O God our deliverer,
you cast down the mighty,
and lift up those of no account:
as Elizabeth and Mary embraced
with songs of liberation,
so may we also be pregnant with your Spirit,
and affirm one another in hope for the world,
through Jesus Christ. Amen.

(from All Desires Known by Janet Morley)

And we pray for fellow blogger, Fr Kelvin, who will be installed as Provost of St Mary's Cathedral in Glasgow tonight. Let's hope we get some good Marian hymns, lots of incense and even more lacy cottas.

Flocks of them, there were. Flocks of them. Flocks of seagulls, that is, not people flocking in to St Mark's Open Week. There we were with balloons festooning the scaffolding and the front gate, a nice array of second hand books, a jolly well stocked Fair Trade stall, sparkly vestments and old ledgers and church plans... and one soul came in. We resisted pouncing upon him but after a quick glance at the books, and a wee genuflection at the RS he shot off into the rain before we had a chance to be all Christian like and love him up.

I came home exhausted and had a quick turn around before heading off for a Pre Synod meeting. No danger of falling asleep during that!

I have just finished reading The First Casualty by Ben Elton. I haven't read any of his books before and I must confess that when i started I didn't think it was particularly well written. But that seemed to change as it went on - or maybe I just got used to it. The only reason I had bought it is that I am interested in the First World War, that being it's subject.

However, it turned out to be a good read from a novel's point of view and a good commentary on the horror of war.

Family service today and we tried a new hymn - A wiggly waggly worm. It's been a while since I saw so many people smiling in church but the grown ups loved it. I decided not to preach on the gospel of the day. Well, if I was struggling to make sense of it I don't imagine the children would be any clearer. So we did the Ascension instead. Of course children cope with that much better than we adults.

Then it was a mad dash to North Berwick to a surprise party for a certain priest who was celebrating 50 years of priesting. It was great to see so many familiar faces and as ever there was a great spread. I think Fr A was delighted to see us all. So much so, that his teeth almost fell out!

Open week at church coming up, so if you are in the Portobello area why not pop in to see the artifacts. Gorgeous vestments, wonderful silver, interesting graveyard plans and a Fair Trade stall. What more could you ask?

I wonder where I've been today.
I wonder what I learned today.
I wonder whether I will remember it all tomorrow.
I wonder.

Today I was at Old St Paul's for a workshop on Godly Play. Godly Play was developed by Jerome Berryman, a preist in ECUSA over 30 years ago. It is a form of spiritual development for children - but I enjoyed it too. It supports, challenges, nourishes and guides children's spiritual journey. It assumes that children have some experience of the mystery of the presence of God in their lives but that they often lack the language, permission and understanding to express that in our culture. It enables us to enter into parables, silence, sacred stories and sacred liturgy in order to discover God, ourselves and one another.

So there you have it. Well, no you don't actually. Words really don't do it justice. I loved it and could see its value in our church. So if you ever get a chance to go to a Godly Play workshop, I'd leap at the chance, if I were you.

And you might meet another blogger there too!

But now I have to write a boring sermon for our Family service tomorrow morning. And after seeing Godly Play I really wish I had Carrie Upton coming to do it instead.

Happy Ascension Day! 40 days of unremitting joy are coming to an end. Now the work begins...

O God,
you withdraw from our sight
that you may be known by our love:
help us to enter the cloud
where you are hidden,
and surrender all our certainty
to the darkness of faith
in Jesus Christ. Amen.

(by Janet Morley, in All Desires Known)

I do like Dave Walker's cartoons in the Church Times. Today I found his blog and there is a v funny one on it.
http://www.cartoonchurch.com/blog/

It's my favourite saint's day today. Good old St Rita, patron saint of hopeless cases, the helpless, and battered women. St Rita was born near Cascia in Italy around 1380. After tragically losing her husband and two sons (and therein lies a tale which I am happy to provide if necessary) she entered the Augustinian convent in Cascia. Deeply devoted to the memory of Christ's suffering and death for us, she bore on her forehead for the past 15 years of her life the mark of a thorn from our Lord's passion. She died on 22 May 1457 and didn't get canonised until 1900 through the efforts of many Italian women who had a great devotion to her cause.

