Sunday, 04 Dec-2011. Second Sunday of Advent ( 'The Anticipation')

In the appointed readings for today in the Lectionary is the story of John the Baptist. He is portrayed as a wee bitty mad usually. He wore animal skins and ate locusts and the sane bits were paving the way for someone after him (Jesus) and baptising Jesus in the River Jordan. I lean towards his 'wee bitty mad side', I must confess. Being a psychoanalyst I look to his parental upbringing yet we know little of his childhood at all. We know that his parents were probably devout Jews: Zacharia and Elizabeth and that Elizabeth was a cousin of the Blessed Virgin Mary. We recall Mary's trip to see her cousin Elizabeth who was also pregnant then with John and how she reacted to Mary's exciting news. I often wonder what Mary said to her cousin? However, I would love to have met the devout hermit John the Baptist for he may have been a 'wee bitty mad' but he baptised folk with the Holy Spirit so he was years ahead of his time and would have been seen then as a renegade in the Synagoge. He was inspired by the Holy Spirit and foretold the coming of Jesus, the Messiah and knew when he met Jesus, who he was. I would have loved to have sat with him on the banks of the River Jordan and chatted to him about his visionary experiences and of his fervent spiritual life. We give little attention to this holy man, yet we can glean so much by association, just the same as with Joseph, step-father of Jesus.

Tuesday 22 Nov-2011: St Cecelia, cAD 230.

Today in the Calendar is the Feast of Sta (St) Cecelia. She was tortured for days and then died, martyred following the fate of others in her family. In her death throes she sang to the Lord, for she had a fine voice. Her body was later exhumed and her hand still had the fingers making the sign for the Holy Trinity. A church was erected near her home in Trastevere in Rome - St Cecelia Travestere, Roma. She is the patron of musicians and church musicians in particular. An American Episcopalian wrote to me today and said that the Anglican choral tradition shows that the angels are really Anglican! Ha ha! I do like that, for without fine music and good singing, Christianity and the Anglican and Episcopalian traditions in music would be lost. We have much to owe to this extraordinary lady Cecelia. May perpetual light shine upon her.

Saturday 19/11/2011: Hilda of Whitby, Abbess, cAD680.

We had a Church Army Sister who became a Novice, who became a nun, who became a Deacon in The Church. She is still a nun of 'Hilda's Place' as we call the Order of the Holy Paraclete at Whitby. Hilda ran a disciplined, male and female monastery at Whitby and it was the venue for the famous Synod of Whitby when the RC sent an overload of delegates to outwit and out vote the more saintly Celtic bishops. So, the Synod adopted the Roman way of calculating Easter and recommended the RC dogma. Many of the Celtic bishops could not accept this and retired to Iona and later to Ireland. The legacy of that early Celtic Church in Scotland lives on, albeit with an emphasis on the inner, spiritual life rather than the politics of the day, in the Scottish Episcopal Church. At least the SEC claim this, but then they were also more influenced by the Orthodox tradition in the early days. The independent nature of the SEC is linked to the early Celtic tradition and is still so today, even though it adopted the Anglican tradition as well. Indeed, it developed the Anglican Communion as we know it today. It steers a middle way between that of the established, national Church of Scotland, and the RC Church. A Canon priest of the SEC chaired the latest Scots Declaration, in the form of the Scottish Constitutional Convention which led to the Scots voting for Devolution and the return of its parliament from London. The present debacle of the government at Holyrood pushing the Churches in Scotland over same-sex marriages has resulted in the SEC saying nothing. It would take a number of years for the General Synod to make any changes, if at all. In England it would be easier for the English Government at Westminster to simply pass a new law there and, as the C of E is the State Church, they would have to obey the law. At least that is the theory. It all hinges on semantics, or what you call a 'marriage'. A Civil Partnership is self explanatory. A Church Blessing is already in place and could be used. A differing use of the word 'marriage' as distinct from 'wedding' may be the answer. Either way, changes will come and the Church worldwide will reflect the change in some way. There will still be some who, like the spiritual Celtic bishops, will "retire to Iona or then to Ireland."