I suspect that we don’t have enough acrobats in church these days.
Take a look at this video from the Vatican showing us the way forward.
I think that you’ll find that there is something for everyone in this video.
Home is the wanderer
23 September 2010 By 5 Comments
Ah, Glasgow. Here I am again.
Today I arrived back in town after two weeks holiday. I’ve been to France, since you ask and I’ve had a lovely time. I was in the sud and so my body was warmed greatly by the sun.
I tend not to tan a great deal, because I slap on so 40 factor. However, I have many trophy mosquito bites to prove that I’ve been a long way from home. (I saw a rather scary scorpion whilst I was away, but fortunately, that did not bite me).
So, here I am. The city seems to have survived my absence so far as I can tell, though I’ve yet to open my work e-mail account, something which can wait until I’m in my office tomorrow morning. My thanks to all those who have taken on extra duties and provided cover whilst I was away.
The plan to have a visitor from overseas come to the city to provide a little clerical attention seeking whilst I was gone seems to have worked a treat. Did you notice him?
Having said all that…
17 September 2010 By 3 Comments
Now, having said all that I have said over the last couple of days, there are some things about the Pope that I admire. Not least amongst these is the fact that he goes out and says things that are worth engaging in. He is not frightened of using the office that he has inherited in order to engage fully with the world. Oh,I know that there will be a whole army (city?) of speech-writers and theologians and secretaries and what not having an input into what he says. However, it is clear that he has ideas of his own (which as we’ve seen, I don’t necessarily agree with him) and he gets them out there into the world. That I admire.
I remember that not long after I took up my current position, someone else who runs a Cathedral (one of the great Benedictine Houses of Prayer) said to me that it is important to remember that Deans and Provosts and the like are not significant people but rather symbolic people people because of their role. Its an important distinction to make and it helps to make it bearable when one says things that one feels have to be said but which will never make one popular.
I admire the Pope’s tenacity and ability to use the media more than I admire some of the messages that delivers. And as I saw pictures from Lambeth and Westminster of the rank on rank of bishops (all male, natch) I wondered why we hear so little from so many of them these days. So very many of them would be quoted and debated and engaged with if they only chose to use the symbolic significance with which people endow them.
One of the messages that the Pope has brought with him is that the churches should engage more in public life, whatever might be thought about that by those who proclaim no faith. As it happens, on that point, I agree with him. And I admire his own ability to walk what he talks.
Liturgy Online & the Papal Mass
17 September 2010 By 6 Comments
I’ve seen a bit of liturgy online this week. Last Sunday I was away from my own community and staying in a place where I had internet access but where there was a (locked) church but no service. What to do on Sunday in order to be part of the community? I settled on going to church online and set about looking for something to watch/attend. In the end, I was surprised how difficult it was to find something. However, I settled on a webcast from one of the bigger Cathedrals in the USA.
Now, I’ve been interested in this for a while, thinking that it might be the kind of thing that we should be doing. However, having experienced it as a user, I’m not so sure. Simply webcasting a big service does not make you feel involved really. Whenever we do radio services from St Mary’s, I’m struck by how much work needs to be done to present it in a slick enough way to make sense to someone who isn’t there. You have to work very hard to make that seem effortless. It may be that simply putting cameras out to webcast a big service is not really the best way of going about it.
I was involved in managing a theology degree programme for the Scottish Churches Open College a few years ago, before its sad and unnecessary demise. There, we used to talk about equidistant learning rather than distance learning. The idea was that whoever took part would receive the same experience wherever they were and that those who were physically most remote from the central organisation would not receive a second rate education but something that was as good and engaging as everyone else. I’ve a feeling that the same kind of thinking needs to be applied to the online liturgy experience. It needs to be part of the discussion about the two interrelated questions, What Shall we do about the Reserved Sacrament Abuses in Scotland? and How Do You Solve a Problem Like Argyll?
Anyway, in similar manner, (ie on my laptop, I got to see the Papal Mass yesterday. Its hard to do a service like that in the open air with 70,000 people. It was fascinating to compare it to the last time a Pope came to the UK. There was an extraordinary fervour that time, especially amongst the young people. Sally Magnusson kept telling us that Pope Benedict would be interrupted by “that famous Bellahouston roar” during the service. You can hear the response during the last visit in a youtube video this video at about 1 minute 5 seconds in though I think that might have been at Murrayfield, I’m not sure.
