Thursday 7 May 2015

Barra bound

We are now looking forward to spending three Sundays on the island of Barra, providing ministry to the Church of Scotland as we did last year. This year we will be joined by our village folk group, Gegenforde, who are looking forward to playing and enjoying a holiday.

Last year I wrote a daily blog which people seemed to enjoy and I will do the same this year but with a difference. The blog will be a weekly one, published on Saturdays, and will continue on our return. This year marks the 34th year since my ordination and I was 34 when I was ordained. A couple of weeks ago I spoke to our breakfast club about my life and ministry but soon realised there was too little time to say all that I wanted. In particular, I wanted to say more about my faith journey, so, in order to reflect on that, I will use the blog. I hope you mighty enjoy some of it, but accept that much of it may be quite boring!

I will look back over those 34 years and try and piece together what has changed in my theological views and how these relate to the wider field of theology. I want to take a dispassionate look at scripture (if that is possible), and think about why so few people, including regular churchgoers, rarely read the bible, and probably can't remember Sunday's readings by the time they have eaten Sunday lunch. I shall be making good use of 3 books, 'Things hidden: Scripture as Spirituality' by Richard Rohr, published in 2010, 'The Bible' by Karen Armstrong, published in 2007 and 'The Book of the people of God',  by A N Wilson, published on the 7th May this year.

Religious tradition has also played an important part in my life and I will be reflecting on how that helps or hinders church growth, including the possibility that there are now so many Christian denominations that the message is being diluted.

In order to keep some focus I will try and use one one of the Sunday lectionary readings as a starting point and the first blog will be on the 17th May, Ascension Sunday. That's a challenging theological perspective to begin with.

35 years as a priest

On Sunday the 1st October I celebrated the 35th anniversary of my ordination as a priest. I also decided that was a good pointmot step do...