It isn’t just Scotland where there are people getting excited about the possibility of marriage law being changed to be more equitable you know.
Here’s a video of the Dean of St Alban’s speaking out for the cause down in Englandshire.
Rather well, he does it too, I think.
Now, when did you last hear anyone else be as articulate, sensible and godly in less than three minutes?
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?
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.
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.
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.
Someone left behind a vegetarian haggis in the rectory the other day.I managed to rescue it before the cat got hold of it. I plan on eating it. I do have to get over my squeamishness about eating the entrails of carrots and potatoes first though. I never liked the idea of it all being wrapped up…
Members of the choir from St Saviour's have been invited to sing, along with others, at an induction service in Stirling at the start of November. I received the music yesterday afternoon. It was unknown to me. It is also unplayable by me. I find it curiously reassuring that someone locally aspires to music that…
Let us tell the story here. Imagine the scene. There is a rich young man. He has made his fortune. Footballer. Every time he gets his hair cut, it makes the front page of the tabloids. You know his face. You know his wife?s face. She is a pop-star. They have a couple of beautiful…
I heard this morning that Bishop Michael Henley has announced his retirement date. [Well actually I heard it from a member of Glasgow diocese yesterday afternoon – I am pretending to myself that I heard the news today]. He will retire in July next year. Bishop Michael will have completed more than 10 years as…
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