The call has gone forth for bad obituary poetry. I happen to have a few things on my hard disk which I scribbled down a few years ago which appeared in our parish magazine here in Scotland a few months back - published, I might add, rather hesitantly by the editor. A buddy of mine back in Montreal edits his parish magazine and I note that there was no hesitation in picking them up and reprinting them there. Just goes to show that bad taste works well in the Americas where it is treated as a commodity.

My husband's no longer alive
He insisted that he could still drive.
In lieu of carnations
our church needs donations.
The funeral's on Tuesday at five.

Dear Mummy has gone off to heaven.
She died yesterday at eleven.
The funeral's not private
so try to arrive at
the funeral parlour at seven.

Did anyone know Alvin Fetter,
the inveterate drunkard and debtor.
His family's bereft
but a few things are left.
If he owed you please send us a letter.

We're all feeling sorry for Ed,
especially now that he's dead.
We still find it odd
and wonder why God
didn't go and take Grandma instead.


respectfully submitted
R. Rabbit

A Sermon for Sunday
the 16th of September

Pentecost 16

Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28
I Timothy 1:12-17
Luke 15:1-10

How do you put your groceries on the conveyor belt in the shops? Do you load everything on in whichever order the items happen to be sitting in the trolley or do you put your vegetables together – your meat, dairy, cleaning supplies etc?

Or do you mind? Maybe you don’t mind. You consider yourself a free spirit!

Or are you the sort of person who winces with pain when he sees things mixed up. What was that woman thinking? Who would put bleach next to eggs? Have you ever entertained the thought that if only the person ahead of you would turn his back for a moment you could reach forward and rearrange his shopping for him?

This would really embarrass your children who are already starting to shake their heads sadly.

I’m not that bad. I fear I’m getting worse, though. We don’t necessarily get wiser when we grow older – we do become more rigid in our habits and in our opinions. Some of us anyway – I’m told there are others who lose their inhibitions completely. Maybe that’s still to come and my children will have yet further cause for scandal and embarrassment.

The need to order our lives: “a place for everything and everything in its place” my father would drone at me when I left his tools out. I now have a sufficient number of books in my library – I think they breed in there at night - that I’d be lost if I didn’t have them grouped according to subject. Then there are dishes for ordinary use and dishes for posh dinner parties – bits of family china where it wouldn’t do to risk chipping them by putting them in the same cupboard as the everyday stuff.

We are classifiers – good Aristotelians – we arrange things in categories and we put things in little envelopes because it’s convenient that way, because it’s safer that way – because it’s easier to remember. Because it reduces risk.

I once lived in a small town where the old folks had everybody pretty well pigeonholed. One large family – the Robinsons – were Anglicans (after a fashion). Another large family – the Alexanders – were members of the United Church. Between them they grudgingly passed back and forth the control of the local Legion and the school committee. You could drive down the High Street with an old Robinson or an Alexander and they could tell you the family histories of most of the residents. “These ones drink. That one – she’s a bit wild. This one’s just like his grandfather – the whole family’s the same really”.

As a new priest in such a community you’d be a fool to neglect such an abundant source of information.

But you couldn’t help thinking, as you’re drove along with the old fellow that your source of information – your road map – your Rosetta Stone – your Oracle - was not so much describing the town so that you could understand it as he was desperately trying to nail it in place so that he could continue to control it. What do you think?

Luke puts it this way: “Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

We are not all committed to change. Remember that and save yourself some disappointment.

Tell someone you’ve been married to for years that you’re turning over a new leaf – see how much they believe you. Tell the bank manager that the person described in your credit rating doesn’t correspond to who you’ve decided to become or to who you really are. See if you get a loan. For that matter, tell yourself that you, who have endlessly failed at a particular task for the last decade are going to change your life radically – see if you believe yourself. Why? Why these prejudices? Why this inclination to believe that we are who we are and will never change? Or as it is more usually put: that one is who he is and will never change.

There’s something safe about the well ordered life. You don’t lend money to somebody who’s proven himself a bad credit risk. You don’t lend your car to somebody who drinks to excess. You don’t let your daughter date one of those Adamson boys. You don’t lend your tools to a Robinson. And if an Alexander tells you he’s got a cunning plan you can bet your boots it’s just a power ploy to take over the School committee from the Anglicans.

Safety and efficiency. Take it as given that people will behave a certain way and you can organize your world in neat little packages. If you hope more than you should you’ll only have yourself to blame when people disappoint you.

In response to the prejudice of the scribes and the Pharisees, Jesus tells them this parable: “Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it?”

The parable was remembered, and gave rise to one of the earliest motifs in Christian art – a representation which you can find rendered in mosaic on the floor in the house of a wealthy Christian or scratched onto the wall of a house church by a bored slave with a nail – that of a shepherd with a lamb across his shoulders – Christ who seeks out the lost and brings them back to the centre of the sheep fold.

But like I said: We are not all committed to change.

The local councillor, the head teacher, the village worthy, members of the vestry, the priest or minister who has been in place for many years – we walk around with two very different pictures in our head. On the one hand we have a map of the world which we have drawn painstakingly. We know the children who act up, we know the troubled families, we are aware of neighbourhoods where there has been trouble. We know the people to avoid – those who’ve made the lives of our predecessors miserable – those who have been on the receiving end of much good effort and ministry but from whom the return has been feeble or non-existent. Those who said they would but then didn’t. Those who have not kept a confidence.

The information which makes up our little map comes to us from experience. We would be foolish to say that none of these things had, in fact, happened.

On the other hand, though, we have a Gospel which does not sit easily with the belief that people are nailed in place. Churches tend to be conservative in their appraisal of society. The Gospel is not. Churches tend to expect the same thing one Sunday after another and assume the presence of the same people one Sunday after another. The Gospels do not. Jesus seems perfectly prepared to disappoint worthy Robinsons and Alexanders and instead to bestow his blessing upon drunken Smiths and carnal Adamsons. Change and possibility are the currency of the Gospel account of Jesus ministry.

Our role as ‘knowing old goats’ who have got the goods on who’s who in our towns and churches may be a negation of our role as partners in the Gospel – the Good News of God’s Kingdom in the world. At the centre of this ministry is the personality of God – his very presence in the person of Jesus – extending the hand of welcome to those who have fallen off, wandered away, disappointed their pastors, made a spectacle of themselves, isolated and alienated their friends and family and burned their bridges.

Jesus says, in this morning’s gospel, that he would welcome such as these – that he will go out of his way to bring them in – to find where they’re hiding. To lift them up across his shoulders and bring them home. To restore their place at table.

