Let the Good Times Roll!

Holidays begin today. Down to London Gatwick this aft, thence to Vancouver tomorrow morning.

It's never been possible...

...to begin one's holidays completely fresh with nothing hanging over one's head. There is always some burden of the heart or the schedule which gets in the way. At least that's the way it works with me. I'm working flat out to get the second of these - that which falls within my control - out of the way, completely and utterly.

As for the first, well...that's life.

My lady wife and I are going out to British Columbia and the end of the week with our young one and meeting up with our slightly older one at the other end. We'll spend some time with the truly old'uns on the other side and will spend a little over a week with them on Saltspring Island. I shall try to behave myself in the presence of my mother's magnificent cooked breakfasts and get up early enough to get some good pictures of the beach.

We're then heading off to the Sorrento Centre (between Kamloops and Salmon Arm - you know where I mean!) in British Columbia for the week of the 18th-24th. Caireen is going to be doing a creative journaling course there. The young man is going to be doing some drama and I'm going to be hiking around the Shuswap country during the day. We've time together as a family in the afternoon. Think Progressive Anglican Butlins with Mass in an outdoor chapel rather than the usual clown shows (although some of the chasubles one sees from time to time might qualify for the latter).

We then top things off with a drive through the Rocky Mountains before flying back to Glasgow from Calgary on the 28th.

So for the next day or two and the remaining tasks - Ora Pro Nobis!

A Sermon
The Sixth Sunday after Pentecost
2 Kings 5:1-14

Naaman the Syrian general had a problem – one which was an embarrassment all around.

On the one hand he had proved to be very good value to his monarch who appreciated his services.

In ordinary circumstances, he'd have been both feared and envied by those below him on the pecking order. He would have reasonably expected to be seen at the King’s right hand and to have been in the inner circles of the court were it not for a devastating skin disease which caused people to keep their distance. Naaman the Syrian general, it seems, was affected by leprosy – a disease with a terrible social stigma attached to it – and people consequently gave him a very wide berth.

What was his king to do? An intractable problem presents itself and one must imagine the dilemma facing the king. He depends on the skill of men like Naaman – aggressive and opportunistic – able to command loyalty among the troops, able to analyse an enemy’s weakness, able to pick the right moment to pull back and the right moment to strike forward.

Valuable man, Naaman, but the King can’t shake his hand. He can’t have him over for supper. Or have him sit in the royal box at the victory parade. An intractable problem – one that doesn’t admit of any ordinary solutions or strategies - so intractable, in fact, that when a little slave girl in the in the entourage of Naaman's wife says that back home in her own country there’s this prophet who performs miracles and heals the sick, he tells the King who gives it both a first and a second thought. He has no choice. He listens to the little girl. His decision to act seems more forced than faith – more the result of desperation that it is a faithful step into an uncertain future – but whatever it is, it takes place.

And what does he do? He writes a letter to the King of Israel – which is the little girl’s home country - and he tells him that he’s sending him a this leprous general to be cured.

And that’s when the second intractable problem emerges. This time not for the Aramean King but for the Israelite King who reads the letter he’s received several time to glean its meaning. What does this mean that the king of a not always friendly neighbouring country is sending his favourite general – a man with an incurable condition – to the neighbouring country to be cured. This doesn’t seem like a request, it smells like a trap - this is an unfulfillable condition and an unmeetable demand issued by one country to its neighbour.

The Israelite king cries out to his ministers: “Am I God, to give death or life, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Just look and see how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me.”

What to do, then? Dig the moats deeper and reinforce the walls! Call up the reserves. Send out the spies. Get the beacon fires ready on all the hilltops so that they can be lit at a moment’s notice to let the army know when the enemy has crossed the frontier. All the automatic processes kick in which countries rely on to protect themselves from threats but at the heart of the nation, in the king’s court, there is anxiety and despair. The king tears his clothes with fear and rage.

