The starters were excellent. The haggis tower with goats cheese I am told was very nice, but the scallops with black pud and minted pea puree was excellent. Nicely seared juicy scallops and not over powered by the peas (if that is possible) Personally I'd leave out the balsamic drizzle, but it did look lovely on the plate. The mains were equally enjoyable. Tom's braised lamb shank looked very tender and tasty, Margaret's Haggis, Neepsn and Tatties were delicious and the small portion was fairly generous. I toyed with idea of the seared Tuna steak, but opted instead for the pork Salambucca. Now, the last time I ate this dish was in Rome and it was made with veal. Yes, I know they don't farm it terribly ethically on the Continent, but it tastes gorgeous! I wasn't expecting it to quite match that standard when I ordered it and it didn't. The pork was a tad dry in comparison to the veal, but it was nicely seasoned and the dressing was very light. It was also nicely balanced, just like the scallop starter. Just the right amount of delicious new potatoes and roasted veggies. if the Italian version got 11 out of 10, then this got a very creditable 8.5.
Monday, 30 June 2008
My response to GAFCON.
The starters were excellent. The haggis tower with goats cheese I am told was very nice, but the scallops with black pud and minted pea puree was excellent. Nicely seared juicy scallops and not over powered by the peas (if that is possible) Personally I'd leave out the balsamic drizzle, but it did look lovely on the plate. The mains were equally enjoyable. Tom's braised lamb shank looked very tender and tasty, Margaret's Haggis, Neepsn and Tatties were delicious and the small portion was fairly generous. I toyed with idea of the seared Tuna steak, but opted instead for the pork Salambucca. Now, the last time I ate this dish was in Rome and it was made with veal. Yes, I know they don't farm it terribly ethically on the Continent, but it tastes gorgeous! I wasn't expecting it to quite match that standard when I ordered it and it didn't. The pork was a tad dry in comparison to the veal, but it was nicely seasoned and the dressing was very light. It was also nicely balanced, just like the scallop starter. Just the right amount of delicious new potatoes and roasted veggies. if the Italian version got 11 out of 10, then this got a very creditable 8.5.
Sunday, 29 June 2008
"Apostolic Diversity" - A sermon for the Feast of Ss Peter and Paul.
Our twin pillars of the Church represent the diversity of the Christian Community in its early days. From different cultural backgrounds and with different levels of education, sophistication and experience of other cultures, they came to share a broad level of agreement on policy when they opened themselves to sharing their experiences and insights with one another in the context of prayer and dialogue. Both knew where they came from and what they deeply believed but both were willing to sit down and talk because they knew each other and recognised each other as fellow disciples, human and flawed, striving to be faithful to the same Risen Christ they acknowledged as Saviour and Lord.
Here this morning in Christ Church we have something of a living example of this diversity and unity in our sacred ministers. Our celebrant, in historic robes, is Ann, English, married mother and priest. The Liturgy of the Word is led by Tim, Kenyan, widowed parent, former Principal of a Kenyan theological college and Priest in Charge of a congregation in the Diocese of California and hospital chaplain. The sermon is being preached by John, Scot, bachelor, pushing 41 and dressed up as one of the Pope's 2nd XI! Apostolic diversity incarnate!
Our diverse and apostolic sacred minsters - spot the Dougal!
Saturday, 28 June 2008
Akela, we'll do our best!
I spent most of the day at a Servers Guild Mass and BBQ in Haddington. Lovely Georgian Church, massive Rectory and grounds. Vacant as of August. If you fancy a Marian Shrine in East Lothian for your next Incumbency... Turnout was a wee bit dissappointing, but the Obergruppenfurher der Servers from OSP was on the sick list, so they didn't show.
Wee Jessie (see last blog entry) passed away this morning, so I nipped into the Parish Church in Haddington to pray for her in the Lauderdale Aisle (aka the Shrine of Our Lady of Haddington). Was slightly appalled to discover when I looked at the service register that until the present Rector arrived you were lucky if there was a celebration of the Eucharist there more than once a year in recent years. What has happened to the much vaunted Marian devotion of Piskys in Southern Scotland? Not even an annual jolly from any of the Embra spike shops. And it's nicer than Carfin. Something must be done!
Thursday, 26 June 2008
Things in perspective.
