Thursday 16 December 2010.

They say that 'things are not what they were in our day' As I get older I believe that too; always hankering for the 'good old days' when we could lie in a field in the long grass and watch the Spitfires have a shoot out with the ME 109's high in the sky. When the battle was over and planes crashed, we would have a bet where the plane crashed and then rush to see if we were right. Then we would resume our positions in the long grass of the fields of the Wirral to listen to the skylarks high in the sky and again bet as to whom could spot the tiny birds before they too dropped back to the long grass. It all sounds so wonderful, but in reality it wasn't. We had rationing and there was scarce food in the shops. Many items like fresh fruit I did no see until after the war. As children we would have lookouts to spot the arrival of the bread van and rush to be first in the queue to buy our ration of bread. Many old folk could not even get to the queue and if they did they got no bread. Potatoes were in short supply and of course there were no such things as eggs, only re-constituted eggs in a square shape, like a blob of something. Many of our neighbours died in the Blitz when Germany bombed us daily and nightly for a year at the onset of WW2. I would say that morality has changed today, from what it was. It is now normal for couples to live together and not get married and the State approves of this. Homosexuality is at least talked about and 'gay' folk are accepted by and large. There were always 'gay' folk and the Church was a safe haven for them, so long as they used the word celibate and did not mention homosexuality. Now not all celibates are 'gay' and indeed many celibate folk do great service for us by concentrating on prayer and service to the rest of us. We now have many clergy who are openly 'gay' and who live with their partners. Many would say that this in contradiction of Biblical teaching. I don't accept that as being 'gay' is as old as the Bible and to be 'gay' is a private matter for the folk concerned. Who has the right to condemn others for their way of life? I pray that 'gay' folk will eventually not have to make a thing of it all and simply 'be' like the rest of us. However, it is up to us to be more accepting of each other. After all, it is the spiritual life which is the most important, and as I get older and older, I believe that more and more. 'Gay' is a word now taken over by some folk to describe themselves. 'Gay' to me is being happy and carefree. 'Gay' folk generally do not appear happy and carefree and I regret that they have taken over such a word, but then I have no right to the word myself, so why not I suppose. We should perhaps make a 'Bushism' ( i.e., just make up a word') for being happy and carefree. Any thoughts?

Psalm 30 ( Exaltabo te, Domine.)

St Machar, 6th century

It is Remembrance-tide. Yesterday crowds stood still in Glasgow city centre to observe the two minutes' silence at 11.00h on the 11th month. Many young people, notably Rangers' Football Club supporters held aloft banners deploring and condemning the war-mongering remembrances and distancing themselves from remembering those who fell in both world wars and subsequent conflicts. Is this a good sign? Does it mean that the young adults nowadays, for whom we fought, no longer wished to be fought for? Maybe so. At my great age though I still feel we should remember those in past eras who fought to defend us against oppression and so they helped keep us free from invasion and domination. Remembrance Day may well fade into oblivion in time. Today in the Church Calendar we remember Machar, about whom little is known. What information we have is found in the Aberdeen Breviary. The RC Church chose to keep information about him and the other Celtic 'saints' hidden as they were not of course RC. Machar is said to have been a companion of Columba when they arrived at Iona in their wee boat. It is also speculated that Machar may well have been another name for Mungo, patron of Glasgow. He did build a cathedral at Aberdeen, in the bend of the river Don, symbolic of a bishop's cromach (crozier). Indeed, St Machar's 'Cathedral' still stands, albeit it is not a cathedral, per se, but simply a parish church of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland.

Richard Hooker, priest & theologian, AD 1600

We are in the middle of All Saints' tide / All Souls and Remembrance Sunday will soon be here. Fr Richard Hooker was a pioneering Anglican theologian who came to the attention of Archbishop Thomas Cranmer and Queen Elizabeth I for his writings from a Catholic-Anglican standpoint. He married a puritan and later, as sub-dean at Salisbury Cathedral, came into conflict with other puritans. He stuck to his guns and wrote about 'Justification by Faith' and maintained that Christians would be saved by God and controversially he included Roman Catholics. He even said that it could also include others who were not Christian, i.e., by God's grace alone are we saved. The inclusion of RCs at that time caused a lot of trouble in Protestant England, which seems incredible nowadays. Richard Hooker, along with Cranmer and others, are seen as Fathers of Anglicanism as we know it today, following the Anglican Rule and maintaining a direct link with the Apostolic, Catholic Church, whilst at the same time remaining reformed from the RCs.

All Saints' Day

This painting by Fra Angelico is from the 5th century, depicting all the saints in heaven. I have always been somewhat confused about saints, They appear to be man-made mainly by the RC Church and the candidates have to go through a prolonged process towards Beatification and then sainthood. Then apparently, RCs can pray to them! Being in the reformed Catholic tradition that s a most strange and anti biblical viewpoint. Also, is it correct that only people the Vatican deems to be saints can be saints?
The hymn 'Forr All the Saints...' reminds me of the hordes of people I know who are saints, yet they are not recognised by hierarchies or even Churches. At my age I attend a lot of funerals and am often quite amazed at the history of someone whom I thought I had known well for years, and then learn what wonderful things they have done. The packed to overflowing church also tells us a lot about how well respected and adored the deceased was and is. I rather like the Episcopal and Anglican tradition of remembering local people as 'saints' in the Calendar.

