What is in Kelvin's Head?

Willkommen! Bienvenue! Welcome!

19/12/2013

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).

Hi, 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.

I 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.

The 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.

As 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.

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its all about me, Kelvin Holdsworth, welcome

7 responses to “Come out and carry on”

Emlyn Williams

11/10/2014

Couldn’t you find a nice mitre to replace the crown? 😉

Reply
1. Kelvin
  
  11/10/2014
  
  Oh, I didn’t make it.
  
  And in any case, with the C of E, it is all about the Crown.
  
  Reply
  1. Susan Sheppard Hedges
    
    11/10/2014
    
    Can we share it even over here in the US?
    
    Reply
    1. Alan McManus
      
      12/10/2014
      
      Yes! With an explanatory, ‘The Kingdom of God Needs You (To Come Out)!’ I’m celebrating today by putting my publications on my website, thus nailing my rainbow colours to the mast. Once I’ve had my tea. Living in Glasgow, I won’t have had it.
      
      Reply
2. Fr Steve
  
  12/10/2014
  
  Sounds like a movie of the 1960’s starring the wonderful (and yet sad) Kenneth Williams!
  
  Reply
Dharma Nicodemus Cuthbert

12/10/2014

Just another day to be forgotten about, by the majority of straight people. Like the 1st of December, I half jokingly asked my rector which colour I should dye my hair on the 1st, pink or purple he immediately said purple. I asked why then he reminded that it was Advent, I had to explain why I had thought of pink. He didn’t know that the 1st of Dec was the world’s hiv/aids day, we both were seeing the day from completely different angels.
I was surprised that the day wasn’t known to him, he’s not that old.. Anyway way I could experiment and see what happens.

Reply
1. Alan McManus
  
  13/10/2014
  
  What a lovely thought, that there are different angels dedicated to the celebration of Advent and to the care of people in various states of sickness and health! A felicitous typo.
  
  Reply