But I also get the inestimable privilege of sharing in and being part of God's story in her and her family's life. That is the privilege of ministry in a parish which I wouldn't get in the cloister or the College. Other privileges there would no doubt be, but not this one. Walking with very ordinary men and women on their journey with God. Ministry to the dying takes the focus firmly away from me, myself, I and onto the other - both the person ministered to and the God who is beyond time and space and our finite comprehension. So much of the Church's visible life is focused on our needs and demands that we forget to lift our vision to the transcendent and infinite Glory that calls us into eternal being. The prayer I used with Jessie tonight challenges that:
Go well with God, Jessie.
Wednesday, 25 June 2008
Fun in the Wild West.
Tuesday, 24 June 2008
Back in the Old Country!
Statue of King Charles the Martyr
founder of the Diocese of Edinburgh
near the Orthodox Chapel in the Shrine.
Madonna in the garden of the RC Pilgrim accommodation.
It's a nice mix of RC and Episcopal and doing our own thing and joining in. Our own thing is daily Morning Prayer with up to 20 saying it together, a daily Mass, trips to the RC shrine for a renewal of Baptismal vows and the Stations of the Cross and Intercessions in the Anglican Shrine using the Rosary as a structure. Joining in is the Shrine's Evening Prayer, the Pilgrimage Mass & Processions and the healing Liturgy with Sprinkling from the Well, laying on of hands and Anointing.
As ever, it's not the Lacey Cotta bits that move me to the core. It's the silence and the healing. After the Image of Our Lady has been processed on Saturday evening and Benediction given, the Sacrament is left exposed on the altar for an hour of adoration and silent prayer. The quality of the prayerful silence in the darkened shrine with hundreds of pilgrims is rare and precious. and this year for the first time in ages it moved me do do something I haven't done for a long time. I went to confession.
Now, I gave this particular spiritual discipline up several years ago. Partly, I was in a place where my self image and sense of worth was very battered and it just wasn't healthy to do the "we are miserable offenders and there is no health in us" trip and partly it had become not just a discipline but a burden. Cranmer has a point when he describes the burden of sin as "intolerable" - it can be. But when you are trying to tell yourself you're loved and valued by God as you are, it isn't a useful way of thinking. But on this pilgrimage it came to me this isn't the way I wanted to approach confession. I wanted to make a formal act at one level, consciously surrendering my will to that of God and putting myself in the path of his merciful loving kindness. But I also saw it in the wider context of healing. It went with the healing liturgy and the sense I went to Walsingham with this time of having experienced some healing myself. God's forgiveness is in and of itself an intrinsic part of the healing of the body, mind and soul of the Christian. And for me, at this stage, that was a gift I was able to accept in and through the sacrament of reconciliation.
I wasn't disappointed. I was received graciously and thankfully by the priest and left with the prickle of thankful tears in my eyes, knowing I was back in good place with God. By which I do not mean I have relapsed into conservative Anglo-Catholicism! I still accept women's ordination and gay rights! No Damascus U-turns for Dougal!
I also found a fabulous wee orthodox Chapel upstairs in the Shrine for saying my own prayers and kissing ikon's etc! Near the statue of another who was born in Dunfermline, King Charles the Martyr, founder of the Diocese in which I currently serve. It was a very good trip and I can recommend the place strongly. And the intercession of OLW seems to work. Well, I'm still on the straight and narrow. Heavenly Ma, Ta!
"And tonight, Matthew, I'll be...a thurifer in Dumbarton!". No rest for the forgiven!
Tuesday, 17 June 2008
We're on our way to Wembley..or is that Walsingham?
Normal service to be resumed when I return. Unless I can find Our Lady's Internet Cafe!
Monday, 16 June 2008
For once in my life I agree with a Bishop!
The Bishop of Edinburgh gave an absolutely superb talk on how he's approaching the Lambeth Conference at St John's Princes Street tonight (Monday). It was the best bit of theology I've heard from a Bishop since I heard David Jenkins give the Charles Gore Lecture in Westminster Abbey in 1991. And it was the best reflection on the Trinity I've heard since the late, great James Bruce Torrance taught me at Aberdeen University in the 1980's.
