I hope when I die I am mourned more by the poor than by the rich.
I hope my coffin is carried by friends and not by soldiers.
I hope the clocks keep chiming for the world only spins forwards.
I hope that money is not wasted on my obsequies which could be better spent on doing good.
I hope that an Easter mass is celebrated not state-sanctioned pomp and pride.
Not to mention Aotearoa/New Zealand Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends.
When I went to seminary in Seattle, WA, USA in the mid 1980s I took a summer term class at Vancouver School of Theology in the Diocese of New Westminster, Canada. While there I met Dean Peter’s current bishop, +Michael, who was himself dean of Christ Church Cathedral at that time. I still have his small book that he gave me, Rites For A New Age: Understanding the Book of Alternative Services. Vancouver is such a beautiful city.
That +Michael would be the Mike Ingham with whom I was at theological college in Edinburgh 40 years ago, then. A breath of fresh air in the place back then, if memory serves.
O Lord and Ruler of the House of Israel, who appeared to Moses in the flame of the burning bush and gave him the law on Sinai: come, and redeem us with outstretched arms. Amen. We have lost sight of the fact that ruling is a holy responsibility. For those who have decisions to make…
O Wisdom, who came from the mouth of the Most High, reaching from end to end and ordering all things mightily and sweetly: come, and teach us the way of prudence. O Wisdom, poor Wisdom, what a year you have had. How many times have you been snubbed this year? When prisoners are mistreated by…
1 Bringing an unloved altar from a dank room in Perthshire to Bridge of Allan.2 Photocopying (as though it were an Olympic event).3 Young Church Party.
Helen Percy has won her legal case, gaining the right, as a former Church of Scotland minister to challenge the way she left her post on the grounds of sex discrimination. As it happens I was at college with Helen, when she was famous in those days merely for keeping a pig and wearing the…
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