A night to remember.

No, not the old film about the Titanic with Kenneth More doing that stiff upper lip thing he did so well, but Monday night at the Fringe. I popped along to listen to +Gene Robinson at St John's Princes Street. Never condemn a controversial figure until you have heard what they have to say and can offer a honest reflection is the way I like to work. GR was impressive: modest, funny, forgiving and human. And also refreshingly normal and theologically orthodox. Not some mad radical who wants us to worship Gaia and call it Anglican, but a human being with his faults seeking to love and serve the Lord whilst being truly open and honest. I am now officially a fan.

Then it was off to Nitekirk to do a bit of anointing. Whilst there, I had one of those rare but utterly compelling conversations when you are simply totally aware of the presence of God and the Holy Spirit moving and working. The nice lady who stopped to chat was an RC sister based in Stirling and we began to talk about prayer and the presence of God. Which led into one of the deepest conversations I've had about prayer in a long time. I had to catch a later train as I lost track of time. But we swapped phone numbers and agreed to continue the conversation at another time. Marvellous.