His analysis of the current crisis was original, acute and incisive. He highlighted the difference between Provinces like the SEC where theological diversity is both a necessity and a virtue and the Provinces of the Global South which tend to be the product of missionary organisations. They imparted a monochrome Anglican theology from one part of the ecclesiastical spectrum to their converts and stressed the necessity of singing from the same hymn sheet as the norm to enable effective evangelism in an often and even still hostile context. Philosophically he challenged the idea that the debate is a clash between right and wrong world views, because if you hold God to be transcendent, then he is beyond our powers of ethical description and the current debates are a clash between different Goods, equally valid but different. He used a rather neat line from Isaiah Berlin to challenge both the conservative and radical groupings: "Happy are they who rest secure in unchallenged dogma - they are comfortable in their self-inflicted myopia". Brilliant!
I wasn't so taken with his analysis of different legal systems, but his reflection that the economy of the Trinity is not just an interchange of perfect love, but also a wrestling in intercession between the 3 persons as shown in the Garden of Gethsemane was simply superb. Disagreement, conflict and painful struggle is part of the Trinitarian nature of the Church and to opt out of that into a conservative holy huddle or a liberal glee club is to turn your back on God and fail to follow the Commandment not to take the Lord's name in vain - that was a stunning challenge to all engaged in debate at this time.
I was so impressed that I told him so - publicly - which is so not my usual style. I urged him to put the lecture on the Diocesan website because this challenge needs to be heard by more than the 60 or old Piskies in St John's tonight. 600 bishops need to hear it too! He agreed to do something with the website. It should be online in the next few days. Read it when it appears -it is seriously good, thought provoking stuff.
Sunday, 15 June 2008
In Quires and places where they sing.
I giggled rather at the diversity of choir habit worn by the clergy. The Dean and Cathedral priest wore cassock, lace cotta and stole + cope in the Dean's case - very Fortecuse O'Connell! The Bishop and Provost were in cassock-alb and cope - tres Ceremonies of the Modern Roman Rite. The Vice Provost and I were in cassock, Old English surplice and Cope - Parson's Handbook personified! It's odd for me to be part of the least Roman and most Anglican looking section of the clergy collective. I'll be after a Canterbury Cap next!
Saturday, 14 June 2008
Some thoughts from the jacuzzi!
Well, much as I enjoy smells and bells, it's not that. Two things do it for me. The healing and the place. Walsingham and its holy well has always been associated with healing and the Sunday afternoon liturgy with sprinkling, laying on of hands and anointing gets me every time at a level and in a way that processions of the statue (aka taking mother for a walk!) and even Benediction doesn't. And this year there will be a lot of things for me to take there for healing and prayer. Losing dad, Mum and my depression/booze problems - tomorrow is Father's Day and the 1st time I haven't had to remember not to forget to buy a present, as all those damn posters keep reminding me - the Anglican Communion, a friend of a friend who has just lost the twins she was carrying, Jessie in Palliative care, Burma. There's also the thanks to offer. I've stayed off the sauce since Ash Wednesday. The odd coincidence is I went to Walsingham that very weekend and asked OL for help. And I'm still sober. "Inspired by her example and aided by her prayers".
And there is the place. Like Iona and Taize it is, as George MacLeod described it, a thin place. I do love it and its atmosphere. I took these pics in February which might help to explain it a bit.
The Abbey ruins.
Snowdrops in spring
It has been one of my touching places for nearly 20 years. That's why I go back.
The Longest Day.
I was pleased that we simplified the acquisition of LEP (Local Ecumenical Partnership) staus by remitting it from Synod to the National Sponsoring Body at ACTS - NOW I MIGHT THINK ABOUT APPLYING FOR IT!!! Allowing CofS clergy to celebrate the Blue Book in "my" church! Never saw me thinking about that 15 years ago. And the stuff on Meissen (relations with the Evangelical Church in Germany) has taken on an local interest for me as we are looking to build links as a Council of Churches with our equivalent in Dortmund which includes EKD members and possibly Old Catholics with whom we are in full Communion. We fly to Germany in September to have an exploration.
The dinner was ok. Food good, company excellent, coffee lukewarm. Off to the final session now.
Thursday, 12 June 2008
Hi ho, Hi ho, it's off to Synod I go!.