Jesus risks the invite. The tax collectors and the sinners risk showing up and passing under the knowing gaze of Pharisee and scribe – the final question is not asked of them, nor even of the Pharisees and scribes present at the time - but of us – of men and women who are in Church this morning in Penicuik or West Linton or who are listening on their radios. Will we be partners in the Gospel or is the insult to our sense of order and propriety simply too great?

Did you appreciate this sermon? Did you sneak bits of it for your own sermon on Sunday morning? Here's the collection plate. The Old Brewery Mission is one of Canada's largest homeless shelters. It's 2=1 (CDN-GBP).

And no - I'm not usually this organized - having a full text on a Thursday. The circumstances this month are exceptional.

The recording was made as part of New Every Morning - BBC Scotland's Sunday Morning Service and is used with their kind permission. Follow this link to 'listen again' to New Every Morning or any of Radio Scotland's shows.

For the Burns fans amongst us

A delightful video of a wee girl singing Ye Banks and Braes of Bonnie Doon. It won't embed. Follow the link to Youtube.

Sweet Victory!

One of my two congregations organized a Sunday School outing during the month of August at a "Family Fun Park" in East Lothian. It wasn't easy - pretending to enjoy myself in the presence of a whole lot of small children and coming down to their level.

It's what Jesus would have done, though.

This is a picture of me pretending to have fun. As you can see I managed reasonably well.

One of the children was trying to go faster than me in his Go-Kart. Duh - I don't think so! You've got to nip this sort of thing in the bud if you're going to maintain order in a congregation.

The reason I get to wear the colourful togs and stand at the front of the Church and talk all the time is because I can drive the Go-Kart faster than you can. No way! Eat my dust, kid!

Rabbit Repents!

I'll admit it - I was prepared to mock. Gently, of course, because the good father is doing a worthy thing - he has plenty of other little videos on the vestments of the Mass and other bits and pieces (which I think a few of my own flock have asked me to write something about and have I done it? I have not!) The ipadre format was a little forced. I suppose that's what I initially intended to poke a little fun at. Jeez, I'm making myself feel bad just writing this. What a shit I am! I hold the internet responsible. It's Madpriest's fault - maybe the fault of the Ship of Fools. It's that Dave Walker!

No...........it's my own fault.

Well sir, then I happened upon the interview with the four young women entering their postulancy with the Capuchin Sisters. All of a sudden it hit me that they were more or less the same age we were - back in Montreal at the end of the seventies and in the early eighties - a year or two before the trickle of young people into ministry dried up completely - ever to be replaced by a group of people uniquely made up of second vocations firmly rooted in middle age. I found my heart strangely warmed by the thought that somewhere in the hills of the United States there are young people considering turning the whole of their adult life over to the service of Jesus.

I want my youth group to see this. But in the mean time, in dust and ashes......I repent.

You gotta love the Irish!
(they know how to take you down a peg or two if you ask them nicely)

As reported by Madpriest

At a U2 concert in Ireland, Bono asks the audience for some quiet.

Then he starts to slowly clap his hands.

Holding the audience in total silence, he says into the microphone.....

"I want you to think about something. Every time I clap my hands, a child dies in Africa."

A voice from the back of the audience yells out........

"Then fookin stop clapping yer hands, ya arsehole!"

Clio puts her foot in it

I gave up on a writing project today which wasn't going overly well. I decided to take advantage of the reasonable weather and take the best of all Labrador Retrievers for a walk along the mighty North Esk which runs down the hill from the Rectory. There's one spot where the river flows in a slow and determined manner in a stream 20 feet across and a foot and a half deep.

As I sat there on the rock watching the river I found that I was looking at about four things all at once. There was, first of all, the reflection in the water of what was behind and above me - the patch of blue sky amid the clouds and the canopy of Beech and Red Pine. Then there were the little clumps of white bubbles on the surface of the stream flowing steadily by my feet at the pace of a brisk walk. Around them on the surface of the water were little eddies, the mild boiling-up of water forced up over rocks beneath the surface and small whirlpools a half inch deep. Within the water - the odd bit of detritus - a leaf or two - being carried downstream. These never travel evenly - they are subject to invisible currents. Their movement is hesitant. They tumble. They wiggle about in fits and starts.

Pushing 50 as I am now, the North Esk has only one message. Things move downhill., heading off to their end and destination. The arthritis in the spine, the word forgotten for a moment, the impatience with things said by younger people purporting to be novel but which are just recycled rubbish from other days. Yeah, I guess I'm 49 alright!

And so rivers have the same message as waves hitting the sand. The regularity of the beat, the inexorable course of the path - waves beating things down - rivers carrying things away. I weave together something in my head which I'll preach about another day - a sermon about releasing things, a sermon about the experience of change and decay, a sermon about submission to time and transformation.

At this point Clio decided she needed a drink and so padded past me into the water. She waded out and drank a few mouthfuls, muddied the bottom, walked up stream. Then she climbed out. As she passed me her sodden tail smacked my trouser leg and soaked it. Helpfully, she shook the water out of her coat right beside my ear and I found myself pushing her away crossly. She hadn't a clue how she'd offended and looked hard-done-by.

My sombre reflection on death, decay and entropy was now lost. The mood had gone. There'd been too much volition here - too much tramping upstream - too much impatience with sameness and uniformity - an unwillingness to leave things as they must be.

Bloody dog! I'll have to start again.

Rabbit to wed!

Sometime in the spring (date as yet to be decided on).

I'd pretty well taken it as axiomatic that I was going to end up an evil old man living in a garret flat and eating beans out of the can. This appears no longer to be the case and a young Scottish lass has both gotten to know me for the last year and a half and yet still accepted my proposal of marriage. Nups to take place sometime after Easter.

The video below is not her, by the way. Her opinions are strong but not that violent and she's quite capable of making them known fully dressed and in sensible footwear. No, this is just my little way of saying goodbye to all those 'other' women.

Têtes à claques

If your A-level French ever fails you in the East End of Montreal, Raspberry Rabbit's translation service is there to help you through. Frankly there were a couple of words which failed me but the gist of the thing is here. Really quite funny.




Officer #1: This is Constable Whittaker, the bank is surrounded. Come out with your hands up otherwise we’ll be really angry.

Thief: No way chickenshit! It's you who's gonna turn around quietly and go back to your nearest Dunkin' Donuts because I have a hostage!

Officer #1: (aside) Shit! He’s got a hostage!

Officer #2: (aside) Oh Look! I think she’s pregnant!

Officer #1: Okay, so what’s your name, buddy?

Thief : Tony. My name’s Tony

Officer #1: Now listen, Tony. Let the pregnant woman go and take me as a hostage instead.

