What is in Kelvin's Head?

  • Egrets? I’ve had a few

    image

    A few years ago something happened that set all the birdwatchers in the UK atwitter. A snowy egret blew in on an ill wind and landed on the island of Seil. I happened to be there at the time and saw it in the flesh. It looked more than a little lost and was probably wondering who turned the sun off.

    Recently I found myself on a beach in the Gulf of Mexico and lo, a snowy egret swooped in and landed right next to me just as I had my camera in my hand. That’s it in the pic above, looking a good deal more perky than its cousin who made it to Argyll.

    Proof that I’ve not spent every single day of the last few weeks chasing around the cathedrals, big churches and cool Episcopalians in North America.

    Almost, but not quite.

    Of which more later.

    ,

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

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.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

Previous Posts

  • Sermon – 4 July 2004

    This morning, I am going to concentrate exclusively on the story of Naaman. It is a story that I first heard when I was in Sunday School ? for some reason, it has been a popular story to teach to children. I suspect that the reason for that is that you can read it simply…

  • Blog Review

    Seeing how today is the day that the blog reaches 20000 hits, here is a review of the best bits.First post – o­n getting a wet elbow when baptising babiesInclusive Church – most commented o­n postTory Nuns? – Religion and PoliticsNever trust a two-eyed fundamentalist – Someone else's sermonWalking the labyrinth – in the UniversityCarols…

  • Clarty Study

    The stour has now just about settled in the study and the cat has almost recovered from the hours of banging and hammering which were required to completely remove the rear of a fireplace. The front of the fireplace is long gone. The brick, mortar, cement and briezeblock sculpture which was left when it was…

  • Art Exhibition

    There is an art exhibition in these parts. More details o­n the church website – www.saint-saviour.org