Yes I have pictures!

Scads of pictures - pictures galore. I have no way of inserting my SD card into a computer here and dodgy internet access at best so you won't see any of them for a while. Then you'll see too many.

We've been to Megiddo and seen the plains of Armageddon. I'm pleased to report that in spite of everything which is transpiring in the Anglican Communion - it may well not be as apocalyptic as some are predicting. The Plains of Armageddon seemed rather tranquil. There was a tractor or two. That's it.

The Northwest corner of the Sea of Galilee has been the high point for me. Capernaum was tremendous as was the (probable) location of the miracle of the Loaves and Fishes and Jesus' appearance to the disciples when they were fishing with little luck. We went to Beth Saida today - bumped into a Glaswegian helping out with the 'dig' there. Floated down three kilometres of the upper Jordan River flowing into the Sea of Galilee. We felt well - all was good.

I finished the day up at the Mount of the Beatitudes - was struck by how small and local everything was. It was all there in front of me. Within a sweep of about 50 degrees of head-turn was Tiberias to the right - where the tyrant lived who had done-in John the Baptist and was probably gunning for Jesus. Right below was Tabgha - the loaves and fishes, the calling of the disciples near the Source of Capernaum where they'd likely have been cleaning their nets and the appearance of Jesus to his disciples after the Resurrection. To the right was the coast where so much of the opposition had occurred - Demoniacs, the Gadarene Swine and the Stormy Coast requiring calming. Fifty degrees of head turn and you have a good half of the Gospels. Remarkable! Unbelievable!

Next week is Jericho and Jerusalem.

The Valley of Ela - between Jerusalem and Tel-Aviv - where David faced off with Goliath. This picture is taken from within the perimeter fence surrounding the Moshav where my sister-in-law and brother-in-law live with their three children. There was an attack a few years back - children stuffed under beds and parents standing guard with drawn pistols. It's like that here - it's hard to explain. Hard to understand.

Our first day in Israel was delightfully cool. I gather that it will be hotter tomorrow. We spent the better part of the day climbing the man-made hill which was Herod's summer palace and a defensive position in both the First Jewish Revolt (66 ad +-) and the Bar-Kochba Rebellion (135+-).

The first thing one encounters before climbing the last bit to the summit of the man-made hill is the pile of missiles which were rolled down the hill at the Romans from the heights. Each one of these weighs between 700 lbs and a full ton and would have done a fair bit of damage to those who weren't able to get out of the way in the time. Examples of the missles tossed in the other direction with the aid of catapults are apparently much smaller. Defense has always been an easier job!

Health and Safety in the UK would have thought they'd died and gone to hell at the site of Herod's Summer Palace high atop this hill. There were so many things to regulate and none of them regulated! It was delightful - toppled stones, secret passages and all of them treacherous and difficult to navigate.

Thought for the Day
BBC Radio Scotland
June 19th, 2009

It’s ‘up for grabs’ whether we are 'on the road to recovery' or not. The Chancellor thinks we’re on the right path but news of Scottish job losses makes us wonder whether this rising tide will lift all boats – or not.

Clearly there is some debate.

One of the questions asked by individuals who have suffered a loss - the loss of a job, or a relationship or even the loss through death of a friend or a spouse is 'when will I get better? And the only really truthful answer is 'quite possibly never' if you mean ‘when can I turn the clock back to where it was before’.

It's not so much that we limp ahead - though sometimes that's the best we can do - but that we build new things which incorporate the losses we have suffered. Loss and death free us - or force us -to build new things. And the new thing frequently contains the masonry of what existed on the site before.

The principles upon which we have measured our success are now being questioned – not only because they did not prevent dis-ease and instability – but on the deeper level of whether they were right – or fair – or godly – or honest. What sort of work was valued and what was not? Who had a place at the table? Who did not? Who were the ‘movers and shakers’? Who got moved and shaken?

The New Testament incorporates the fact of loss and death into the story of transformation and new life. The one is a part of t’other. Jesus said that unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies it will never become a new plant. The old life cannot be brought seamlessly into the new.

There’s a hope out there that we don’t recover completely – and a suspicion that if we aren’t honest enough about how sick we have been then we will perhaps not receive the sort of treatment we need.

Not Enough Bollywood on this Blog

And not enough for train lovers, either
Thanks to Doug Painter for the link.

Good Audio Alert

Bishop Alan makes reference to a repeat broadcast of a Radio 4 programme called Hallelujah. It's available for the next six days HERE. I'm not sure BBC iPlayer is accessible outside of the UK and I can't immediately see a way of downloading it as a podcast (correct me if I'm wrong).

Even for a fan, I found it spent a little too long talking with and about Leonard Cohen but it ends with a marveous piece of music composed by Jocelyn Pook who is the programme's presenter as well.