Lady: (aside) What pregnant woman? Is he talking about me?

Thief: No way, fatso. I’m keeping the pregnant woman with me.

Officer #1: Come on Tony, you can see she’s about to give birth……

Lady: (aside) What’s the fat policeman talking about? I’m not about to give birth. I’m not even pregnant!

Thief: (aside) Calm down, lady. I’ve got no intention of harming you or your baby – I’m just looking for a way of getting myself out of here.

Lady: (aside) Hey that’s really sweet of you Bozo but don’t worry about the baby because there is no baby because I’m not pregnant, get it?

Policeman #1: Tony, listen up buddy. Tell me what you want. It’s 5:30 already and nobody here wants to miss the beginning of Virginie [a television show] so let’s get a move on.

Thief: Um, let’s see....a million dollars! I want a million dollars!

Policeman #1: Okay. Listen I don’t know if you noticed or not but you’re holed up in a bank. I think you’re better placed to deal with that part yourself, no? Is there something else you want?

Thief: Umm…err…I want a plane to Cuba. Yeah, that’s right, a plane to Cuba!

Policeman #2: (aside) Hey, you know what? My sister is a travel agent. Should I give her a call?

Policeman #1: (aside) Uh yeah, I guess, might as well give that a try.

Policeman #2: (dials number) Hello Nicole? Yeah, it’s me. You doing okay? Me? Yeah, okay not bad, errr, having an interesting day. Listen, beautiful, hows about booking me a quick trip to Cuba, later this afternoon, rush rush. Uh, no no, I’m not fighting with the Missus or anything. It’s not for me. Listen, I don’t have time to go into detail, just book me a seat for Cuba real fast, rush rush…..(pause) uh……hmm…..wait a minute, I’ll ask (to policeman #1) What about the seat…..is that going to be a window seat or an aisle seat…uh….he has a choice.

Policeman #1: You’ve got a choice of seats! What do you want, window or aisle?

Lady: (aside)I find that a seat in the aisle is always more convenient. That way you’re not constantly disturbing people when you want to go to the toilet……

Thief: I want two seats in First Class ‘cause I’m taking the pregnant woman with me. I’ll let her go only when I’m safe in Cuba.

Lady: (aside) What are you talking about? See here, I can’t go to Cuba. My suitcases aren’t packed, I don’t have my swimsuit there’s no…..

Policeman #1: Be reasonable Tony. The lady’s probably going to start having contractions on the plane. What are you gonna do, hold her hand and start yelling ‘push push’ at all the right moments? Think about it!

Lady: Okay, I've had enough of this nonsense (hits the thief and knocks him out – strides towards the police car). Come here, fat policeman and I’ll give you a few contractions…

Policeman #1: Madame, madame, remain calm. Hold on (crash, smash – off camera) Hey! Hey! I told you to calm down.

What's Opera, Doc?

According to the Telegraph. the opera crowd in Bayreuth is up in arms over the current production of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.

"The great-granddaughter of the composer Richard Wagner was jeered and booed after staging one of his operas complete with nudity, giant plastic phalluses and "raining" shoes."

Family politics are playing their part in the affair:

....Katharina (Wagner) is locked in a three-way battle with fellow Wagner scions Nike and Eva, both 62, for control of the festival. A directorial triumph could have in effect crowned her as successor to her father, Wolfgang, 87, the current festival director.



I must admit not being overly familiar with Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. Opera is an acquired taste. If we're going to love it we have to start young. It has a lot to do with our early education. I've got my favourite arias like everybody else but Bugs and Elmer managed to get their Wagner innovations done and dusted in the space of a few minutes.

Seven hours would be way too much. Our local bookseller in West Linton is over at the festival in Bayreuth right now and I'm eager to find out if he was one of the booing purists or not.

Welcome back Boris!

Those of us over the age of 45 will appreciate having the Russians back skulking around the streets of London as Enemy #1 - hello, meester Bond! Allow me to eentroduce myself! The burkas and the green flags were getting a little tiresome. It was all wrong.

I actually wrote 'chickenshit' instead of 'chicken' but they wouldn't let me say it. I was censored. There ought to be a law!

Ok so there is some justice in the world

Have you heard of Prairie Oyster? You might not want to know what a Prairie Oyster is but they're a pretty good Canadian band as well.

From the Globe and Mail today comes a story of a man struck by lightning while listening to his IPod. Careful to note that he plays in a 'church orchestra' and was listening to religious music at the time of the incident, the article goes on to suggest that

"...The freak accident has all the hallmarks of a biblical smiting..."

Two days of mixed sun and cloud - ecstasy!

Jeez, what is that stuff?
It's sunshine!

Nearly two days now with a healthy dose of the stuff (not constant) each day. I don't know what to do with myself. It's so enjoyable. This much fun and there's no risk of going blind. This is Britain. It ought to be legislated against or at least regulated.

I got back from holidays in western Canada on the 8th of June. It's now the 9th of July. In the last month there has not been a single day without some rain in it. When it has rained it has frequently been torrential. As they say in these parts 'It bucketed'.

Last week I was walking my dog and the girlfriend's four-legged dog-like pet on the Green in West Linton. I was on the mobile to her and I mentioned a strange looking black cloud coming in from the Northeast. I returned her dog to her house and started for home. By the time I had hit the roundabout the rain was coming down. Then it fell in sheets. Then it fell in sheets mixed with hail. When I went through Carlops Village the water was all backed up and came up 2/3 of way up my tires. And then it was over. No ginormous floods like they've seen south of the border. Still in all.....

A wet month. And we hope it's over now.

The Feast of St Peter

and St Paul

July 1st, 2007
A patronal festival in Edinburgh

Peter and Paul – they go together, like ham and eggs or like Romulus and Remus or Morecambe and Wise.

You might call the two towers of your church Peter and Paul, or so name two bells in one of those towers.

My mother had a little song about two small birds sitting on a wall - one named Peter and one named Paul. There’s a certain ‘twoness’ there – a symmetry.

In an icon the two saints are each depicted holding an edge of a basilica and supporting it. All is well. All is as it should be.

See how our lintel is supported by two strong posts. See how they share the weight. Stability and peace.

It’s what two apostles should do. It’s what Luke is eager to demonstrate in the Acts of the Apostles as he describes the Jerusalem conference. Peter - he will minister among the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Paul - he will work among the Gentile believers.

Two individuals – each with his own trajectory for Mission meeting together and ‘agreeing’. Agreeing at a formal meeting. Agreeing in the presence of witnesses. Agreeing not to get in each other’s way – agreeing that their separate missions are in fact two sides of the coin – two peas in the same pod.