You’d hardly notice the little messenger ushered in to corner of the room - a messenger from the prophet Elisha. Why, prophet asks, are there work companies on all the high places adding parapets to the earthworks? Why are there men in armour drilling in formation in the village square? Why are there diplomatic notes being sent to and fro across the borders. And your majesty “…why have you torn your clothes? Let (this Syrian general) come to me, that he may learn that there is a prophet in Israel”

The king is surrounded by experts – experts in the defense of vital infrastructure, generals in command of troops, diplomats skilled in intrigue. And now the prophet, through the agency of this nameless messenger shifting his weight from one foot to the other and looking aimlessly around at the sweets on the table and the tapestries as he waits for an answer – is counselling a response which seems both faithful and hopelessly naïve. Meet the threat – treat it, instead, as challenge. Let Israel be a source of healing for the nations as it has claimed itself, since Abraham, to be. Simply say “yes” rather than drawing the shutters and calling forth the troops.

There is no record of the conversation which ensued, no “blow by blow” of the king’s decision to follow the prophet’s advice and to embrace and affirm the challenge that is presented to him and to the nation. How he comes to deal with this intractable problem we’re are not told but the very next scene opens with the chariot and the retinue of Naaman the Syrian General clattering up to Elisha’s front door and poor leprous Naaman climbing out and waiting there. And waiting until finally one of the servants appears with instructions to walk over to the river and wash himself.

And now we have a third important man facing a situation standing at a crossroads facing an intractable problem. This time it’s simple human and national pride which stands in the way. He is consumed by anger. A commander of thousands he has left his own country, his servants and underlings not only to be ordered around by a foreign prophet but, in fact, to be handed a few cursory instructions by a foreign prophet’s servant. The instructions sound like a recipe: “Go wash in the Jordan and you will be clean”.

Is he not an important general? Has he not left the greatest country in the world? Has he not just walked past the greatest rivers? Could he not, at least, have been greeted formally and had a solemn prayer? Could not the great prophet of Israel have done something with a little magic to it, could he not have waved his hand about and invoked the deity? He seems ready to turn around and leave until his own servants take of the risk of bringing him to his senses: had the prophet given him a difficult task to perform he would have done it without question – a monster slay or a difficult pilgrimage to accomplish. Why not, then, do something simple. Why throw away such an opportunity in a fit of pique? He goes to the river and washes. He emerges completely restored and makes a confession of faith in Israel’s God.

The voices in this story which provide the sense of the narrative come in from the side, obliquely. They are voices which can, potentially, be ignored. Powerful men are deliberating in the midst of crises and yet it is the voice of a child which provides opportunity, the voice of a prophet which brings the powerful back to first principles and the voice of an underling speaking “out of turn” beside us which speaks to us of common sense that our pride and anger will not allow us to see.

Subtle voices which we will ignore at our peril.

It may be that we need to run out of clear and easy answers before we will rely on them. Perhaps we need to be facing the wall before voices we would never listen to in a million years suddenly start ringing out loud and clear.

Testing the hypothesis -
a recipe
Luke 10:1-20

You've heard the parables about what the Kingdom of God is like, or even better, like unto. All those images of treasures in fields and pearls of great price swirl around in your head. You'd be forgiven for wanting, eventually, to see this 'fleshed out' in the course of ordinary life and discourse.

Where can this phantom thing, variously described as being within you or around you or among you, actually going to take shape?

Forget "like unto". Nobody talks like that anymore.

Well sir, we'd like to give you the opportunity to see it whipped up in front of your very own eyes. Keep it simple, enjoy the company and have fun.

Serves 69 (plus the cook). Benefits many more.

A) Ingredients

Virtually nothing. A call or commission to go forth would be advised. The message that the Kingdom of God has drawn near where the name of Christ is proclaimed is probably essential and should be pinned where clearly visible near your work surface.. This is one of the few recipes with no further ingredients beyond a willingness to stir the pot and an enthusiasm to see the results. Other versions which include such things as sandals, purse and bag are to be avoided at all costs and will make the results cloudy and resemble something bought off the shelf.

B) Method

Assemble your group and then go in in various directions. Disperse widely. Big cities are not necessarily the best option. Everyone goes there. As you mix vigorously you will be surprised at how things come together. Don't be surprised if not all parts of the resulting batter show the same welcome response. Quality of parts rather than uniformity of response is the order of the day.

As your results increase, don't waste time overmuch on the parts of the batter which haven't turned out.

These things happen.

Separate your product. Rejoice in what is good. Dispose of what isn't in a suitable container.

Some likelihood exists of serpents or scorpions crawling onto the work surface. Don't worry. It's nothing that a good whack with a wooden spoon won't solve. Take some authority.

Thought for the Day

Good Morning Scotland
BBC Radio Scotland
Monday, June 28th, 2010

I went to the funeral last Wednesday of a better man than me.

