You are here: Home / Archives for st silas

The Grand Opening of St Silas Hall

9 May 2011 By 3 Comments

Round to St Silas church, round the corner from St Mary’s yesterday for the grand opening of their grand new hall. They’ve built a three storey large space will anciliary rooms around it. It is a very impressive achivement and they are to be congratulated for all they have achieved.

Fr David was sporting a perky kilt, and seemed to be carrying a faint glow of happiness that the project was coming to an end, which was a joy to share. Large building projects are incredibly hard work and it must be wonderful for them all round there to see this one reaching its conclusion.

I don’t understand why there are not building regulations which prevent architects from building a building where you cannot change the lights without scaffolding, but presumably people think that would be the nanny state talking.

It was good to see Fr Mike Parker, home from Egypt for a week. He’s now leading the English speaking congregation at the Cathedral in Cairo. It was absolutely fascinating to hear from him and Helen about what its been like living in Egypt during the revolution.

I have only one problem really with the new building at St Silas. It is that it has caused me to sin. For the ten commandments are very clear, are they not:
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s toilets.

However, covet I’m afraid I did.

Filed Under: Blog
Tagged With: , , , ,
3 Comments

Cute Guys at St Silas

22 August 2008 By 1 Comment

The mystery worshipper has been to St Silas. Cute guys there, apparently.

Read it all.

Looks like it was the same reviewer who came to St Mary’s and reviewed us at Pentecost.

Filed Under: Blog
Tagged With:
1 Comment

Gibson St Gala

22 June 2008 By Leave a Comment

Just back from St Silas Church. I’d been at the the Gibson St Gala. It is a great little street festival – much more fun, I think than the big parade which took place on Byers Rd last week. St Silas have a fantastic position for this one and were making the most of it with massage, cafe and lots of activities.

Met up with Nick and with Beat Attitude. I’d met Nick before, but not Beat. Isn’t blogging great? You find yourself in a place and feel you already know people well enough to being an interesting conversation. This afternoon we were talking about all the things that matter. Pews vs Chairs, Heaven vs Hell, Salvation and, well, you know, the usual topic.

I was really impressed with the St Silas operation this afternoon. Hospitality so slick that it felt relaxed and easy and welcoming.

The stuff in the comments on the blog this week has been so interesting, it made me wonder whether this was the time to get folk together from different perspectives to talk. Once upon a time I would have been wanting to get a study group organised. But maybe it is just happening anyway.

It is good to talk.

Now, a quick look at tonight’s music and off to choir practice.

More on this morning’s service later. These festival services are certainly bringing in the crowds.

I think I managed to record the sermon, so will post it either later or tomorrow when the music stops.

Filed Under: Blog
Tagged With: ,
Leave a Comment

Introducing Nick Cox

27 March 2008 By 3 Comments

I meant to say last week that I had a very pleasant hour and a half with Nick Cox. He is the lay rep at St Silas, our nearest (well, geographically!) Episcopal neighbours. We had a good conversation about things that matter.

Anyway, he keeps a blog which can be found here: www.learningtowalk.blogs.com/

Go check him out. Be nice to him. He plays rugby.

Filed Under: Blog
Tagged With:
3 Comments

Divine Providence

11 January 2008 By 5 Comments

I see that Aberdeen University is having a conference on Divine Providence. The aim seems to be to revive it.

At least that shows an acknowledgement that belief in it is, (thank God), dying at the moment.

Divine Providence is a doctrine that most Christians think they are supposed to agree with. The idea is that God is in control of human experience in some way. Wikipedia defines it thus: “Divine Providence is the sovereignty, superintendence, or agency of God over events in people’s lives and throughout history.”

It makes no sense to me in most of the ways in which people try to explain it. It seems to me very much as though God is not in control of the nations, natural events and individuals in the world. The only explanation of Divine Providence that I’ve been unable to dismiss in recent years is that in Jung and the Christian Way by Christopher Bryant. His argument is that if God is within us, then so is Providence.

Fr Gadgetvicar’s sign blew over the other day – see his post and picture. Classical belief in Divine Providence suggests that this is either an act of Divine Disapproval (surely not) or that it is God telling St Silas that they need a new sign in order to convert more people.

I think it was a gust of wind myself.

Filed Under: Blog
Tagged With: , ,
5 Comments

Conscience and Compromise

13 October 2007 By 2 Comments

Fr Gadgetvicar has been reading Patricia Meldrum’s book about Evangelicals of yore. So have I. This is the review of the book that was published in this month’s inspires.