What would you think were you to find such a written agreement between two individuals promising to work in concert with each other without getting in each other's way? You might entertain the cheeky thought that significant disagreement had already taken place, no?

Are we always so suspicious? The box says ‘tasty’ but we look at the back to see what the ingredients are. We remind ourselves that the woman feeding this stuff to her happy children on the television is a paid actress. She conjures up that smile for money.

The actor and his new wife appear on the red carpet looking positively glowing But maybe the tabloids have it right: He hit her once. She has another love interest on the side. She has trouble maintaining her weight.

If Country Life is telling the story of an agreed stable apostolic ministry aiming in two directions then we can be assured that the News of the World is not far behind wanting very much to scratch the surface and find what lurks there beneath the symmetry – behind the rosy picture of unity and stability.

We do not have to go very far beyond today's second reading to find sharp and suspicious words in the Epistle to the Galatians. Paul first describes his agreement with Peter and the others in today's Epistle in a way not unlike Luke's version of events in the Acts of the Apostles.

“They gave to Barnabas and me the right hand of fellowship, agreeing that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised.”

Public agreement - the recognition of different missions - to Jew and Gentile. But if we carry on for a few verses beyond where this morning's lectionary reading ends we find evidence of a significant 'falling out' when Peter comes to visit the mission of Paul and Barnabas in Antioch.

Showdown in Antioch - screams the tabloid headline. I needed Peter and Peter bailed out. Maybe just a single word headline - hypocrite!

The trouble? Ah! The usual, I'm afraid. Who is in and who is out - What are the limits of God's reach? Does he maintain a small circle of friends or should we, in his name, open the door wide. - remove the door from the frame and the frame from the wall. Do we take the walls down.

And if creative and inclusive ministry is good for us when we're alone and far from home is it equally good for us when the Bishop visits? Is it as much a feather in our cap when the 'men from James' come to visit - representatives of a very conservative leader back in Jerusalem who might end up compromised if word of the goings-on in Antioch were to reach his opponents. Fear conflicts with grace - prudence undermines boldness.

Conflict. We've seen it all before. Maybe you're here because you landed in it in another church. Maybe the possibility of conflict in the Church has kept you off vestry. Maybe you hunger for the sort of Church where pastor, pope or primate speaks with the sort of eclat that doesn't allow for opposition or serious critical analysis. It makes life a lot easier. I think of how many fine young people I was at seminary with who, in search of something solid and unambiguous locked themselves away in every more inflexible patterns of ministry.

I had occasion, recently, to participate in my parents' Golden Wedding celebrations. Everyone was there - all the cousins - uncles and aunts. I have snapshots. The shutter opened and shut and revealed a family that is really quite well - at this particular moment in time - almost all of them.

What made that fact remarkable is that it has not always been that way. It's a 'scarred wellness' rather than an innocent and virginal intactness with my family. Like I said, I have the snapshots.

You move your finger from left to right and when you arrive at each face in the picture you can tell a story. Ten years ago this happened. Those two brothers weren't talking for a while. There was an addiction. Here was a betrayal. It very nearly ended that marriage right there and then. How did he ever get a job? He's kept the same one now for nearly five years - that's some kind of record.

They've not so much leapt from crag to crag as they have climbed out of the swamp onto a safe rock. And the fact that they are now comparatively well is not so much in opposition to what they once were as it is the harvest of what they once were.

Some of them, anyway, would say that it was all worth it. They could do with better knees and a few more teeth. But the struggle was part and parcel of the life they now lead.


If Peter and Paul are the authors of the grace which they preach then their struggle and disagreement is fundamental and a scandal to be concealed and glossed over. Splits in the Anglican Communion, divisions in the parish, the Reformation and its sequelae in like manner diminish the quality and effect of our ministry if we are the authors of the grace which we preach - which we are not - there is another. Peter and Paul are martyrs - witnesses - they stand in the presence of something greater than themselves and point to it.

What was Peter told in the Gospel I read a few moments back? That life and ministry would exact a terrible toll on him. He would be mastered. He would be taken and led - taken somewhere he did not want to go.

Clearly he understands all this for he is possessed, for a moment, by an instinctive childishness. In words which, again, are just beyond the reading from today's lections he points to John the Beloved Disciple, there beside Jesus, and asks about him. What about this one? he asks - your favourite disciple. Die in his bed, will he then? Old and full of years? Why just me? Why must I die in service and not him?

And Paul? What is Paul told by God when, at some subsequent point in his ministry, he cries out to be relieved of a 'thorn in his flesh' the exact nature of which we are never privy to - some weakness or vice, some infirmity of flesh or spirit. Three times he appeals to God to have this taken from him and is told 'My Grace is sufficient for you for my strength is made perfect in weakness'.

We know that truth is something struggled for and not simply possessed and then preserved. Not only because we believe that the truth is arrived at through a process of assertion, negation and the arrival at some new unity. Conflict is at the very heart of its discovery and acquisition - conflict with a world slow to recognize love, conflict with a self reluctant to submit to mastery and martyrdom. Peaceful worlds are so frequently small and lonely worlds.

The lintel is held up by, among others, these two strong posts. When we examine them closely, however, we notice that the wood is not without character in its substance. It has been rough hewn. Scraped and chipped. It bears the marks of its children, the marks of seasons, the weak parts healed over, bitter winters and scorching heat. Its rings and circles bear witness to times of both fatness and leanness - effective mostly because it has been tried and in the long run found to be sound and strong.

There are still a few heros in the world

Let's hear it for the intransigent individual who refuses to be co-opted by the marketplace. An American newsreader refuses to bow to her producer's taste in lead stories.

Cultural Studies



nothing to do with General Synod. A complete excursis.

A new primate for Canada!

The final tally on the 5th ballot.

Fred Hiltz 60 / 81
Victoria Matthews 56 /56

A strong showing among the laity in the second ballot was obviously quite convincing. This is not unknown in episcopal elections, for example. I can think of at least two elections where the clergy house has moved quite dramatically towards the laity. It's not the result I had expected but then what are expectations but a very common blockage to good and holy movements in human experience. God's blessing on Fred Hiltz!

Heres the story from the Anglican Journal

Balloting in the Primatial Election 2

Second Ballot
Voting: clergy/lay

George Bruce 1 / 4
Fred Hiltz 49 / 69
Bruce Howe 1 / 5
Victoria Matthews 64 / 60

The next ballot will have only two candidates: Fred Hiltz and Victoria Matthews. Candidates come off when they pull less than 10% of the votes. I wonder if we'll have a third ballot result showing a clergy favourite and a lay favourite. In the two episcopal elections I have participated in where such a situation occured the movement was on the part of the clergy house towards the lay house [note at the end of balloting - this is exactly what happened]. I'm out for supper with my girlfriend tonight. We will eat quickly. I think we'll skip pudding.