Now, I don’t rate myself with a number on a scale and then note other peoples’ scores when attending or officiating at their funerals. Sometimes, though, you hear an account of a person’s life and attributes – ringing true to the much or the little you knew them yourself - which makes you wonder how you’ll ever muddle through. You’d certainly never manage that!

It’s not a question of time and relative age, Sure, my generation is only now beginning to feel its aches and pains and is not ready to move on - not by a long shot – but the foundation for what this man had built in his family and ministry and within his own soul was founded at a much younger age than I am now. Those opportunities, even in early middle-age, are now lost to me.

Yes – I attended the funeral of a better man than me.

Jesus said ‘Judge not, lest ye be judged’. We are judged, though – justly or unjustly – by others. Sometimes it’s merely enough to stand in the shadow of people who made better use of their gifts than we have. In the light of better lives than ours we feel the sting of our inadequacy.

Now there are, in fact, millions of better people than me. Ask my wife.

Because the better man can never be me, all I can do is to utter a word of thankfulness for the lives of others lived well and look again at the time and the space that are allotted to me.

Some conversations will never take place unless I initiate them. Forgiveness and reconciliation may not happen until this half-good human picks up the telephone. Strangers will not be welcomed in my neighbourhood or church until this bog-standard individual musters up the courage to step outside his small circle and engage with them

It’s not a competition.

In the best of worlds, beautiful lives would provoke our hunger to make more of what we wake up with every morning.



Audio is available for a limited time HERE. TFTD begins at 1:19.56 - about halfway along the audio bar.

Apparently not a spoof in the Onion

"Dressing for G20 protests is tricky. Look too corporate and you might be paintbombed. Dress like a militant protester, you run the risk of being tear gassed."

The Toronto star has a page on "fashion choices" for those going along to protest at the G20 in Toronto. Does one wear black? Do you bring a facecovering "just in case"? With respect to the peaceful protests being planned this Saturday by the Canadian Labour Congress, their spokesman Jeff Atkinson

"...mused on advice for the protester looking to steer clear of police and militant attention.

“Plaid?” he offered. “I hate to think of people at home in their closet missing the protest because they can’t make a fashion decision.”

An Interview With Tony Jordan 

at the Churches Media Conference

It's midsummer - when Christian concern naturally settles around the Nativity of our Lord.Or so it did, for a while anyway, at this year's Churches Media Conference held at the Hayes Conference Centre near Alfreton in Derbyshire. An interview took place there with the writer of an upcoming four-part series on the Nativity. The series will be presented, helpfully, in a more traditional time-slot this December.

Tony Jordan has had an interesting career - moving from running a market stall in London's East End to writing 250 episodes of East Enders and co-creating Life on Mars - just to name a few of this remarkable gentleman's credentials. The Nativity will run this Christmas with a mix of well known and lesser known actors in the cast.

The interview with Tony Jordan was sufficiently good that it demanded some coverage. There is a link provided at the temporary website of the Churches Media Net to a longer version of this interview (an hour and thirty minutes long), complete with housekeeping matters about seats being available at the front and a pre-interview with the interviewer himself.

What's more, it can only be listened to online.

Which means that those of you with domestic committments will end up getting your heads nipped for sitting glued to the computer with the family around or for coming to bed at an ungodly hour.

I know it's a matter of opinion but I found many of the questions asked at the end fairly pious and a bit trite. The heart of the interview - about the way in which a writer like Jordan comes up with characters for the television shows he writes and how he ended up inheriting the project of the Nativity- was of sufficient grace and moment that it simply "called out" to be topped and tailed and set out in a format which somebody could download and listen to on their way to work.

In a conference which purported to have the Christian presence on and use of New Media as one of its major themes, it would seem that the first lesson is this: if you have a good piece of audio stuffed in some virtual corner the bloggers will want it for their mates to hear.

They could ask.
I'm sure the real Christians among them would ask.

The rest of us will simply steal it - cheeky buggers that we are - top it and tail it and make it something which faithful readers of Raspberry Rabbit (all eleven of them - including Evelyn with the articial leg and the shocking pink lippy - Hi, Evelyn!) - can download onto their Ipods and listen to at their leisure.