Her story is best told, though, face to face over a glass of Frascati.

Loving God, through the intercession of St Rita, help us to know the value of patience in life. Make us grow strong in the spirit of charity and forgiveness. Hear our prayers for all in need: for peace in our lives and in the world. May the example of St Rita inspire in many hearts today a desire to dedicate their lives to God in the religious life and the priesthood. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

It really is not fair.

Imagine the scene, dear reader...

You have a busy morning dealing with mail, finishing the pew sheets and showering and the usual.
You dash down to church to attend the Christian Aid coffee morning, do some photocopying of pew sheets, look over some plans of the graveyard which we hope to display on our Open Week (more of that later), locate and mend the fuse that had plunged half the church into darkness, chat to some visitors and manage to force down some nibbly cakes purely to affirm the laity who baked them.
You rush home to leave the car and get a bus into town - yes, a bus! - to meet a gorgeous MSP for lunch to discuss the church, the world, CMD 1-3 and other things, only having one glass of vino in anticipation of...
Back home to write a sermon - yet again on the topic of love - and finish off some more things for tomorrow.
You have a long phone call with the Provost-in-waiting of Glasgow Cathedral exchanging news and stuff.

Then you finally sit down to watch (a well deserved) Casualty. Guess what? It is not on tonight. I am so miffed. Not even the handbag of glory can cheer me up.

(By the way, I have not used the handbag of glory yet because it has an open top and it has been raining ever since. Maybe tomorrow.)

I saw it, dear reader, and I fell for its charms. It peeked out behind the others, sparkling in the corner, and I knew I had to have it. It is glorious in its royal purpleness - not too big and not too small. I even stood in the longest queue ever, sweating profusely in the heat, and now it is mine. All mine.

It is the most beautiful purple raffia basket bag I have ever seen. It even has sparkly sequins on it. It truly is divine.

Here it is (by request):

Drove down to Eyemouth yesterday evening for a CMD 1-3 session. (Continuing Ministerial Development, that is.) Two of my little CMD flock are from St Ebba's Eyemouth and, understandably, get fed up always having to come to Edinburgh for meetings. So last night we took it to them. Sadly one was ill and the other was playing golf so we had to spend 40 minutes standing outside the rectory on a rather blustery evening while we wondered what to do. Luckily I had a phone number to hand and we managed to find a lovely man who let us in where we fed and watered ourselves until a rather apologetic part-time golfer turned up.

After our session on Ministry to Children, led ably by our latest Canon, we had a wee look round the church. St Ebba's is a lovely wee church looking out over the harbour. J had a go on the organ. I think he is trying to get into the Guiness Book of Records for playing the organ in every Piskie church.

I did note one curious thing. On top of the font there were two birds. They looked very like seagulls to me. Why should it be a dove? A seagull or two is fine. Right?

Congratulations Bishop Idris on being elected (by lots) to the Primacy. Commiserations to Bishop Brian who must have got the short straw.

Jings, crivens and help ma boab. What a to do there is about the new Da Vinci Code movie. Every newspaper, radio and tv programme seems to be mulling it over. The Roman Catholic Church is supposed to be up in arms about it. All taking it so seriously and as far as I can see just giving the film even more publicity. Echoes of Jerry Springer the Opera, methinks.

Took home communion to a dear old lady this morning and she said she'd enjoyed the book greatly. What a cracking read it was, she said. And what a load of nonsense has been written since. After all, she said, it's just a novel. Fiction.

But I suppose we should be grateful that it's got the great unwashed talking about religion. And little Rosslyn Chapel could be paying all our Quota soon.

7.6!! I think the ideal level should be 4 now, so I am a little high. However, when the doc put my details in to the computer it said that I only had a 20% chance of having a heart attack in the next 10 years so I don't need to take any medication yet. It would seem the the risk level is 40%. As I am a smoker I think the doc was a little surprised that the computer hadn't made me a higher risk, but it's all because I have such good blood pressure. So hurrah! I say. And back to the toasted tea cakes.

Mind you, my thyroid level was not so hot so my thyroxine has been increased. But that's cool.