Balloting in the Primatial Election.

1st Ballot
Votes Clergy/Lay

George Bruce 14 / 9
Fred Hiltz 40 / 57
Bruce Howe 5 /18
Victoria Matthews 56 / 54

Some rather succinct background on the four candidates written by an American priest studying for his Th.D at Trinity College in Toronto. This appeared on Fr Jake's website a number of months ago. A name will drop off the ballot after the second round. They gather again at half twelve CDT (6:30 pm in the UK) for the announcement of the 2nd ballot results.

I'm told that those voting for George Bruce and Bruce Howe would be unlikely to vote for Fred Hiltz. There may be a very few for whom gender trumps theological stance but very few indeed.

General Synod in Winnipeg (continued)

Two items from last night's (Thursday evening's) session as reported by one blogger-delegate from the Diocese of New Westminster and the Anglican Essentials folks who have some sort of observer status at GS. The new Prolocutor of General Synod (who acts as vice-chair of GS and chair of the Council of General Synod) is a 'relatively' conservative clergyman from the Diocese of Algoma. The author of the 'live blog' which Anglican Essentials Canada is hosting from General Synod got breathless at this point and, noting that the individual in question was 'Essentials-friendly', promptly spelled the man's new position incorrectly at least once.

This prompted the following comment:

Praise the Lord that Stephen Andrews was elected Proluctor (sic) of our General Synod. This a major step in the right direction. Now we need to elect a Primate who will call the Church back to the Authority of Scripture and defeat all motions which would allow same sex blessings in our church or even allow for local option. We need to come under the Authority of Scripture and not align ourselves with our culture. The church must always stand over against the culture of our time to call people to repentance and to new life in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Okay, so it's not an easy word to remember. It's probably not even included in the spell-check so the poor blogger is really on his own.

One is hesitant to see this as a decision by General Synod to elect 'a conservative' to a senior position in the hierarchy of General Synod. Bloggers from Anglican Essentials Canada are looking constantly for the presence of 'their folks' in the wings, in the visitors' seats and potentially in key positions. Equally one might conceive that a blogger from the Diocese of New Westminster might be looking at the same possible evidence from an entirely different treetop.

Nonetheless, one does wonder what the 'conservative in hand' as vice-chair of General Synod and a potential middle-right Primate could possibly do with an eventual decision to proceed with the blessing of same sex-unions.

Synod also defeated an amendment to a motion to receive the report of the Windsor Response Group. The amendment called on Dioceses (such as New Westminster with its 8 parishes presently able to bless such unions) to abide by a moratorium on the blessing of same. This caused much discussion on what was implied by the 'reception' of a report - is it simply received or is it accepted? Speakers against the amendment noted that such a decision would prejudge the discussion and decisions to take place later at Synod and the amendment failed massively.

The Anglican Journal Daily Journal, - Issue 3, dated the 22nd of June is available HERE

A propos of nothing: Andrew Goddard was speaking to the Essentials folks about the Anglican covenant. The video of his presentation is here



The Primatial Election is to start at 11:00 CDT (5 pm UK time) !!

Do note the Friday updates to yesterday's post linking to various General Synod resources.

General Synod 2007, Winnipeg Manitoba
(updated Friday a.m.)

Live Coverage of some of the General Synod debates is apparently available HERE. Some of the plenary sessions will be broadcast courtesy of the good folks at Anglican Video.

Remember that Winnipeg's time zone (CDT) places it six hours behind the UK.

A series of articles which give some background to the issues (and not simply THE issue - sorry cyclops!) being dealt with at General Synod can be found HERE

Update Friday morning - The bloggers listed below were all out at the pub last night with the exception of one delegate from New Westminster who dutifully checked in. The Anglican Journal's Daily Journal covering General Synod 2007 is also available and appears to be the most comprehensive record of the events of the day. These are .pdf files.

Issue 1 - June 20th

Issue 2 - June 21st

Today (Friday) the balloting begins for the new Primate

Tomorrow - Canadian Anglicans vote Saturday on same-sex blessings - CanWest News Service

The sequence of these two events is either 'interesting' or infelicitous. There are an awful lot of people who have been flying the flag for Victoria Matthews, the bishop of Edmonton. She was forced to withdraw from the last primatial election because of a diagnosis of breast cancer. Having beaten the disease she is now back in the running. The bishop of Edmonton is not known for being of one mind with those agitating for a public rite of blessing for same sex couples. She is, in fact, on the conservative end of the spectrum on a number of issues. While the question of 'will be bless the unions of same sex couples?' and 'who will be our Primate?' are separate issues - they aren't completely. Victoria will be the one defending the actions of General Synod to the wider Church, to potential dissidents in Canada and the U.S. and to grumpy Primates of other Provinces.

The fourth video in the Synod on Demand series is now available. It is dated Thursday the 21st of June

The third video in the series, dated Wednesday the 20th of June, available via the Synod on Demand website. I'm not sure whether this site (an anglican.ca address) is going to include much blow-by-blow coverage of interesting debates.

I've listed some of the blogging delegates who appear online. There are other offerings from the two extreme ends of the spectrum but I can't bring myself to read them. If anyone knows any other delegates blogging from GS who haven't already met in caucus to discover what their opinions are meant to be on the proceedings, then please drop me a line and I'll link to those as well.

Bloggers at GS

one blog
two blog
red blog
blue blog

un blog
das blog

Do note that, as expected, these bloggers are busy being delegates and so there's not the real time blogging that one might want. After having unsuccessfully tried to blog from a conference recently in Derbyshire I realized that one either has a laptop equipped with the proper wireless technology or one must wait until the house computers become available at the end of the day - a time where one should probably be in the pub getting the skinny on what's really going on rather than poring over copious handwritten notes. I don't have a laptop with the appropriate bits. I'm not rich enough to afford one - I will have to think about getting a patron or running a lottery here on Raspberry Rabbit or maybe just begging the blogosphere for anybody's old (but not too old!) equipment once they upgrade. Would that the SEC took blogging seriously and equipped their clergy with proper equipment. I shall suggest this to Kelvin and get him to shake his finger at the Primus.

The Second of the Synod on Demand videos - dated Tuesday the 19th. Includes material from the Opening Eucharist and some background on the city of Winnipeg where the General Synod is being held.