SS Simon & Jude, Apostles.

Curiously, little is known about Simon and Jude. Indeed, even their names are derived from differing translations from Aramaic, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, to English. One theory is that they were always away as missionaries. Nonetheless their Christian echo is strong and remains with us to remember them on this day in our Calendar.

Forgiveness is always difficult for, on the one hand it seems easy to use the words 'I forgive' yet the feeling of hurt or anger remains. It behoves us all, me included, to plum the depths in prayer for God to forgive us, so that we might forgive others who have wronged us.

Is being a Christian of any use?

Well, the Chilean miners have all been rescued in a marathon rescue bid which frankly most of us thought was impossible initially.
To be entombed for such a long time will have some post-traumattic effects, of that I can be sure. What interests me is that these miners come from a Christian community and they have great faith. Everyone ( in the world ) has been praying to God for their safe rescue and now we can give thanks to God for this miracle. Their Christian faith gave them great inner strength, to sustain them in their wilderness. What happens I wonder, to folk without any faith?

Elizabth Fry, AD 1845

Today we remember with great interest and awe, the work of the Quaker Elizabeth Gurney, later to be Elizabeth Fry. She had been moved by the preaching of an American Quaker and as a result she devoted her life to working with the poor and disaffected. She campaigned for the prison reforms which did indeed follow. She died in 1845, in what I term the modern era, but her work is still with us through modern equivalents of prison reform. She followed in the steps of Jesus as one of his followers, doing His bidding and was therefore a modern 'fisher of men'.

Back home at St Ninian's the Vestry have now appointed a new Rector. He is the Revd Simon Tibbs, Assistant Priest at Old St Paul's Scottish Episcopal Church, Edinburgh ( dubbed the 'bells & smells' church in the SEC). According to Canon 4 of the Code of Canons he will have to give three months' notice to Fr Paton, his Rector so we assume that he will be instituted around Christmas to Epiphany - the latter probably. It is all exciting as we face a new phase in the life of St Ninian's.

The above photo of Fr Simon Tibbs was taken at his ordination to the priesthood, along with his parents.

10/10/2010: 19th Sunday after Trinity.

The OT lesson appointed for today's Sung Eucharist was from 2 Kings 5. 1-3, 7-15. King Naaman did not believe that the great God could cure him without a great deal of fuss and bother. Eventually he was cured of a skin disorder simply due to his simple faith in the end. Tomorrow we celebrate the Feast of St Kenneth. An Irish saint honoured by the Scottish Church as, like many Irish missionaries he spent much time here in Scotland. He founded a community at St Andrews and was Abbot. He moved to Wales and then to Iona to join the Community of Columba and travelled to visit the King of Picts at Inverness with Columba. Kenneth is reputed to have quelled the king's hand as he drew his sword to smite them, and the hand withered. He just got on with the job and collaborated with others to spread the word of God and demonstrate the Holy Spirit at work.

I was saddened to read of the demise of Fr Charles, Arnold Simister, one time Rector of Kirkudbright and Gatehouse of Fleet for over 20 years. He never was a man to stand out; never said much at Synod, but went about his priestly role with a quiet dedication. He demonstrated Christ's quiet love and the presence of the Holy Spirit in a quiet and most loving way. Indeed, he was well loved by all who knew him. No fuss, he just got on with his priestly job. He was at St Nazaire during the War where, as a Royal Marine Commando he was nearly bayonetted by the SS who were going amongst the British troops bayonetting the wounded. He 'played dead' and they by-passed him. He prayed to God that if God spared him then he would devote the rest of his life to His service, and he did. I feel fir him then and what he endured, for nearby my father was buried alive by the Germans, only to be dug out by the Free French resistance who were shocked to find that my father wore the unifom of a Birkenhead Corporation Bus Driver, as the Army had no uniforms to go around at the onset of the war and at Dunkirk. A Maquis tailor made him a British Army uniform and he had to give a solemn oath never to divulge which farms he was hidden in for fear of German sympathasisers amongst the French who would have the farmers shot. The Maquis got him back across the Channel eventually where he was "de-briefed" by the Intelligence Corps, which included a French Army Officer. My father rembered his vow and refused to speak for fear that the French Officer was a German collaborator, so they sent my father to a military psychiatric hospital as they thought he must be mad, which was far from the truth. Until he died he never told any of us, except to give thanks to God for 'Maman', whoever that was.

