What's in Kelvin's Head

All is over for another year. Last night’s synod dinner was very enjoyable. The Caledonian hotel does us proud. This morning, the business ended unusually early, though not before an interesting debate from the Standing Committee on the organisation of the church. All over for another year. Except for those of us on the Organizational [...]

We have a debate about how to define the membership of the Scottish Episcopal Church. Sally Gorton speaks against changing our current rules. She has done so before. Alan Thornton speaks against giving anyone other than the Rector the role of keeping the role.  I think. John Armes speaks of the importance of keeping involvement of those  [...]

We have an excellent presentation on the Millenium Development Goals. I missed who it was who did it. Can anyone help out? More information available at the back of the synod hall and coming to congregations. More here.

We hear from the Overseas Committee that the Scottish Episcopal Church is supporting training in West Africa, including paying University Fees and student bursaries. So, we are paying for university education for African Dicoeses which are growing and apparently full of life. We are not paying for such training or university degrees for people from [...]

Donald Reid asks us to point people towards the Festival of Spirituality website. Happy to do so: http://festivalofspirituality.org.uk/

We move on to discuss the report on the implementation of Journey of the Baptised and New Century New Directions. Alison Peden begs us to stop sniping at TISEC telling us that it has received excellent reports from those who validate it for the Ministry Divison of the C of E. [One wonders whether it [...]

Just to report the success of yesterday’s great innovation - we had the main Synod Eucharist in the place where we meet rather than in the Cathedral Church of St Mary (Edinburgh) just down the road. Yesterday’s service was splendid. James Macmillan’s lovely mass setting rang around the synod hall. The bishops huddled in splendour around [...]

Having made rather a fuss about the lack of internet access in the General Synod Hall (aka Palmerston Place Chuch), I was delighted to find that wifi access had been enabled this year. However, it soon transpired that my own computer was the only one in the room which refused to connect to the wifi [...]

The Rule 10 Motion. This section is about preliminary report in response the a Rule 10 ie a member’s motion which was pursed last year. This encouraged a renew of the financial & administration models of the church. Very complicated, but also very important. Should the province pay for Episcopal ministries? Should investment income be [...]

Today is the Feast of St Columba. Nine years to the day since I was priested in Perth. One of the sad things that has come to pass in recent times is that our bishops do not seem to be able to organise themselves around the Christian calendar. Neither of the two bishops elect that [...]