Well, the current Pope clearly had some liturgical ideas to stop that kind of vulgar response happening again! It did rather feel as though the great stone of liturgical reform had teetered and begun slowly and gently to roll back and safely cover the opening of the tomb once again.
What to say to the Pope
15 September 2010 By Leave a Comment
I’m not sure that folk in Scotland know quite what to say regarding the imminent arrival of the Holy Father. Bishop David has had a go, saying, “The Scottish Episcopal Church welcomes the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Scotland. His visit is a moment of great significance, not only for the clergy and people of the Roman Catholic Church but for all members of churches and faith communities in Scotland. Pope Benedict is a world-renowned religious figure. His visit will place questions of faith at the forefront of people’s thinking. Our prayer is that the mission of all of our churches will be strengthened by his visit.”
Hmm. I wonder how long that significance is going to last. Its not quite what folk from the SEC said that they would want to say to the Pope when Bishop David asked them on his blog.
There was rather a lot about gender in that exchange, which makes me think that the mural that is outside St John’s Episcopal Church in Edinburgh is rather on the button. (There is a page about their mural tradition here).
Fr Dougal doesn’t like it and I can kind of see that it is provocative and a rather rude greeting for the Holy Father when he passes by. However, it does rather seem to celebrate the fact that we do feel we can say what we like to religious authority, and that’s something else that Bishop David alludes to today.
I have a great admiration for the Roman Catholic church. So very much of what I believe is held in common with them. However, the things that put me off and mean that for the forseeable future it would not be possible for me to be that kind of a catholic are the same kinds of things that seem to encourage former (or resting) Roman Catholics to seek fellowship in Scottish Episcopal Congregations, including my own. Priestly celibacy, an unchallengable hierarchy, contraception, papal and concilliar infallability, abortion, gay issues, gender issues, contraception, condom issues in the face of AIDS and so on.
If anything, the attitude of Roman Catholics I meet on the ground seems to suggest that whilst we share similar prejudices and predilections locally, official pronouncements from the Roman hierarchy are getting more hard line.
Mind you, the same thing might be said of the Anglican Communion.
I don’t know what I want to say to the Pope. I do know that when he meets Rowan Williams over the next few days, I hope that there is someone whispering in the Archbishop of Canterbury’s ear, “…don’t you go getting any more silly ideas”.
Potpourri
10 November 2009 By 5 Comments
Well, the proposals have been published which will allow Anglican clergy to more easily defect to Rome. I’ve not heard of any Episcopal clergy in Scotland interested in taking up the offer. It is said that the Traditional Anglican Communion is joining up. But then I’ve never heard of them nor do I know anyone who knows anyone who claims to be a member.
Look out, you Presbyterian friends. There is a current attempt to get the Pope to come to Scotland next year. Don’t be surprised if he arrives announcing that the Wee Frees have been petitioning him for a church within a church and that the way is open for Personal Presbyteries within the RC church.
Pope on Friendship
23 January 2009 By 10 Comments
Last Sunday, when I was preaching unto the Nation on the wireless, one of the things that I was speaking about was that I believe that we are all called to friendship with God. I think that for me, friendship is fairly fundamental to my concept of God and also one of the basic motivators in how I think we should all rub along together.
A message from the Pope released recently contains this:
Friendship is a great human good, but it would be emptied of its ultimate value if it were to be understood as an end in itself. Friends should support and encourage each other in developing their gifts and talents and in putting them at the service of the human community.
When I first read the first sentence of that quote, I thought it was an utterly wicked thing to say. On reading it again, I’m not sure what I think of it. Maybe it is because I spent time last week at Aelred’s Rievaulx abbey on his feast day. I somehow think that friendship is an enormously valuable end in itself.
I don’t, of course, think that people should refrain from developing their gifts and talents or put themselves at the service of the human community. But, to make the concept of friendship subservient to altruism seems to me to be inadequate for all kinds of reasons that I can’t quite put my finger on right now.
Anyone else agree?
I agree with the Pope
6 December 2007 By 2 Comments
I find that I’m in agreement with the Pope. Well, in terms of the Advent Wreath Candle Controversy, anyway.
The Catholic News Service has highlighted the fact that the Papal Library has a wreath with red candles and has generously linked to the controversy on such topics on this blog.
Delighted to reciprocate.
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