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.