The Rev'd Michael Fleming writes an article entitled Don't Tear Apart Our Church from yesterday's Ottawa Citizen

Anyone interested in following the events of the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada which is taking place in Winnipeg right now might be interested in checking in on Synod on Demand which has some summaries and video clips.

The first of the Youtube videos can be found below. It's dated Monday the 18th of June and it is basically an introduction to General Synod.

My friend has a very high energy dog. It's one of these border collie crosses which lives in a perpetual state of agitation. It won't sit still - it whines all the time. I'd have sunk the thing to the bottom of the Tweed in a burlap sack with a builder's brick a long time ago. The dog has a young woman who loves it though, and her little boy loves it even more and so I understood long ago that she was a package - and that this package included the world's least obedient dog.

The dog wanders the house at night. Up the stairs, down the stairs, in the bedrooms and back downstairs again. Hopping up on the couch to look out the window lest a cat be walking by. Back upstairs to get a better view from the upstairs window. All night - every night - up and down and round about. When my friend is at work the dog sleeps. It makes it easier to be up and active and vigilant during the night. To make her joy complete my friend decided that she would baby-sit her friend's dog as well for a few days. A large and very dense chocolate lab. Together these dogs would wrestle and tussle the whole night through - glad of each others' company - glad to do things in tandem.

I tried to help. I loaned my friend a pair of really effective ear plugs made of cotton and wax. A good night's sleep would ensue and so it did. She slept like a log. The dogs whined and tussled and she slept. The dogs ran around in circles and she slept. The dogs dug away at the wall of the living room until there was a hole in the plaster four feet high which exposed all the wiring and still she slept.

It is perhaps unfortunate that her dog never discovered the joy of chewing those electrical wires. To have uncovered so much and not to have tasted the joys of copper wiring - to have stopped just below the crest of the hill but to have proceeded no farther seems a strange and self defeating thing.

My friend will phone her insurers. She will no doubt be told that the damage is not covered due to the fact that it constitutes an Act of Dog.

Have just witnessed a wonderful exchange between Andy Duncan, the Chief Executive at Channel 4, sitting alongside Mark Browning, the Programme Director at Heart Radio and a group of BBC types sitting in the audience.

They'd both had a good half hour each to explain to us the changes in radio and television - the explosion of new stations tailored to the needs of subgroups, the new role of ' the consumer' as the one who sets the agenda and plots the course and the media as those who merely respond to changing needs and tastes. Marketing in such an environment becomes an appeal to a small group - a gathering together of like minded people into a tribe - and not a matter of convincing folks to tune into a 'one size fits all' programme schedule.

One of the media type working for the Church of England asks why - given that 70% of the general population expressed an 'interest' in 'spiritual issues' there was such a paucity of such programming on commercial radio and television? Could it be that only 20% of those involved in professional media production had a similar 'interest'. The answer was that such programs had been tried and had received low ratings - Priest Idol was one example given by the Director of Channel 4

Another C of E clergyman involved in commercial radio pipes in that he considers it his job to find the interesting angle on a religious theme - to ferret out the people who can speak in such a way as to animate a subject. If it's simply a matter of responding to 'what is the case' then we should simply be broadcasting pornography since it has a market which can be demonstrated. If a religious program is poorly rated it may be the program which is at fault and not the audience which is disinterested. Many rumbles of assent from the audience. BBC Manchester man jumps the queue and suggests loudly to the two hapless guests at the front that it's their job to find a stimulating way of responding to the market and that their disinterest in the subject is more notable than the market

At which point the two speakers make the major error of the morning and state that the BBC hasn't fared any better in their religious programming - something which the BBC religious programmers in the audience - numerous and all sitting in a row - take great exception to and begin to list off the BBC shows - Monastery, Son of God - along with others in the process of sale to BBC 1 and 2 which they believed had more than adequately linked the 'interest' in spiritual matters.

Blogging from the Churches' Media Council

"A Future and a Hope"

Having just gotten off a plane from Canada I was not looking forward, initially, to hopping back onto a train but it happened nonetheless. By day I'm here in Derbyshire representing a little organization in Edinburgh in support of Local Broadcasting - here as well because I do a little broadcasting on commercial radio in Edinburgh. But by night and herein I am merely looking for all the good scoops, gossips and interesting personalities - of which there are several.

Every second person I've met so far is from either London, Manchester or with the Evangelical Alliance - lots of these latter. I shared a taxi from Derby with Joel Edwards, the Chairman of the Churches' Media Council and another fellow from Tearfund. We're starting in a couple of minutes with our first plenary. Plenty of workshops upcoming on New Media and Old Media. I'll tell you what happens

Long Beach on the West Coast of Vancouver Island. I haven't been here for a while. Magical.




It just gets better.

An Ordination Sermon
preached in the Diocese of Montreal - 199?

John 21:15-22

When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon
son of John, do you love me more than these?”

“Yes, Lord,” he said, “You know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”
Again Jesus said, “Simon, son of John, do you truly love me?”
He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.”
The third time he said to him, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”
Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time “Do you love me?”
He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. I tell you the truth, when you were younger
you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old
you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead
you where you do not want to go”
Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God.
Then he said to him, “Follow me!”
Peter turned and saw that the disciple whom Jesus loved was following them
(This is the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper and
had said “Lord, who is going to betray you?”)
When Peter saw him he asked, “Lord what about him?”
Jesus answered, “If I want him to remain alive until I return,
what is that to you? You must follow me.”



Peter turns around and sees John walking after them
a few paces behind
humming one of his new hymns

What about him? Peter asks
Does he have to feed the sheep as well?
Does he have to follow too?
Does he also have to die in service?

There is a child’s question here
a question about Justice.
Am I the only one who has to do this?
What about him, what about her?

There is an adult’s fear of loneliness as well
will I have company?

And the answer – the grown up answer is – yes and no

Yes you are the only one who has to do ‘this’ and
No, you will not always have company while you’re doing it.

But maybe I need to backtrack:
Most of my early essays were filled with the words ‘this’ or ‘these’
circled by the professor
because it was no longer clear from the context what ‘this’ of ‘these’ referred to.

Jesus asks Peter – Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?
These ‘what’?
More than ‘this’ life?
represented by the items of a fisherman’s life
scattered around on the beach –
these nets,
these spools of braided line,
these floats?

Or – do you love me more than these other disciples love me?
You, Peter, pre-eminent among my followers.
Do you love me more than these others do?

The question arising between a man and a woman, - a parent and a child could be playful or maybe it probes at some perceived weakness.

