The Presiding Bishop of TEC
at the General Synod of the Scottish Episcopal Church

The Most Reverend Katharine Jefferts Schiori was invited to speak to the General Synod of the Scottish Episcopal Church this afternoon. She was sitting in the pews during the final presentation of the Inter-Church Relations Committee and a presentation by a delegate at the Edinburgh 2010 Mission Conference. At long last she took the podium and spoked about elements of our shared history, the importance of the Baptismal Covenant in the Episcopal Church and in those churches in whose prayer books it appears in some form and the future shape of our shared ministry in the world.

There will be a video version of this appearing on the Scottish Episcopal Church website and Kelvin's blog. In the mean time, you have an audio version of what was said during Bishop Katharine's talk to us this afternoon. Enjoy!



Update: The Convenor of the Information and Communication Board, Kelvin Holdsworth, had the opportunity to interview the PB at General Synod. That interview can be found HERE.

Thought for the Day
Good Morning Scotland
BBC Radio Scotland
Thursday, June 10th, 2010

Good morning,

If somebody referred to you as an"inhibited person" you might not be particularly pleased..
True - some of our inhibitions hamper us. They make it difficult for us to be honest with each other or to relate intimately with friends and lovers. They keep us off the dance floor. They keep us from applying for jobs or from raising our voice in support of a cause.

But some of our inhibitions make it possible to disagree without killing each other. We'd be stuffed without a few inhibitions. Extended family gatherings would turn into battle grounds. A loss of inhibitions can even have fatal consequences. A Scottish police chief is concerned about the role alcohol has played in 14 murders committed around the country in the last few months. He worries that drink-fueled violence will escalate during the World Cup which begins tomorrow. A bottle of cheap vodka, after all, goes for about seven pounds fifty. Trouble is only a transaction away.

We see the way in which young people – particularly young men – get dragged into risky or violent behaviour in the midst of drunken peers. One suspects that with a little more self esteem the individual would be strong enough to stand apart from the crowd.

There’s an old saying - “in vino veritas” – which suggests that the truth comes out with a drink or two. A family gathering or a group of close friends can become unglued or fractious because somebody has done or said something untoward under the influence of a few drinks. Again, you suspect that there’s a price being paid for a lack of honesty in the midst of normal sober conversations. The turmoil was there in the soul to start with – darkness, jealousy and frustration. A cork comes out with a few drinks, that’s for sure - but the contents were under pressure anyway. A little more honesty between family and friends in ordinary sober life would not have gone wanting.

We pay a price for not tackling our dragons in the daylight.


Audio available for a limited time HERE. TFTD begins at 1:23.15 - a little more than halfway along the audio bar.

General Synod Session One Audio Recap

For the last few years I've been asked to put together a little audio recap of the events of General Synod at the end of each session. This has been filtered into the Scottish Episcopal Church website and has, I gather, been a source of joy and information for unnamed persons who like to keep an eye on what's going on. This year it would appear that the SEC website has crashed at the beginning of General Synod so it's being placed here. For my part I've always found the audio recaps a little dry. As you can see from the pictures (above and below) the Bishops of the Scottish Episcopal Church look nothing like a cold war era Politburo.





So my little three minute recap and its similarity to reports on tractor production on the evening news of various Soviet satellite countries in the mid-sixties provides the only similarity.

An interview with Jim McRae

Commander Jim McRae, the Development Director of the Mission to Seafarers Scotland has set up a display at General Synod. I interviewed him about the work of the Mission in Scotland and what clergy and lay delegates might do to get on board this very important and active industrial chaplaincy in Scotland.

The Opening Eucharist and
The Primus' Charge

The Opening Eucharist took place in Palmerston Place and was presided over by the Primus, David Chillingworth. The offering was taken (earmarked for the Sisters of St Margaret in Haiti) and the gifts presented at the altar by a group of Synod freshers.

The Primus’ Charge, positioned as a sermon within the Eucharist, underlined the place of the Church between its understandable craving for security and certainty and the challenges of stepping beyond what we know best into the place where God calls his people. The body of the charge outlined the shape of the discussions which will take place during our meetings and ended with a note of hope about the prospects (backed up by evidence of energy and commitment within the Province) for Mission in a Church which is small but which is “rich towards God”.

The Primus' Charge to the General Synod can be found HERE.

General Synod
The Scottish Episcopal Church
Begins Today

The Primus kicks off by speaking to the Freshers' Group - delegates attending for the very first time.

We are expecting a number of fraternal delegates. Some well-known and some less-so.

Audio feed from the floor of Synod with picture (picture updated every thirty seconds) is available HERE. Have fun. I intend to.

Voices in the Cloud

Off for a few days to the Churches Media Conference in deepest Derbyshire. Very grateful to the Edinburgh and District Churches Council for Local Broadcasting who have sent me along on this three day conference for the last couple of years.

It's an interesting programme and some excellent contributors. I always come back with ideas. I don't always put them into practice though. Gotta work on that.

And then there's General Synod which begins the day after I return. So a busy week all in all.