Conscience and Compromise – Forgotten Evangelicals of Nineteenth-century Scotland

Patricia Meldrum (Paternoster Press – £29.99)

As the oft repeated quotation says, those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it. This book from Patricia Meldrum is a most important contribution to Anglican-Episcopal history in Scotland at this time. Dr Meldrum presents in these pages a remembrance of a small but particular grouping of nineteenth century Scottish Christians, those who adhered to Episcopacy but who identified with an Evangelical consciousness.

This is an area of Scottish Church history which has been hitherto under-explored and this volume, which is derived from the author’s PhD thesis, is by far the most comprehensive treatment of the Evangelical nineteenth century cause that will be found.

Two major disputes characterise the experience of Evangelical Episcopalians in Scotland in the mid-nineteenth century. The first was over the doctrine of conversion; the second was over doctrinal scruples concerning the Scottish Communion office. It was largely disagreements over the acceptability of this liturgy that prompted many who had once been loyal to the Scottish Episcopal Church to leave and become aligned with Henry Drummond of St Thomas’s, Edinburgh who had already left over disputes about the former. The small number of English Episcopal congregations which banded together are now largely forgotten, though the influence of those disputes lingers into modern times. High Church people and Evangelical Episcopalians still fight their disputes over particular words, sentences or even the grammar of the liturgy of the church.

The truth is, many of the doctrinal debates which caused churches to secede and which prompted bold declarations of independence from individual ministers are difficult for us to understand. That Dr Meldrum explains them so well should not distract the reader from the fact that the much of the doctrinal disputation seems irrelevant and foolish just over a century and a half later.

At a time such as this, it is important to mark well that the Evangelicals who are recalled so comprehensively here are remembered for their inability to remain in fellowship with those with whom they had doctrinal disputes. Those doctrinal disputes must have seemed to be of vital importance in their day. How sad that they are not remembered for their zeal, their passion for the gospel, their goodwill and for their love for others.

This is a most important piece of historical research. One cannot understand either nineteenth century Episcopal sensibilities or the modern Scottish Episcopal Church without it.

Highly recommended.

Filed Under: Book Review
Tagged With: , , ,
2 Comments

Beginning a conversation

23 August 2007 By 6 Comments

Yesterday, I entered the 20th century. I’ve long since embraced 21st century geekery with the blog, facebook, flickr, pvr etc. However, one piece of last-century technology which I have quite firmly, and uncharacteristically eschewed has been the mobile phone. Although I have carried a mobile for a long time, it has been on a very limited and very old contract and I basically used it only as a diary and not for calls or messages. In my head, I’d rather deal with someone in person, by which I mean online, than on the ‘phone.

However, the time has come. I can’t do my job without being better connected than I am, so several happy hours have been spent this week visiting the mobile ‘phone shops and trying to talk about what I need.

The deal has been done. I now have a ‘phone that I can skype from, use msn messenger from (why?) and more crucially port my landline number to. This means I can choose to answer my phone at home, at the office, on the mobile, or divert it to voicemail. (I remember the days when it was said that every problem in computing was basically a database problem. Now you could say that every problem, computing or otherwise is a protocol issue).

Anyway, the point is this, the phone company that I signed up with was the only one who had a representative who asked me what I really needed. Furthermore, when I told him I wanted to be able to port my landline number, he said, “I don’t understand that. Hmm, tell me about it.” Everyone else wanted to sell me something off the shelf that did lots of flashy things but not what I needed.

The person who eventually got the sale did so by beginning a conversation.

Sometimes a conversation seems important but almost impossible. Take the sermon that was preached at my neighbouring Episcopal church on Sunday morning. Wonderful melancholy rhetoric drawn out of some outrageously ignorant theology. But then I would say that, wouldn’t I? You know what I think of that kind of stuff already. But does that get any of us anywhere?

I’ve a lot of presumptions about why this particular preacher was preaching that kind of thing, and apparently being taken seriously by a congregation of lots of intelligent young Scots professionals as he elegantly bashed the Enlightenment firmly on the nose. But do I really understand it? More to the point, does the preacher in question, the bishop of a Nigerian diocese understand me? Can he know what experience I have of a God who is utterly life changing? I wish that were the start of a conversation. However, given than people like me seemed to be being characterised by the preacher as being inspired by Satan, it seems unlikely that the necessary conversation can even start.

I’m starting to realised that the real ecumenical conversations that matter most at the moment are those within denominations not between them.

All kinds of conversations that are needed, are yet to begin.

Filed Under: Blog
Tagged With: , ,
6 Comments