What is in Kelvin's Head?

Pilgrimage Days – Who on Earth Are You?

19/02/2016

I’m looking forward to hosting two Diocesan Pilgrimage Days at St Mary’s on 20 and 27 February 2016 exploring the theme “Who on earth are you?”

It is difficult to think of a better week for exploring our identity as Episcopalians but it isn’t going to be all about the Columba Declaration. We’ll be focussing on the things that we enjoy about our faith and the things that make us cherish the Scottish Episcopal Church as our place to live out a Christian identity.

The day will include conversation amongst the pilgrims about where they have come from and things that inspire them. There will be a forum conversation with me about why I am an Episcopalian and how I came to value belonging to this church. In the afternoon there will be an Any Questions panel. Throughout the day there will be gentle worship and a chance to enjoy being together in the cathedral.

If anyone wants to join it, all they need to do is bring a packed lunch – tea and coffee will be provided.

The days begin at 10.00 and will end by 16.00.

If you are coming, it would be helpful for you to let us know – please fill in the form on the cathedral website – www.thecathedral.org.uk

4 responses to “The SNP and Equal Marriage”

Indy

18/07/2012

I think the issue is that the SNP Government is going to authorise religious same sex marriages as well as civil ones.

It would be an obvious compromise to allow civil weddings but not religious ones – that seems to be the route the UK Govt will go down.

It would be tempting for the SG to do the same. It’s a neat solution – that way they could say there is no question of religious denominations being forced to perform same sex marriages. It will only be civil ceremonies.

And, let’s face it, although there are some religious denominationa which support same sex marriage – Unitarians, Quakers, Liberal Jews, Pagan Federation etc – how many Unitarians, Quakers, Liberal Jews, Pagans etc are actually out there? They are very much outnumbered by the Catholics, Muslims and fundamentalist Protestants aren’t they?

But for some reason the SG has decided to go for the option which allows religious as well as civil same sex marriages. We can only assume that, for them, that is actually an issue of principle, of support for religious freedom.

But it makes it more complicated doesn’t it? Because they have to find a way to protect the rights of religious denominations which wish to conduct same sex marriages while also protecting the rights of religious denominations who do not want to conduct same sex marriages. And do that in the context of legislation which protects religious rights, freedom of speech and equality which is not within their control.

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Lazarus

18/07/2012

Putting aside any issues of substance here, I’m not sure you’re being quite accurate in your interpretation of John Haldane’s Newsnicht appearance. He was careful to distinguish between civil partnerships and same sex marriage, saying that the latter had to be discussed within an understanding of the ‘common good’ (a discussion which the programme didn’t have time to allow). I’d be amazed if he’s changed his opposition to same sex marriage (expressed quite regularly in the media eg in the Beyond Belief programme here http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b019rlng/Beyond_Belief_Same_Sex_Marriage/).

As to whether Haldane was criticizing the Cardinal -I suspect any interpretation along these lines would require quite a degree of cynicism (or wishful thinking!) given his previously highly supportive attitude (eg http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/6707465.stm).

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Jaye Richards-Hill

20/07/2012

I met him when Ruth and I did the Big Questions earlier this year. Apparently, Haldane is an advisor to Pope Benedict….

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Erp

24/07/2012

There may not be many Unitarians, Quakers, Reform Jews in Scotland but there are a lot of Humanist weddings (I believe in Scotland in 2010 the number of weddings by Humanist celebrants exceeded the number of Catholic weddings) so they are the biggest group performing legally recognized opposite-sex marriages who would like to perform legally recognized same-sex marriages (as opposed to a ceremony after a same-sex marriage has been registered at the registry office).

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