There were other bits: Elaine Storkey versus Andrew Copson, the Chief Executive of the British Humanist Association? I didn't pinch that. Andrew Copson was twice the evangelist Elaine was. The BHA could have used that audio in one of their recruiting drives. Does Elaine Storkey really believe that Christians invented democracy?

Spinning the Pope - Catholicism in the Spotlight? Charming fellow, that Opus Dei guy, but I kept expecting the albino monk to come swinging in on a rope at any moment with a knife between his teeth. Too much of the Army of God for my taste.

No - Tony Jordan was the star - by a mile!

The interview was conducted by Michael Wakelin the former head of Relgion and Ethics Broadcasting at the BBC.

Note: The entire interview above is worth listening. Jordan talks about the process of developing a character and his time writing for East Enders and, later, developing the character of DCI Gene Hunt in Life on Mars. The material dealing specifically with The Nativity begins at 19:37 on the Soundcloud bar.

Enjoy!

This is the fourth Churches Media Conference that I’ve attended.

I've been married a little over two years now. My wife looks over the conference schedule and can't see the allure. She imagines that there must be many beautiful young women at the conference, so at our house we simply refer to the conference as "Hot Totty" as in "will my sisters' birthday BBQ in June conflict with Hot Totty this year?"

I try to reassure her that, while the women at Hot Totty are eminently toothsome, they probably have better things to do with their time than interface on any level with complex and aging Scottish Episcopal clergymen whose affections lie elsewhere.

As for the ones who dont, well, they can chase me but they can't catch me.

Thought for the Day

Good Morning Scotland
BBC Radio Scotland
Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010

We hate to wait. We try to figure out what’s coming down the road. We guess. We make stuff up. There’s a lot of that going on with the budget about to be read out today. Speculation is rife. Opponents are already lining up with things they think they know or believe they’ve figured out.

We’ve been prepared for it, even here in Scotland. The chancellor has told us that this is the ‘unavoidable budget’ – the one where we will pay the price for what’s gone on in the past in order to make what is to come workable and liveable. People in the here and now, however, are the ones who will need to do their part and pay the price.

But you and I know this won’t be the end of the story. We’ll wonder why we’ve been targeted by certain taxes or have to pay the price of cutbacks in our sector. “What makes us special”, we’ll ask. Not everybody will have been won over by this time tomorrow.

A coalition government producing a budget must take enormous risks. These are two very different animals welded together – a Tiger-Lion, if you like, or a Beaver-Duck. We're not privy to all the late night telephone calls between convinced Liberals or convinced Conservatives warning that the pure principles of their Party are being put at risk.

Whether or not you believe we’re living in the sort of age which requires an “emergency budget”, we are all familiar – or will be – with those moments when emergency measures are required in our relationships – when bottoms fall out of things, when the rock rolls down the hill and, all of a sudden, the love we take for granted between ourselves and our spouses, or the religious faith which we ‘ascribe to’ but have never absolutely needed become extremely valuable. Our priorities will change in an instant and our creativity “kick in” when the bad news is known, but we’re pointed back to things we had neglected.

Things we didn’t value at the time.


Audio available for a limited time HERE.
TFTD begins at 1:23.13 - about halfway along the audio bar.

After Dinner Speech
at the SEC General Synod

I missed the General Synod Dinner this year and while the conflicting engagement was both important and enjoyable it would have been good to hear Robin Angus' after dinner speech.

The Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church in America was in attendance.

There are some in-jokes which non-Piskies might not get but there is plenty to amuse even outsiders. Dr Patricia Peattie, who is referred to on a number of occasions in the speech, is the outgoing Convenor of the Provincial Standing Committee. She is a retired nurse (and professor of nursing) of the old model who, we must imagine, could have reduced the prickliest of old-fashioned male Consultants to blobs of jelly back in the day. She is a highly organized and intentional lady and David Palmer, her successor, has very big shoes indeed to fill.

Ruth Innes has a copy of Robin's after-dinner speech on her blog and it can be seen HERE. Enjoy.

I will forgive him for mentioning pretty well every Scottish Episcopal blogger except me. Then again, we haven't been introduced.

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.

I am now British (as well)

No longer will I be known merely as "that Canadian fellow". I am now a British citizen (as well).

The ceremony was, shall we say, a little "low key". No portrait of Her Majesty adorned the wall, nor was there a Union Jack anywhere in evidence in the room. It had all the taste of a 1960s-era Soviet wedding but, nonetheless, at the end of the service I was a citizen of the United Kingdom - having taken all the necessary oaths.