Son #1 has the last of his exams tomorrow - English Lit 1. He has been staying all weekend so that he could revise in peace and use my computer. This also means that I have also had to enter into discussions about the Reformation, Paradise Lost, hierarchy in the Church and other such topics.

It also means that I have been permanently tidying up. And buying more food. And more. And sharing a bathroom (a vile yellow bathroom, no less) is not fun when you share a house with two men. Roll on tomorrow, I say.

Good old Belkin. You may remember that we were having difficulty with our wireless router which kept disconnecting from the internet. I phoned a nice lady in India who tried to help by telling me to poke a paperclip into the back of the machine to reset it. Yes really! We did that with a rather lovely green paper clip. But I think we were a little too vigorous and some of the green coating came off the paper clip and disappeared into the bowels of the machine, never to be seen again.

Then I tried the online approach and had a 'conversation' with someone called Kenneth who gave me a list of instructions which would have required a degree in computer science at the very least. I am afraid we gave up and Son #2 upstairs has been sulking ever since having no internet connection.

But today an replacement unit arrived from Belkin. And it is a superior model too. We are now up and running and Son #2 is happy once more. And if he is happy...

Now, doesn't that restore your faith? It did mine.

Just finished reading Mole Under the Fence (Conversations with Roland Walls) by Ron Ferguson with Mark Chater (ISBN 0-71520832-2 - I think but the print is really very small!)

I first heard about Roland Walls about 15 years ago when Richard Holloway spoke about him and the Community of the Transfiguration out at Roslin. Since then his name crops up from time to time and he seems to serve as a sort of Spiritual Director for many folk in our wee church. Roland came from the Church of England to serve as Priest at Rosslyn Chapel. But after a while he felt moved to give up living in the rectory and set up home in a dilapidated old miner's hut in Roslin. The community which he formed was to be ecumenical and took vows of poverty and prayer and is still in existence today.

Some years ago Roland converted to the Roman Catholic church in an effort to be more 'ecumenical' but also aware of the hurt that this would cause living in a community in which the sacraments are vital. I then met him one Good Friday when I was working as a pastoral assistant at St Barnabas in Moredun. In that area the churches have a good ecumenical relationship but had noticed that once it came to Good Friday all the churches went their own way. Roland's vision led him to ask the RC Bishop if they could do away with the Eucharist normally offered on that day and hold a service of the Veneration of the Cross which all could attend. The Bishop agreed and I was at the first service along with others from the local churches. This service has since grown and most of the Presbyterian churches now take part too. It was very moving and Roland was so pleased that his vision was acted out on such an important day.

This book is taken from conversations which took place with Ron Ferguson. Roland has often been asked to write a book but knows that his strength lies in the spoken word and this certainly comes across in this book. It is funny and shocking and thought provoking - a book you should read with a pencil in your hand so that you can jot down some incredible thoughts and phrases. Roland is a unique man and there aren't enough of his kind in the Church.

'The priesthood is nothing less than the consecration of your sheer, vulnerable and wounded humanity, because it's in that way that Christ became the High Priest of our profession.'

by Kenneth Carey, past Bishop of Edinburgh
quoted in Mole Under the Fence by Roland Walls

It would appear that we are Primus-less. The result of the vote should have been announced today but apparantly they are having a wee think about it and will get back to us on the 18th. The two contenders are Bishop Brian and Bishop Idris. Who would you vote for?

Oh dear! I have been summoned to the doctor now that the results of my cholestoral (?sp) are in. Not sounding good. So better get as many toasted teacakes down my throat while I still can.

Thank you for asking.

I am listening to Ikon by The Sixteen and jolly good it is too. Nice wee mix of Tavener, MacMillan, Rachmaninov and others.

I am also listening to The Best of Scott Walker and the Walker Brothers. Oh how I love Jackie. What a voice.

Now nobody can say that I don't have an eclectic taste in music.

I couldn't let this Feast go by without a mention. I once read a great book about Julian called Julian's Cell by Ralph Milton which was a sort of fictionalised version of her story and a great read.

I have visited her Shrine in Norwich with some friends and as we entered her cell there was a woman kneeling in prayer on the floor. She had the most wonderful expression on her face as she did so - a look of complete joy and abandonment. So much so, that it has stayed with me for years. We never spoke so I can't say what caused it but can only assume that it was prayer wot done it!