Do you love me (of course you do)
Do you love me (I want to hear you say it)
Do you love me (I suspect that you do not)
Do you love me (I wonder if you know what that means)

I’ll roll the dice and will hold that:

1. When Jesus asked Peter if he loved him more than these that he was referring to the other disciples gathered with them on the beach.

2. He asks the question three times because Peter has denied him three times and

3. That when he asked Peter whether or not he loved him he was wondering if Peter knew what that meant.

Because it is not clear
that we always know what love means.

The general moves to the particular. The general
whether it is love (in general),
ministry (in general),
the life of human beings (in general)
is something that can be talked about but never experienced.

You will never meet humans in general
you will meet Stan and Doris and Tabitha and Rex.

Or work in a neighbourhood which is typically working class
or typically old money.
You will work in this or that parish
with its particular population and its particular history.

God (in general) is the god of the philosophers
the idea of god,
the possibility of God.
We know almost nothing about God in general

The glory of the Incarnation is that God wrapped himself up in the particular life of Jesus of Nazareth and achieves His highest moment not in the solitary being of a point of light but tied up with the smells and sounds of the Middle East
the dust of the road,
the quiet of the Garden,
guests at a wedding,
the crowded roads of Jerusalem at Passover.

And so the story of one man and three women
trained in all the generalities of ministry
moves to the starting gate in a race
where the course ahead is not of any set length
and the path is as yet undetermined.

You want to be here
we take that datum as something assured.

You are suited to ministry and
will become more adapted to it with time
we take this as probable.

You are needed
this is certain,
whether or not the mainstream seems to want you or not.

(Look at the representation of clergy
in movies and on television.
There’s not one of them that has a chin!)

But it will not be only your inner core of parishioners who will call on you.
This seemingly unfriendly mainstream will also dial your number at all hours of the night and will call upon your counsels in the wee hours in ways you might not imagine.

The request will be similar in most cases.
What does the fact of God’s love mean here?
What does it mean for me?
In this moment in my life
and in the life of my family?
What does Christ say about this?
What does the Bible say about this?
Where is God in all of this?
In all this grief – in all this change?
In this weakness of mine
with respect to this son of mine?
This illness of mine?
This loss that I have incurred?
Will you translate the generalities of the Bible,
the generalities of the Mass,
the generalities that my child is taught in Church school
into something which can give me life?

Does this beautiful field of wheat,
blond, expansive and everlasting
ever become a loaf of bread?

And then ministry, like love, will become knowable and known:

When you can attach a time and a location and a situation and faces to the word
when you can remember the smell of the place
the expressions on the faces.
When you run afoul of the particular place
and make a significant mistake
and come to know why.

When you know that you have the choice of extending your personality
and your energy and your time
into the lives and fortunes of other human beings
and you decide to do so.

You do so not because you are impelled by some Ghostly force
(that would not be a gift on your behalf but rather an empty reflex)
but because you choose to
you want to
you feel you must.

That love is voluntary is evidenced by the fact
that not all are loving.
Love is a choice
and you will encounter families, marriages, institutions
and even the ministries of some of your colleagues
where the path of love has not been taken.

When there is a price to be paid
and there is a price to be paid
for wrapping yourself in the life and the environment of another person.
Acts of love take their toll on your person
on your time,
on your innocence
and on your sleep.

When another person is changed by an act of love
and you yourself are changed by it.

You must love yourself – and take seriously your own horizons.
You are not called to suffer for suffering’s sake but for Christ’s sake.

You must love your families.
Don’t be professional with them. Let them be who they are
in all circumstances
and at all times.

But don’t take this as an invitation to be reserved.
We must take it as axiomatic that you are up for a little adventure
the demolishing of a few horizons
you want to see things go ‘boom’
You have a healthy and godly curiosity about what people are like on the inside,
you entertain the fancy that maybe – just maybe – the parish or the ministry you serve might turn a corner and bring the whole Church with it
and that you might have had some small part to play in that transformation.
And why not?

I’ve heard plenty or ordination sermons which describe to the candidates all the limits which exist to what they can and ought to do in ministry.
That it won’t be all they have expected it to be
that they must remember to sleep and eat lots of whole grains.
God knows that we’ve waited long enough for something more than this:
that we should simply preserve ourselves at all costs.

We’ve been there – we’ve done that
and now we propose that we are ready for something more.
That we would be able to participate in what God is about in the world.
At the risk of seeming foolish, or credulous
at the risk of falling flat on our faces.

John likens it, in the larger story, to fishing
We have cast our nets the better portion of the night
and have gained only questionable purchase
on anything remotely resembling a school of fish.

So why not now – with you – in your particularities of history and personality?
Why not in those particular ministries to which you will be called –
that in your ministries at the beginning of a new millennium,
you would cast your nets for the five hundredth time
this time at a different angle
and at the behest of something akin to a voice which you hear within yourselves
that something would, in fact, pull back –
that to your surprise your net would actually grab on to something
and you would find yourselves hauling in a miraculous catch of fish?

We wait the unfolding
(in time and space and within the company of real men, women and children)
of love made manifest
in your words and your actions
in your failures and in your successes.

Will you have company – in the church,
yes and among your colleagues as well.
Can anyone answer for you and live the particularities of your situation of ministry? None can – these choices for and against love, for and against risk,
these choices are in your hands.
It will cost you everything.

But do remember that Peter is not told to go forth
but rather to follow.
And the abandonment of self which he embarks on
is not an abandonment of self to the void, or to nothingness,
but an abandonment of self to the care of Christ who walks out before him.

That you would abandon yourselves
to the tasks of love
and the mystery of the history of God in the world

Saltspring Island, British Columbia



Okay. So it is paradise. Weather has been lovely - being serenaded by a chorus of frogs every night has been the icing on the cake. The parents are having a 50th wedding anniversary which is the occasion for the visit. Family are all arriving in the next day or two so there are decorations to put up, music to sort and caterers to cajole.


Everybody here has a hobby. A number of people sail or play golf. A few do pottery or fancy woodwork. There's a fellow down the road from my folks who raises Tibetan Yaks. I find myself wondering whether this was a long term goal of his - the sort of thing one does after having spent 20 years selling stocks and bonds - was there ever a dreamy expression on his face as he looked out of his office window. Yaks, he said, that'll be just the ticket!

So now all of a sudden I'm wondering whether I''ve been shooting below the mark with my little flock of ten hens and a cockerel in Penicuik. Yaks! Maybe a few Yaks in the Rectory garden would be just the ticket. A memorable way to put the church on the map. The rector of Penicuik - right, him, the fellow with the Yaks!

Holidays

Following a (hopefully) stonking good Pentecost service on Sunday (baptisms and red helium balloons!) we are hopping on an airplane for a flight to the country of my birth. For those of you who haven't been to Canada I helpfully regurgitate the following public information video on real Canadian life.