Arrived in time for lunch and went to the bloggers workshop. Kimberly said very nice things about this blog and used it as an example! I feel highly flattered, if somewhat gob-smacked. Then into the meat of the day - talking about the Anglican Covenant - which was a surprisingly bloodless debate. I did speak, praising the Covenant Design Group for taking on board what had been said last year about turning the Primates meeting into a Curia, but noting my concern that this draft was trying to turn the ABC into a judge and giving him more power. Don't want a Curia, don't want a Pope, I want to stay Anglican! A thought struck me. If Tony Blair wanted a bloke with a beard to run the Anglican Communion, instead of promoting ++Rowan, why didn't he just co-opt Billy Connolly? At least he dyes his beard purple! And just think of the Lambeth Conference - Peter Akinola vs The Big Yin! Now there's a fight I'd pay Rupert Murdoch's Sky to watch.
The rest of the afternoon was fairly sedate. The Canon on Joint Incumbencies went through, amended as we of the West Forth Area Council had suggested. Evening Prayer was fairly well sung and the Liturgical formation event afterwards for the Edinburgh delegates was quite interesting. By no means the worst day at Synod I've ever experienced.
Wednesday, 11 June 2008
"It was 15 years ago today, when the band began to play!" (with apologies to Sgt. Pepper)
Well, I started as I did 15 years ago with a ride on the Clockwork Orange. This time it was from Buchanan St to Kelvinbridge, then I started out from West Street in my shiny new tonsure neck dog collar shirt, Grandads gold cuff links and the good suit from Marks & Sparks bought for going to Uni back in 85. Pure dead gallus High Church, by the way! I met a UF minister on the train I'd been at Uni in Aberdeen with and when he asked what I was doing these days, I said I was on my way to the Cathedral to be ordained.
The Crime Scene - St Mary's Cathedral
Next stop was the scene of the crime - St Mary's Cathedral. It was shut. Well, 15 years ago they forgot to organise a post service bun fight, so it was kinda appropriate. I wandered around the outside, thinking of the service, my knuckles going white on the rail as we sang the Veni Creator, the sermon which likened the ceremony to something in Largs called the Crowning of the Brisbane Queen! Two friends collapsing with giggles in the clergy seating when they heard that! My fellow deacon's suntan which made him look like Tommy Sheridan. Vivid pictures.
Then I crossed the road, passed the cafe where we'd gone for tea with the Bishop before the service and stopped to view the Usque Beatha in Woodlands Road. The lack of official bun fight meant we decamped there after the ordination. It was a brilliant summer evening, gloriously warm. I was stood outside with a pint of Caley 80 when I observed this wee guy swaying up the road towards the pub. He looked in the bottom door: zillions of dog collars. He came up and looked in the main door: even more zillions of dog collars. He came over to me and uttered the immortal words: "Scuse me pal, is it a Tarts and Vicars party the night?" Priceless! You simply could not have made that one up.
When I got to the Museum, I hunted out the Salvador Dali Crucifixion. Why the Cooncil have stuck it in that poky corner next to that duct, when it looked so good in St Mungo's Museum up by the Cathedral, I simply do not know. It's lost there. A copy of it was on the altar card at St Ninian's when I was a curate. It just reminds me of what I learned to do and love there. Celebrate God's love with God's people in the beauty of worship that lifts the heart and mind heavenward. And that was my wee pilgrimage.
Tuesday, 10 June 2008
Looking back, looking forward.
Monday, 9 June 2008
St Columba's Day.
The idea of a monk as missionary may seem strange to us today. After all ,mission = Billy Graham or the Alpha Course, doesn't it? Perhaps in our minds we think monks are those who have withdrawn from the normal world, drawn up the barriers and concentrated on their own salvation and spiritual journey. In Columba's day, that wasn't quite the case. Yes they sought solitude and went to out of the way places to commune with God. But they were also farmers who had to work the land to survive, builders who constructed their own homes and worship centres, teachers who instructed the children in reading and writing, as well as prayer and scripture and mediciners who healed the sick. They were men of prayer who were fully and actively engaged in the life of the community, as well as in their own faith journey and the proclamation of the Gospel and the building of the Kingdom.
The monastic model of mission and outreach may have much to teach us as we think about how we in Christ Church reach out as a community of faith in our society today. I have personal experience of two very different types of religious community. Firstly, I spent 3 months as a student living as part of the community at Iona Abbey,where Columba was based 1400 years ago. The resident group was made up of men and women, married and single from a variety of backgrounds and ages. No one took vows, we volunteered to work at the Abbey for a set period. We shared tasks, washing up, cooking, waiting on tables, gardening, repairs etc. We ate and worshipped together daily. We provided hospitality to day trippers and groups of pilgrims. Some worked with deprived children from the inner city. The Community's outreach probably reached people and places where the yuppie targeted Alpha would never think of going.
