head and shouldersHi, I’m Kelvin Holdsworth. Welcome to my blog. I’ve been writing here since August 2003. I’m the Provost of St Mary’s Cathedral in Glasgow – a busy church with a progressive ethos in the inner West End of the city. Glasgow is a place that I love and have a strong connections with both through my family and my childhood – I went to school just a few miles outside of the city.
    After school, which I finished back in Yorkshire where I was born, I studied Mathematics and Computing at Manchester Polytechnic before going on to study theology at the University of St Andrews and the University of Edinburgh.

    elevating hostI enjoy my work – celebrating the Eucharist as I’m doing here, preaching and leading a busy, interestsing congregation which is gathered from all over the world. This blog is an extension of my preaching ministry sometimes – I tend to post my sermons here for all to see and I enjoy the debates that sometimes arise in the comments.
    Some of the themes of my ministry have been cathedral ministry (I worked in St Ninian’s Cathedral in Perth for my curacy), working with students (I’ve twice been involved in University Chaplaincy) and finding ways to make the liturgy of the church exciting and fun. I’m unashamed of having learned more about liturgy from the theatre than from the church. Human rights are important to me – I believe that everyone was made in the image and likeness of God and the consequence of that is an imperative to work for justice.
    pink list logoThe Independent of Sunday was kind enough to include me in their Pink List – their annual celebration of movers and shakers in the UK who come from the LGBT communities. I’m one of the more outspoken members of clergy who happen to be gay and I write quite a lot about that on the blog. For me, equality is indivisible – I think that people should be treated alike whether or not they happen to be gay or happen to be straight and that has led me to be one of the campaigners to Equal Marriage in Scotland. I look forward to the day when I’ll be able to marry such couples in church.
    with angelsAs well as finding me in church, you will find me in other places too. Social media seems to have been invented for me and I’m active on both facebook and twitter.
    When I’m not in church or online, I’m happiest in the theatre. Holidays quite often include a trip to London to catch up with what’s on there. A fascination with opera has led me into opera reviewing and my reviews of what’s happening on the opera stage in Scotland are regularly published by Opera Britannia.
    If you are wondering what a thurible is, well it is the thing that you use to swing incense around with in a church.

    If you want to keep up with the things that I write on this blog, you can subscribe using the box below. If you do, you’ll never miss a post.

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10 responses to “Sermon for Christ the King 2014”

  1. Julie Mansfield Avatar
    Julie Mansfield

    Kelvin, I follow your blog and I often find your conversations on facebook a lot of fun. But often, too, I don’t really understand what you are saying – such as your last paragraph there; ‘Like love. Like compassion. Like truth. Like hope. Like justice. Like joy. Like peace. Like the Way. Like the very essence of life itself.’ It sounds wonderful but what does it actually mean? Are you saying that the word, ‘God’ is a synonym for other worthwhile words which already have meanings I do understand?

    Reply
    1. Kelvin Avatar
      Kelvin

      What a good question.

      No, I’m not saying that, or at least not quite. I would say that we can’t describe what God is like in language, but one of the closest ways we can come near to talking about God is to talk by analogy – to talk about what God is like.

      The bible is full of times when people use analogy and metaphor to describe the reality of God which we can never completely comprehend.

      In this sermon I’m saying that whilst God may be like a king, God is also like a lot of things that one doesn’t immediately associate with kingship and monarchy. That string of words that you picked out in the sermon are all ways that the bible uses to speak of God. I was using them to do the same.

      Does any metaphor contain or enclose or sum up what we can say or know of God. The answer is always no.

      Reply
  2. Joy Jones Avatar
    Joy Jones

    I loved your sermon. And have subscribed to your blog.

    No, I have not met the Queen, but I have met the King! And continue to get to know Him more and more every day. His love, peace joy, truth, etc.

    Our priest in North Carolina, said on Sunday, that
    it was hard to tell the difference between sheep and goats.
    Since you live in Scotland, you see a lot of sheep and goats….why did Jesus picked those animals?

    Reply
    1. Kelvin Avatar
      Kelvin

      Thanks for your comments, Joy.

      Actually, I don’t see that many sheep and goats in Great Western Road in the middle of Glasgow. I do see sheep when I drive in the countryside but very rarely goats.

      I think that it is the case that in the Middle East, sheep and goats are pastured together and do sometimes need sorting out. Here in Scotland, sheep and goats (especially wild goats) look very different. However I think in the Middle East, that’s less true.

      Reply
  3. Julie Mansfield Avatar
    Julie Mansfield

    Kelvin, I’ve only just found your reply! Thanks so much for bothering. I really mean it. I thought you must have just ignored it. Yes, I see what you are saying but… I would say that all those meaningful words in the Bible about what God is like only make sense in the context of understanding who God is. ( i.e. that He came into being as the personification of the worldview of the marginalised Hebrew people, later taken up by Jesus, just as all of the other communities of the ancient Near East had gods representing their worldviews. I study with this bloke here http://www.bibleincartoons.co.uk. ) What I am trying – !! – to say is that God obviously cannot be everyone’s ‘truth’, ‘joy’, ‘justice’ etc because in society there are contradictory ideas about what these things are.

    Reply
    1. Kelvin Avatar
      Kelvin

      Are there contradictory ideas about truth, joy and justice?

      I’m not so sure. Surely we can still speak of these things as though they had some commonly understood meanings.

      Reply
      1. Julie Mansfield Avatar
        Julie Mansfield

        oh absolutely there are, Kelvin. Just one of many examples: these immigrants in the Mediterranean Sea. Their truth and joy and justice is to be allowed to come and live here. Many folk here get their truth, joy and justice in seeking to put in controls. Whose truth, joy and justice is right? As I see it, the god of the marginalised Hebrews would side with the immigrants but I’m not sure about the Church…

        Reply
        1. Kelvin Avatar
          Kelvin

          I was speaking about God, not ethics. That’s not to say that there isn’t a lot that is interesting to say about the two, but they are quite different I think.

          The fact that people disagree about how to show love. does not, to me at least, negate the assertion that God is love.

          Reply
      2. Julie Mansfield Avatar
        Julie Mansfield

        Oh absolutely there are contradictory ideas, Kelvin. Just one of many examples; these immigrants in the Mediterranean Sea. Their truth and joy and justice is to be allowed a place to live and thrive. For many folk here, their truth and joy and justice depends on keeping out as many immigrants as possible because they affect housing, medical care, schools etc. As I see it, the Biblical god of the marginalised Hebrews is on the side of the immigrants…

        Reply
        1. Julie Mansfield Avatar
          Julie Mansfield

          sorry I didn’t see your reply! My difficulty is that you use words as if they have a universal meaning. E.g. love is not a neutral word. there are many different types of love such as conservative paternalistic love or socialist love or non-marginalising love. They are all love. How can God be them all?

          Reply

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