Primus notes that there are few things that clergy care more about but few things than clergy understand less than Pension funds.
Of the Protection of Children and Vulnerable Adults
9 June 2011 By Leave a Comment
Lexie Plumtree addresses the synod. Synod is looking at pages 108 – 117 in agenda.
Twitter and the Church
18 June 2009 By 7 Comments
I remember a couple of year’s ago taking out my laptop at General Synod and starting to blog. “You’re doing what?” shrieked the incredulous crowd. Well, actually, the crowd in synod was not terribly interested though the crowd beyond the synod hall was fascinated. Actually it was Mother Ruth who shrieked in derision, though not for long.
Last year, blogging was much more mainstream at synod. We have internet access in the hall now and you don’t need to dash out to have coffee in a wifi enabled coffee show to post updates as I did the first year I did it.
This year it was the turn of twitter to fascinate the episcopalian technorati. A number of us were doing the one line updates directly from the synod floor. If you don’t know what twitter is, check out this article which will tell you more.
One of the things that the I and C Board had arranged was for Mother Dunblane to come and give a lunchtime seminar on twittering for beginners. It certainly had the desired effect, with a number of people, including the Bishop of Edinburgh having a go.
We had feedback via twitter during the synod from, amongst others, clergy who could not be at synod, someone in the Alban Institute in the states, someone in Kentucky (one of Glasgow and Galloway’s companion dioceses) and Dave Walker the Cartoon Blogger (who put it on the Church Times blog).
Meanwhile, out in a world made darker by repression and violence, twitter is allowing Iranians to tell the truth about what they are seeing on the streets.
Twitter is just fast and furious one-line blogging. And as Bishop Pierre has observed, it gives us revolutionary power.
It is a revolution inside the church, as well as outside, and you can find me revolting, twittering here.
Any ideas what we should use it for next?
Three Minutes to Synod on What is Mission for Scottish Episcopal Church
12 June 2009 By Leave a Comment
I was given 3 minutes to speak at Synod on the Misison of the SEC. This is what I said.
We need two strands of missionary activity – firstly building local congregations where people who would never expect to discover God can find that they are already welcome and are already loved and secondly, the surprising places where people don’t expect the church to go. That means, for example, being the church in the streets, in the wedding show, onto the broadcast studio, in the newspapers and the church that dares to make find anew its commitment to chaplaincy in higher education.
The news we have to share is that Jesus Christ, the incarnate son of God has come into this world and told us we are loved.
We share that news in many ways as people who sometimes differ.
There will be no peace in the church unless we learn to accept that we may disagree. There will be no peace in the church until we recognise that God is at work in those who see things differently. Indeed, there will be no peace in the church until we recognise that our mission is compromised by our infighting. We must find ways to accept and celebrate the good things that God is doing in and amongst people who are different from us.
I want to finish with three things that I think must characterise our mission. They are spirituality, the bible and love. Each of these is our heritage and each of these is given us as a free gift to share and pass on.
People are queuing up to pay good money to all kinds of teachers of meditation to discover the kind of practical spirituality that has already been given to us by God to share for free. Mission is teaching people to pray. Mission is creating worship that changes our hearts and souls.
The bible because again it is our heritage. Ours to read and ours to share. As someone who comes from an evangelical background, I’m often surprised by the lack of knowledge of the bible in our church. The Bible is our heritage and it is ours to share. And it is one of the most exciting parts of our calling to teach people to read the scriptures anew – reading them with passion and with the old fashioned orthodoxy of common sense. Mission is setting people free by giving them the tools and the skills to read the bible.
And love, because again, it is our heritage and it is what we have to share. It is our heritage because God loves us. Mission is simply finding ever more creative ways to share what it means to know the giddy joy of being utterly loved by God.
Pre-Synod Meeting
30 May 2008 By 15 Comments
Crossed to the dark south side of the city last night for our pre-synod meeting. This is where General Synod members from the Diocese of Glasgow and Galloway go through the synod agenda and mull it over before actually going to synod to do the business in a fortnight.
This year promises to be quite a technically complex synod. There are a lot of changes to canon law being considered and it seems that we are not all of one mind about them all.
There seemed to be quite a small turn-out last night, which is a bit worrying. I find it immensely helpful to hear what others from the diocese think before actually going to synod. There are always views that you don’t expect to hear and it is fascinating hearing people try to articulate why they do or do not agree about things.
This year there are several obvious points of interest. Canonically, we are looking again at congregational status. The idea is that Independent congregations would become incumbencies, those who are priests in charge would all become rectors and as if by magic sleight of hand, it will then be possible to link congregations together in a sensible way. I approve of the latter strongly, but find it hard to understand why all the changes are necessary.
There is a similar complex issue about the church trying to identify who its members are. This sounds easy, but the truth is, we have little idea. Not everyone who thinks of themselves as an Episcopalian appears on any church roll. Not everyone who appears on a church roll thinks of themselves as belonging to the Episcopal church. Trying to sort this out brings about new anomalies.
Then there is a debate to be had about Local Collaborative Ministry and related matters. My latest on this is that I believe in an increasingly participatory ministry but am not yet convinced by the Whole Total Full Body Ministry of All the Baptised People of God.
And finally, we are getting a real substantive vote on the Anglican Covenant proposals. Motion 3 this year is stated thus:
That this Synod affirm an ‘in principle’ commitment to the Covenant process at this time (without committing itself to the details of any text).
This is going to be difficult. I suspect that like a lot of people who will be at synod, I want to vote for the motion which follows this one, which commits us to engage in the processes of the Communion by discussion and debate. But do you think my arm is going in the air to vote in principle in favour of the Covenant process?
Not in my name, Bishop Rowan. Not in my name.
I wonder whether we might be able to find an amended text for Motion 3 that will keep the church together and which we could all vote for.
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