I also know something of the life of the Community of the Resurrection at Mirfield in Yorkshire. It's a much more "traditional" monastic community. Men only, big church, habits, sung office and silence. It helps to run a theological college and offers a ministry of hospitality to visitors. Not much to say to us then. Except that on a typical Saturday, there can be 200+ using the monastery, from retreats to training courses for clergy and laity and even local kids football teams using the monks two pitches! Ecumenically, they host a Romanian Orthodox congregation every Sunday in the lower Church. Their hospitality powerfully touches all sorts of people. And it makes a difference because that monastery is in Dewsbury, where the BNP have a large share of the vote, where Sharon Matthews was abducted and where an Asian teenager was murdered a few weeks ago.
We've spent time recently at Christ Church defining amongst ourselves what the essence is of being Episcopalian. What is the good news we want to share and the way of being with God we find attractive? If that's all we do, then we've missed the point. The gospel calls us to share our faith. Columba and his followers did so by being of service to others, by engaging with the real world in the context of having an active faith expressed in worship. Being honest, we need to reach out to our community, but we lack the numbers to do it well on our own. For us, reaching out with others in Falkirk Churches Together is probably the way forward. There are a number of suggestions that have come from FCT and I'd like you to think about your playing a part in them. Because if you don't, then they will fall flat on their face. FCT can piously dream up all sorts of great schemes, but if you, the people of God, don't support them, then nothing will happen.
May St Columba pray for us and with us today that we may like him and his followers reach out to our generation, not just with sermons and slogans but in the way described in words which St Paul wrote in our epistle this morning:
"So deeply do we care for you, that we are determined to share with you, not only the Gospel of God, but also our own selves, because you have become very dear to us." (1 Thessalonians 2:8).
Sunday, 8 June 2008
Sauna insights.
Tonight, I ran into one of the Vestry in the sauna. Neither of us recognised the other at first, due to strange garb and a mutual lack of spectacles. But we then fell to discussing business for Tuesday's vestry meeting. That's a first for me. But we do tend, don't we, to compartmentalise people and stereotype them? When we see them in a different setting, our view of them can change. Like the ideas I used to have about Sikhs. Coloured, dress funny, not like me :. not quite "right". But when the turban's off and you just chat normally in the sauna, you find we're all basically human. We're all pretty similar with our clothes off, really!
Saturday, 7 June 2008
Summer saturday clergy style.
Oh and this is just the sunset over the Forth last night - thought it looked good
Friday, 6 June 2008
It's a new dawn, it's a new day..and I sound nothing like Nina Simone in the shower!
Thursday, 5 June 2008
Paw news.
Max's paw - again.
Wednesday, 4 June 2008
Praying against...
Gracious Lord, oh bomb the Germans,
Spare their women for Thy Sake,
And if that is not too easy
We will pardon Thy Mistake.
But, gracious Lord, whate'er shall be,
Don't let anyone bomb me.
Keep our Empire undismembered
Guide our Forces by Thy Hand,
Gallant blacks from far Jamaica,
Honduras and Togoland;
Protect them Lord in all their fights,
And, even more, protect the whites.
Tuesday, 3 June 2008
Uganda and all that.
Here are some photos which might explain why it made such an impact.
An African version of Church bells
Mad Dogs and Scottish men!
A wee bit of Scotland on the Equator.
Dougal in Africa.
Uganda is a wonderful country which has come on leaps and bounds. And the Church there is one which needs help. Dialogue is difficult because of the huge cultural and theological differences, but it is better surely to talk (and I mean talk, not chuck slogans at each other) than to separate and divide. I want to keep the conversation going with the rest of the Anglican world and will vote accordingly at General Synod. I said that to the Edinburgh Synod a while ago and the late and lovely Nigel Pounde (RIP) said "Yes, keep on saying that to the Church". He had done inter-faith dialogue in Malaysia and great work in reconciling the Church to the HIV +ve community. No one says dialogue and reconciliation is easy - but we shouldn't be the ones to cease to strive to make it happen.