What is in Kelvin's Head?

  • Sermon preached for St Mungo – 13 January 2013

    I have to confess that for most of my life I did not give St Mungo much of passing thought. I certainly encountered him when I was in primary school up the road in that I remember a wonderful Primary 5 teacher in Bearsden making us do a project on the great urban conurbation that we were living so close by. The topic was Glasgow and thus we all had to draw our own version of the city crest – the bird, the tree, the bell and the fish – each representative of miracles in the lives of our patron saint.

    After that I didn’t think of him again until a couple of years ago. During the time after Bishop Idris had retired and before Bishop Gregor started, there was a period of time when there was no bishop around to go to civic events. These ended up being divvied up between the Dean and the Provost and perhaps the Synod Clerk, to ensure that the Episcopal Church was represented at events which needed a bigwig.

    I don’t know what I expected when I entered the ordained ministry of the church. I certainly didn’t expect to be a stand-in part-time bigwig going to events like that.

    However, it can be fun – so long as you learn to smile and nod a lot you go far (more…)

32 responses to “Sign seen”

  1. Robin Avatar
    Robin

    What was the character of the debate? If one believes that the admission of women to the threefold ministry of the Church was an extension of an existing doctrine, not a doctrinal change, and that the dropping of the ‘filioque’ clause from the Creed wasn’t a doctrinal change either (nobody is compelled to deny that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Son), the change to the doctrine of initiation was the most important doctrinal change made by the Scottish Episcopal Church not just in my lifetime but perhaps even in the SEC’s history. It amazes me that it seems to have been so uncontroversial.

    Reply
  2. Robin Avatar
    Robin

    (I don’t say I necessarily disapprove of the change. I’m quite happy not only for the unconfirmed but also for the unbaptised to be admitted to Holy Communion and would turn away no-one – except perhaps ++Judas Williams, and even then probably not – from the altar. But I can’t understand how a Church can teach two contradictory things at once.)

    Reply
    1. kelvin Avatar
      kelvin

      To a certain extent, saying two contradictory things at once is part of the consequence of having old liturgical formularies alongside modern ones, I think.

      (If you are not going to say something new, what’s the point in producing something new after all).

      The modern descriptions of marriage in the 2007 marriage rite don’t seem to me to be entirely consistent with the marriage rite of 1929, for example.

      It is the way we live now.

      Reply
  3. kelvin Avatar
    kelvin

    Well, as I said, there were several of us who spoke against the change, for one reason or another but it was passed by a fairly high majority, I think.

    It seems to me that there is just about every view about initiation into the Christian church that has ever been held is currently also held and practised in the Scottish Episcopal Church. Indeed, there are varieties of practice and procedure within congregations and even within families.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

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

Previous Posts

  • Magnatune

    There were news reports yesterday saying that the Creative Commons licence is about to be ported to UK law.So far, so dull. I hear you!Yet take a trip over to Magnatune to see what a difference such a copyright licence can make. Its a record label which uses the strapline “We are not evil” o­n…

  • Concert on Saturday

    This weekend is a busy one at the church. The Scottish Vienna Horns are joining us on Saturday and Sunday. The choir is singing on Saturday evening too. Last night was spent rehearsing. The choir itself is doing well at the moment – so much better than a year ago. One of the distinctive features…

  • Carpet Fitting

    Oh the upheaval of having a carpet fitted. The whole house is in turmoil. My filing cabinets are at the foot of the stairs, one desk is in pieces in the dining room, another is in front of the television, the piano is in the hall, the old carpet takes up the rest of the…

  • Windsor Report

    One of the things which has taken a bit of time over the last couple of days has been reading the Windsor Report. This is the report o­n how the Anglican Communion is supposed to live together through its present difficulties.  My guess is that a lot of people will not bother reading hte whole…