The second bit - tho' not exactly seasonal (it's an Advent reflection) appears on the Clifton Diocese website (RC). It represents only one of the audio presentations which have won numerous awards - in this case the Sony Radio Award.

I was a participant in the Churches Media Conference down in Derbyshire just prior to our General Synod in Scotland and had occasion to attend one of the Fringe Workshops led by the podcasts creator, Mary Colwell. The audio is available HERE.

Francis Fukuyama won the 'Oops I wish I hadn't written that' Award for 1992. He wrote a book (based on a previous essay in a little known journal) called "The End of History and the Last Man" In it he'd declared that with the collapse of Communism the world had finished with politics derived from fundamental polarities and had settled on the inherent goodness of liberal democracy and liberal economic practice.

A good neo-conservative think-tank man, in other words.

One assumes he's had a little time on his hands over the last months.

He's done what men of a certain age do when their skills and abilities are judged to belong to another era which is to fall back on their hobbies - in his case building quite swish furniture with hand tools.

All of which has doubtless drawn him to a book called "Shop Class as Soulcraft" by Matthew Crawford, for which Fukuyama has written a quite laudable review in the New York Times' Sunday Book Review.

Sometimes the BBC composes headlines in rather a hurry:

Flu risk 'still low' after death

An audio interview with The Most Reverend David Chillingworth, newly elected Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church, can be found on the SEC website HERE

For convenience (since you're already here) it is also included below.

Statement to members of General Synod

of the Scottish Episcopal Church
by the newly-elected Primus,
Rt Revd David Chillingworth,
Bishop of St Andrews, Dunkeld and Dunblane

Calling is an extraordinary and wonderful thing. To be literally handed a new ministry like this is a daunting experience. I could produce a thousand reasons why this is difficult, demanding, challenging … but that is not the question. The question is vocation and it has just been answered.

I want to thank the members of the College of Bishops. We are a College – we have been talking about how we can develop our collegiality and put it at the service of our church. At our Synod Dinner last night, we expressed our thanks to Idris and to Alison. I want in the context of our General Synod to say to you Idris how much we value what you have given to ministry, to the life of this church and to all of us. We pray that you and Alison may have a long and happy retirement.

I approach this new ministry with deep humility and no small apprehension. This church – my diocese and the wider church – has been extraordinarily generous in the trust which it has placed in me. This church is willing to take risks – and that is a sign of its spiritual vitality. I experience that trust as I share in ministry day by day with clergy and laity. I experience it in the support which I receive in prayer. I ask you to pray for me and for all of us as bishops. Our task as a College of Bishops is to offer leadership in a church which is committed to patterns of sharing. To be that kind of church is a gift we have received and a gift we can share. But such a church will only be built on foundations of clarity, honesty and truth in our relationships.

Those of you who have worked closely with me will know that I believe that our church is richly blessed in the quality and commitment of laity and clergy. You will know that I also believe that this is a precious moment of calling for the Scottish Episcopal Church.

You will have heard some of this in the discussion of the mission of our church yesterday. I believe two things about this time. First that we are being called to take our place in a new way among the family of churches in Scotland and in the wider community. I come from a minority church – the church of my family roots is the minority Church of Ireland community of southern Ireland. There are several generations of its clergy in my family background. I believe that minority churches do not need to be marginal and that small churches can bring special gifts to the whole. In particular, I believe that our strengths in spirituality and service, in dignified liturgy and inclusive openness are gifts and treasures for this moment. Our calling is to offer Jesus – to offer new ways of exploring faith – in a time when people search have questions but do not expect to find the answers in traditional churches.

But there is a second challenge which faces us at present. We are entering a time of difficult decision-making as we respond to the new financial circumstances which face us as they face the whole of our society. Adding new things is relatively easy. Deciding what really matters when resources don't stretch to cover everything is much more difficult. It tests decision-making and it tests relationships. That is the period which we are about to enter. Our prayer must be that this period will be for us a time of creative refining and pruning - from which will come more growth.

On a more personal level, the clergy and people of our diocese know what an integral part of my ministry Alison is - and I want you to know how much I appreciate the contribution which she makes and the support which she gives to me. Scotland has been good to us. Perthshire is a beautiful and extraordinary place and we are very happy here.

And so, members of Synod, I look forward to playing my part in the adventure in faith which we shall undertake together. May God bless us all as we work together in his service.

The Bishops of the Scottish Episcopal Church welcome their new Primus, David Chillingworth of St Andrew's Diocese.

Postnote: It was good to see our Bishops looking like bishops. A round of Canterbury Caps to complete the ensemble and we're in business!