Don't let anyone tell you that Canada has changed and that most of the country lives in quite typical North American suburban bliss. That's bollocks! Canada is still the land of great expanses, Indians, French Canadian trappers, Mounties, the lot. We've got 'em all. The mounties still sing to girls in the forest. I don't know where they hide the orchestra - probably behind trees.



Saltspring Island (where my folks live) is perhaps populated a tad more extensively by retired folk wearing pastel golf shirts. I shall post a few pics when I get there.

Flesh and Spirits. New Album by the Gena Rowlands Band. The title song. One one hand it's about somebody staring dreamily at a waitress. On the other hand there's lots of philosophy there. Flesh and Spirit - the limits and frailty of flesh but their ability to be a vehicle for Spirit. Good stuff.

Ah! A reasonable day. A warm wind. A Scottish vista. Holidays in the offing. Electricity bill paid. Concord between the sexes. Concord with one's children.

"Loud and Clear"

- Pink and Noseworthy (Shanee Pink and Mark Noseworthy - what did you think the band's name meant?!?!

Is anybody else going to the Churches' Media Conference at Swanwick from June 11th - 13th? If you are then please drop me a line beforehand and we'll get together and drink a few, erm, Lemonades! The list of contributors looks very interesting.

Just a brief message of hope to musicians in their fifties that creative life doesn't end there.

Da Vinci Horse Manure

There was a medieval 'fayre' on the grounds of Rosslyn Chapel this afternoon. It's only a couple of miles down the road from where I live. We've had a few weeks of great weather - generally our quota for the year - and we decided to chance it. It was rained-out, of course, and we huddled under umbrellas and queued for a burger and watched the rather sad spectacle of damp folk in period costume pretending to fight with swords. A number of people took refuge over at the Chapel itself with its new Welcome Centre and Souvenir Shop. The Rosslyn Trust has spent a lot of money on the place since 'the film' came out and people are flocking to the site from around the world. Here it is only May and there were already several cars in the parking lot sporting number plates from other countries. It now costs £7 to visit. There were three of us and it seemed a little steep just to stay dry. Members of the Scottish Episcopal congregation which actually meets in Rosslyn Chapel on Sunday mornings were in one of the tents outside running a cake stall - overpowered by the bright colours and heraldry of an adjacent stall with a group pretending to represent the Knights Templar. I didn't see much evidence of communication between them. It was that sort of day.

The owners of the neighbouring farm who share an access with Rosslyn Chapel have presumably had their fill of the esoterica addicts all filing up the lane wearing newly-purchased tartan scarves and announcing proudly that their grandparents were 'Scotch' (or perhaps French and therefore indirectly related to Mary Magdalene). The sign above, which they placed at their gate in full view of the tourists, pretty well sums up the situation.

Rotating Celestial Bodies



The music is from the String Quartet #2 by Alan Hovhaness

Something I didn't know:

Every planet in our solar system except for Venus and Uranus rotates counter-clockwise as seen from above the North Pole; that is to say, from west to east. This is the same direction in which all the planets orbit the sun. Uranus was likely hit by a very large planetoid early in its history, causing it to rotate "on its side," 90 degrees away from its orbital motion. Venus rotates backwards compared to the other planets, also likely due to an early asteroid hit which disturbed its original rotation.

Janos Starker - Still Alive



I heard Starker play Kodaly's complete Sonata for Unaccompanied Cello at the Banff Festival in 1976. Why is the Third Movement here today? Apart from it just seeming like a 'cello sort of day' here in Penicuik, it was a day of 'putting pieces together'. Rostropovich died a few weeks back so I've been thinking about cellists. Madpriest has been talking about ferrets. So I'm thinking about cellists and ferrets. What unites cellists and ferrets? Well, sir, I wrote a story once upon a time which contained both Janos Starker and a ferret. It was prompted by the concert I saw at the Banff Festival - the way Starker lifts his bow at the end of the movement as if to tell you that the piece of music is over - as if you might not know. I had come down to the Banff School of Fine Arts after having finished high school in the Yukon Territory - not exactly Canada's cultural heartland. I felt terribly outclassed by everybody there at the School and imagined that these little cues were meant for dummies like me. Years later I wrote the story. It still needs some work.

Dog Blogging

(with side-order of chicken)

It's been done elsewhere, I know, and with great effect! Fellowship and bonhomie ensue, people comment and say nice things that I don't deserve just because I have a cute mutt. This is Clio. I know it's a cat's name (or maybe a car's name) but it seemed to fit and she answers to it. I've made terrible decisions over the years but Clio (the dog not the name) was one of the better ones.

I'm not clever enough to add captions so this is probably pretty low-class dog blogging. I know where the start button is on my computer and the Blogger software basically writes my posts for me.

But I am awfully proud of my Labrador Retriever - the bane of rabbits, pheasants and postmen - but comparitively well behaved with chickens and sheep. Okay, one small fatal glitch with my favourite Speckledy hen Christmas before last. Unpleasantness and much chiding followed. Okay - and one small pursuit of sheep but she was led astray by another more feral dog. She's almost three years old and is awaiting a hip X-ray to see if we're going to go the way of puppies or not. Three's a good age for motherhood.

Mstislav Rostropovich
March 27, 1927 – April 27, 2007

The Scottish Election


Scottish National Party 47 seats
Labour 46 seats
Liberal Democrats 16 seats
Conservatives 17 seats
Other 3 seats

Clearly the Powers of Darkness have not been kept at bay this time around. The Scottish National Party have squeaked ahead by a single seat. We can look forward now to several years of listening to how every problem in the world can only be solved if Scotland is truly independent. Once independence is achieved, the weather will improve, flowers will be brighter, the rocks and stones will ooze money.

Locally here in Tweeddale, the Lib Dem incumbent Jeremy Purvis has held the seat by 10,656 to 10,058 for the SNP's Christine Grahame. They both worked very hard and it's certainly been a squeaker.

Some comments I agree with from somebody called 'The Gray Monk'. Half of the opprobrium and maliciousness one sees coming from belligerent parties in ecclesiastical disputes (if it's not a case of shallow opportunism) seems based on the fear that we really are absolutely alone in working these things out for ourselves. The Church is the work of the Spirit of God. Calculating the number of people at a particular service has always been a lousy way of deciding whether the Church is doing the work of its Master.

It's terribly important that where there is to be a community meal or some other social occasion where a glass of wine (or two) might be served that it take place 'after' the communion service and not before. The Social Convenor in my congregation is asked to please take note.