Saturday 25 Sept-2010: Finnbarrus, ADc610

When in Fowey, Cornwall, I was intrigued to see that the C of E Parish church there was St Finnbarrus' Church. I know Finbar from the Isle of Barra where he preached. He trained for the priesthood in Connaught where he was born and raised. Indeed, the Community he formed there is now the City of Cork. He is buried in the Anglican Cathedral of St Finnbarrus, Cork. But why Fowey - in Cornwall, of all places? I spoke to the flower ladies, preparing flowers for the next day services. Apparently, like all priests, he went on an Ad Limina visit to the Vatican to see the Pope and, like all travellers of those days, kept to the coastal routes so, he travelled from Barra, where he has a church and statue, via the west English coast, Fowey to France and thence to Rome.
The Parish Church, Fowey, was restored ion 1456 and named after this journeying missionary - Finnbar. I like the whimsy that he had a Scots, Hebridean accent and rolled his 'r's' - 'Finnbarrr', so they called it Finnbarrus' Church! I suspect though, that it is to do with the Latin form of his name. He was named in Erse as Fionn Bharr - white haired, because of the light colour of his hair. It is extraordinary, after all these years that he still has influence over our religious lives. There is a dediation also to him at the Scottish Episcopal Church in Dornoch.

The Pope's recent visit to the UK, and in particular to Glasgow and Edinburgh has received a mixed Press. The media, particularly the BBC over-rode services and the Pope speaking, to reel off the catastrophe of evil conducted by his priests and religious against children worldwide. Overall though, for RCs anyway, it was a boost to them, I feel sure. Pope Benedict came across as human and sensitive, with a sense of humour and an acute mind, in contrast to what our gutter Press and the RC Church usually put out, noyably from the Vatican, of a remote, distant, formal and dogmatic man with whom you cannot converse about anything. I am unsure that for us Episcopalians in SCotland and for Anglicans in England, that it will have any change for the future. The Pope continues to view all Christians as heretics and refuses Holy Communion to all, except RCs. We shall see, as they say.

Feast of Adomnan, AD. 704.

Adomnan, 9th Abbot of Iona.

The readings appointed for today's Holy Eucharist affirm whom we are as 'ministers who go out...', i.e., so that unbelievers will know both who we are, what we are about, and we point them towards God. The readings also show that if we are repentent of our sins and make amends, we are forgiven. So we, can forgive others too.

Adomnan ( or Adamnan) was 9th Abbot of the Abbey Church of Iona, following on from Columba who was also Abbot in the past. Adomnan was also a biographer of Calum Cille (Columba) and the book is worth reading, although it is perhaps difficult to connect with the mind-set of the days in the AD 700's. It is rather like reading the stories of the Desert Fathers and how they emphasised things and events which today are just commonplace and not a bother. Nonetheless, the Book on the life of Columba is worth a read.

The interregnum at St Ninian's Scottish Episcopal Church is dragging on, although it must be said that the Vestry are interviewing candidates and they are quite correctly taking their time to get a 'good-enough Rector' for us. I am sure that they will do their very best for us. Having been a Secretary to the Vestry of my previous church I know how anguished it can all get - to appoint the right person for the job. The interregnum, as for all charges, makes the congregation sit up and take notice, paying particular attention to the continuance of the inner, spiritual life of St Ninian's.

Monday 14 June 2010: Bishop Basil of Caesaria AD379, Gregory of Nazianzus AD 390 & Gregory of Nyassa, AD 394.

The Scottish Episcopal Church has affinity with the Eastern Orthodox Churches and includes many of their saints in the Church Calendar of the SEC. The link seems to stem from Columcille, Abbot of Iona who looked to the eastern Church for wisdom and practise.

Bishop Basil was bishop of Caesaria in Asia Minor, now modern day Turkey. He strongly supported the use of the Nicene Creed. His brother was Gregory of Nyassa, and together, the three of them became known as the Cappodocian Fathers, as they lived in Cappodocia. Basil of Caesaria, also known as Basil the Great, was a stickler for the Rule in monastic life and encouraged its use amongst the Religious. He was also a great supporter of the poor and underprivileged. Gregory of Nazianzus was Archbishop of Constantinople and a noted theologian of his day; an accomplished speaker of the patristic age. He is attributed with being an influence on the development of the Church of Byzantium. The three are known today as Teachers of the Faith in the Church.

Sitting in church today I noticed some of the wall plaques which one passes regularly and hardly reads. Above are the Stations of the Cross, which take precedence of one's attention on the walls. One of the plaques was of a former church member, a young man of 19 yrs of age who was killed in France on his third day there during WW1. How sad, but what a sacrifice, and for what?
He was the sacrificial lamb of his young day. His life had only just begun. What were his hopes and aspirations? He sat in the pews as I do today, but full of youthful hope, which was dashed. Although I do not know him, his name springs out at me. I pray for his soul that it may have light eternal with God. He was the innocent abroad, yet to me he has left a message as strong as perhaps the Cappodocian Fathers, and it is +Desmond Tutu's message: 'Love is greater than hate'.

Monday 14 June 2010: Bishop Basil of Caesaria