My family and the in-laws came to cheer me on.

Thought for the Day
Good Morning Scotland
BBC Radio Scotland
Tuesday, June 1st, 2010

You should have been with me and the dogs early yesterday morning on top of one of the local hills outside Penicuik.

Scotland was at its best – the gorse in full flower and sufficient rabbits on the hillside to keep the dogs’ interest up.

Back at my desk afterwards, I caught up with the news. It was filled with horrifying details of murder investigations in Scotland and England and the encounter between the Israeli Defense Force and the flotilla heading for Gaza.

Bring on a sense of hopelessness about human violence.
Cue the sound of sabres rattling around the world.

I picked up the habit of reading the newspaper regularly from my father, along with his suspicion that the news does not reflect the good things which happen to individuals on a daily basis. It is a distillation of the most dramatic and frequently the most terrible events which have occurred. As communications occur more rapidly we can follow events pretty much as they unfold – complete with pictures taken on the very front lines. Which tells us something and which doesn’t.

Sunday was Trinity Sunday. One of the themes which recurs on this particular Sunday is the fitness of the world as a place for God to work. The world bears his creative imprint. God has acted redemptively within it and he continues to abide with us. A place with tremendous possibilities. Many of us live in communities and in relationships which are fruitful and nourishing. We are often struck by how noble and honest the men and women around us can be. In spite of what we are assailed with – terrible dark stories and depths of human evil and failing – that remains the truth about the world we live in.

The news may report true facts about a number of events. But it leaves most of us out. It doesn’t always tell the world’s story and it doesn’t reflect its potential.

Much of what is good in our communities and our relationships,
like Rob’s morning in the Pentland Hills,
will never make the news.


audio is available for a limited time HERE. TFTD begins at 1:18.02 - about halfway along the audio bar.

Penicuik Church Float

We've talked off an on for years about the local churches having a float in the annual "Penicuik on Parade". It's the usual affair with cotton candy, cadets marching in perfect step and pipe bands. We tried something last year but it was only so successful. This year, the bull was taken by the horns and one of the local ministers found a stiltwalker, a tractor and a trailer. There were a million last minute glitches but a small group of ministers and parishioners managed to hand out balloons and literature along the whole course of the parade. It looks like we'll be doing this again next year.


The Rev'd Ian Cathcart on why the churches in Penicuik might have a float with David and Goliath at "Penicuik on Parade". Please excuse the lack of a wind screen for the microphone. A note to self has been issued



All present and accounted for: Four local clergy, a Philistine on stilts and a wee boy in cardboard armour.

Thought for the Day

Good Morning Scotland
BBC Radio Scotland
Monday, May 16th, 2010

My parents are over from Canada. They head off this morning on a bus tour of the highlands and islands for five days. They are part of that great crowd of North American visitors who will try to connect with their roots this summer. You’ll see them on the high street. You might roll your eyes when they announce to the young lady behind the counter in the shop that their ‘grandmothers were Scotch’

Visitors are a strange lot, aren’t they?

You see them coming off the ferry in places like Iona as you’d see them walking along the cobbled streets of Jerusalem. At St James and St Mungo’s we get our share of visitors throughout the year. They file into Church at an Easter Vigil or a Christmas Carol service or pop up in the back pews on an ordinary Sunday morning. Pilgrims and visitors – looking for something old and worthy or something novel and even transcendent.

The raw material for this experience is our countryside – our history – our Sunday morning service. They want to be a part of us for a while. They’re the only ones in church who actually read the pew leaflet. In town you’ll see them standing on the street corner reading through the tourist guide. By the time they finish their visit they can tell us things about our city that we didn’t even know.

Grant them this, at least: Strangers, pilgrims and visitors are here on purpose. They don’t find themselves here because they’re in transit or because they were born here.

They’re sometimes a lot more alert than we are. Their eyes drink in more of the beauty and the magic than ours do. Have we grown so used to the landscape – physical or spiritual - that we find ourselves amazed to see people so nourished by it?

And so there’s a gift to be given here – not from us but to us – a prompt, if you like, to rediscover some of the beauty and the sense of what we have forgotten or overlooked.



The audio is available for a limited time HERE. TFTD begins at 1:22.06, about halfway along the audio bar.