Today has been quite a busy day at St Mary’s. The Cathedral hosted the election of the new bishop. The vote was over quickly and decisively when The Very Rev Gregor Duncan was chosen to be the next bishop of the Diocese of Glasgow and Galloway in the first ballot. (Canon 4 allows up to four votes to be held by the synod and the person who is elected is whoever can first command a greater than 50% majority in the house of clergy and the house of laity.

There was no small sense of excitement in the air as the voting took place and was announced.

On these occassions, one is left in awe of anyone who puts themselves into the process of election. We ended up with three candidates who were publicly known. There will be others who were nominated and who did not end up on the final ballot paper. Inevitably, those electing today were concerned for all the candidates and everyone involved.

There has been rather a lot of press interest in this election, which made today considerably busier than it might otherwise have been.

Gregor will be consecrated as our new bishop fairly soon – Canon 4 specifies that it has to be within 100 days.