Random Thought at General Synod

While listening to one of my enthusiastic brethren urge us all to be able to 'express the Gospel in a nutshell' I was assailed by the following unhelpful thought:

"Anybody who understands 'the gospel in a nutshell' has a tiny chewy gospel that some folks are allergic to"

Thought for the Day

Radio Scotland
Good Morning Scotland
Thursday, June 11th, 2009

The only time I was called a baboon was when I was 14 years old and carrying on loudly with a group of friends in the street. Evidently we disturbed somebody who opened her window and yelled the insult from the safety of an upstairs room. 

 

Baboons get bad press. They are loud. They have shocking blue backsides. But, according to a news report yesterday, baboons who live in such raucous societies live longer and have healthier offspring than those who pass their years in relative isolation. Their community life – though loud and fractious – does them no harm.

In the old Creation story, God wanted a companion for Adam.

“It is not good for the man to be alone”, the text says.

Adam might have retorted that life lived in the presence of others wasn’t going to be all roses - getting along with other humans, curbing ambition in the light of other people’s needs, or lifting up the weak in a community where they could quite logically be excluded – enduring all those arguments in the wee hours of the morning where a husband and wife settle things between them – sleepless nights as parents walk the fine line between keeping their children safe and granting them the freedom and the autonomy they require.

Community is not for the faint hearted.

Our communities push us nose to nose with people who are unlike us - our extended families, our colleagues at work, our membership in local organizations or in our church congregations.

When we are grownups we get to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to such involvement.

But we have an impulse to nurture and to be nurtured. Our sense of adventure is best satisfied by being shoulder to shoulder with people who are unlike us and who make demands on us. When this happens we grow larger and more flexible. We get stretched.

Sure, we can’t lay first claim to every piece of fruit on the tree. But all the compromises and conversations will have left us a legacy – a community – a place in the midst of others.

Well worth the risks.

The Primus delivered his charge at the beginning of Synod. The complete text of the charge can be found HERE.

General Synod 09 - The Scottish Episcopal Church

Our Primus, Idris Jones, speaks to the 'Freshers Meeting' - a gathering of first time delegates to General Synod. The meeting proper begins with a Synod Eucharist later on this morning. Ongoing and updated information about the meeting can be found HERE.

Whipman Week in West Linton

The parade marking the beginning of Whipman Week in West Linton was about to start and this small fellow was obviously looking forward to it.


When they say that "the dog is the size of a horse" it helps if the dog is very big and the horse is very wee.


Last year's Whipman was looking forward to handing over to this year's Whipman-elect.


The Pipes and Drums - the last bastion where 'flat affect' is considered a marketable skill.

Thought for the Day
Good Morning Scotland
Radio Scotland
Monday, June 5th, 2009

It may not be our turn this year. We don’t have to resign in disgrace. Or watch embarrassing little tidbits about ourselves tumbling out of the pages of the newspaper one after another in a steady torrent. 

“We are not that soldier!" as they say. We are not that Minister or Member of Parliament.

It’s not us.

 

Don’t we miss a tremendous opportunity, though, when we merely stand outside the whole situation with a disgusted look on our faces?

I’m not saying that public outrage is a waste of time. It has been public outrage which has forced the issue to this point.

Those of us who are wise, though, will want to sit up and take notice as to how it’s done. How do people hold on by their fingertips at a time when their careers and their personal future are in tremendous jeopardy either because they’ve screwed up or because they’ve been misunderstood or because they’ve been swamped by a wave which is bigger than they are.

Rather a lot of us will end up at some point “holding on by our fingertips”. Our marriage might fall apart rather publicly. We find that we’ve become a casualty of office politics. Something from our past catches up with us.

 

It’s worth our while to watch these public figures – many of whom are watching their professional and even personal lives crash and burn – to see whether one can maintain maintain or even recover one's principles in the midst of it all – to see the degree to which courage and even altruism can be demonstrated – by a few of them - even in the midst of political disaster.

It’s like that story from 1^st Samuel where the corrupt old priest Eli comes to realizes that the young boy Samuel is a prophet. Against his own interests he encourages the boy to speak even though it will cost the old man everything. Corrupt as he is – he still becomes one of the heroes in the story.

High points of the weekend

Let's see: a seven year old boy who read brilliantly at his Aunty's wedding yesterday, a first time thurifer who felt "accomplished" at the end of the service this morning. And to top it off, I managed to make it through three (3) post-baptismal barbeques after church this afternoon while still keeping to my diet.

Dynasties were teetering today.

My dad has been in the hospital on Saltspring Island with pneumonia. He's been in for a couple of days and his white count is now down to more acceptable levels and they'll probably let him out tomorrow or soon thereafter with orders to recuperate sensibly and avoid heavy gardening for a while.

This morning we get a call that my Father-in-law has been taken to the hospital here in Scotland with a recurrence of heart problems. Down to the Borders General Hospital in an ambulance with blue lights flashing and then up to the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary in another.

He too seems to be a bit more stable with one artery unblocked and another due to be reamed out in the next couple of days.

It's been one of those weeks