Thursday, 16 December 2010
Thursday 16 December 2010.
Psalm 30 ( Exaltabo te, Domine.)
Friday, 12 November 2010
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.
Wednesday, 3 November 2010
Richard Hooker, priest & theologian, AD 1600
Monday, 1 November 2010
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.
Thursday, 28 October 2010
SS Simon & Jude, Apostles.
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.
Thursday, 14 October 2010
Is being a Christian of any use?
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?
Tuesday, 12 October 2010
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.
Sunday, 10 October 2010
10/10/2010: 19th Sunday after Trinity.
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 September 2010
Saturday 25 Sept-2010: Finnbarrus, ADc610
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.
Thursday, 23 September 2010
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
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'.