What is in Kelvin's Head?

  • White Smoke

    Love and prayers to friends in the Roman Catholic church on the election of the new pope. It was lovely to see the people in Rome greet him.

    The airwaves are going to be full of speculation about what he will be like and full of things he has said in the past. The truth is, there is no knowing whether how he has been will be how he will be. It just doesn’t always work like that. Things happen.

    It is interesting to think about there being a Jesuit pope. Like many an Anglican I’ve received quite a lot from the Jesuits – in my case, retreats, spiritual direction, methods of prayer, friendship and massage. I’ve found most Jesuits I’ve encountered to be intelligent, funny and purposeful. They also are formed in quite a distinctive way spiritually. This pope is likely to think things through quite differently to some popes just because of that. It will be fascinating to see how it all pans out.

    He appeared to be a calm man and that will surely be needed. It was good to see someone call the people gathered in Rome to pray as his first act. He seemed to call us all to pray, Roman Catholics and others alike. Let us hope that he is indeed the great bridge builder (pontifex maximus).

    We’ll be praying for him. Just as he requested.

     

4 responses to “Counting our many blessings – Scottish Episcopal Statistics”

  1. robin webster Avatar
    robin webster

    I wonder if the church has thought sufficiently about making it possible for someone who is in a 9-5 job and perhaps is out of town on weekends to attend church? Should early evening weekday services, or early morning ones not be more in evidence?

    Reply
    1. Kelvin Avatar
      Kelvin

      There are churches which have early morning services – if I’m honest I know of none that is terribly well patronised by people who are heading out of town for the weekend.

      The question has certainly come up before as to whether it would be possible to establish a regular congregation in a city like Glasgow which met for a main weekly service at a time different to Sunday morning. (There are one or two services like this in the City of London, I think).

      St Mary’s tried for a time to use the 5-7 pm weeknight slot for events and services. This had been dropping off before I came here and it was hard to see a way forward for those slots. Good things came out of the experiment but it is interesting that the ones which continued and took on on a life of their own were not liturgical. The poetry group, for example, came from this time.

      I’m aware of a city centre church in Edinburgh which has just started to have a Saturday vigil mass like many Roman Catholic churches have. That doesn’t answer the question about people going out of town for the weekend but it is interesting that they are experimenting with that at the current time.

      Reply
      1. Jo Avatar
        Jo

        I do recall a church adjacent to a large factory that managed to hold a lunchtime communion service on a weekday. Only really works if everyone takes their lunch break, and has it at the same time, of course.

        On the wider point there are those of us who would be regular attenders at Episcopalian services were it logistically feasible. I would certainly consider myself an Episcopalian even though it would take a 28 hour round trip to enable me to attend on a Sunday. I can’t imagine there are more than a few dozen folk in that situation nationwide, of course.

        Reply
        1. Kelvin Avatar
          Kelvin

          Thanks Jo – I’m aware of a number of people who regard themselves as members of St Mary’s who can’t physically get here for reasons of geography. I’ve been trying to think through what might be done to make such links stronger for a while.

          Reply

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