So grab hold of your hazel nuts and listen to what Jules had to say:

'When the soul is tempest tossed, troubled and cut off by worries, then is the time to pray, so as to make the soul willing and responsive towards God. But there is no kind of prayer that can make God more responsive to the soul, for God is always constant in love. And so I saw that, whenever we feel the need to pray, our good Lord follows us, helping our desire.'
(Showing 14)

Mondays are usually my study days. Not days when I do some great theological study - oh no! Study days are the days I spend in my study trying to empty my In Tray before it topples over, catch up on emails, correspondence, phone calls, paying bills, updating diaries and all other admin. Mondays can be very satisfying if you manage to get through all the tasks and clear the decks. Or they can be deeply frustrating. Usually the latter.

So far today I have spoken to 2 dear friends from my old flock in Bathgate, re-addressed a pile of mail sent here for the previous rector, opened my own mail and dealt with it immediately (a rare occurence), done a washing and hung it up to dry, and ordered some toner for my printer which is doubling as a photocopier just now because the church one is out of action. About to start on the In-tray (heart sinks...) But I shall feel so good at the end of it. And I must go and choose some tiles for the new bathroom so we can get a quote.

Talking of bathrooms... P and I went to Plumbzone yesterday after church to choose a new loo and wash hand basin. I had to try them all out of course. It did feel weird sitting on a toilet in full view of all the other customers while fully dressed in clericals. Some were very trendy looking but I wouldn't recommend a square toilet unless you have a square shaped bum. I don't. We also could only find one toilet with a flush handle as opposed to a push button. I had been told by Dynorod that you should never buy a push button but I'm afraid we had no choice. All I wanted was a white toilet that gives a good flush and is comfy to sit on. Not much to ask.

Does anyone know where my sunglasses are?

An intellectual is someone who, when left alone in a room with a woolly tea cosy, resists the urge to put it on his head.

Saying quoted in a letter to The Times.

Had Christmas lunch today with the Portobello Ministers Fraternal. Suggested they change their name but nobody could think of an alternative. Well one person did suggest Fellowship until I pointed out that Fellows indicated men too. And the reason for it being their Christmas lunch was that they were all too busy at Christmas to have one. So we sat in a nice wee restaurant on the Prom looking out to beautiful blue skies and sea wearing party hats and pulling crackers.

Anyway, they all seemed a nice bunch. In fact they were positively liberated compared to some I've known.

Had to go for a blood test today (thyroid and cholestorol - oh dear). This was my first blood test at the new surgery and I had to explain to the jolly nice nurse that I am loathe to part with my blood. I have lovely veins in my wrists, backs of hands, half way up my arms and then.... they vanish. Well, I'm sure they don't vanish - they just get very shy about showing themselves. Luckily I am not squeamish and am used to nurses and doctors having to stick the needle in and hoping for a hit, and failing that having a good wiggle around until they find a juicy vein. However the jolly nice nurse was very squeamish and with curled toes (she told me) she was reluctant to wiggle anything around.

First attempt in left arm resulted in some wiggling and much muttering of "I was sure I could feel something there" and then... nothing. Not a drop. Not one iota. Nada. Rien. Zilch. "Right!" she said, "Let's try your other arm." The tourniquet got tighter and tighter and she stroked my inner elbow searching for the elusive vein. I did helpfully tell her that they had once had to take it from the back of my hand, and I could tell she was tempted. But eventually we agreed we'd go for a juicy bit lower down my arm. "I've never done it that low before," she said. "Do you think it will be okay?" "Go for it," I said, realising I'd been there for 15 minutes and had to get home to be picked up for a funeral pretty soon. So she did. Got it first go too. Mind you it was a bit painful and I now have a lovely bruise.

Let's hope I never have to go on to warfarin like my mum and have to get blood taken every week.

Watched a new series on TV tonight - Book of Daniel on ITV4. I had heard about it before from some Americans who thought it was shocking and many had switched off. Well, that was enough to make me watch it!

I'm not sure they got that it was a comedy/drama. Or rather I'm not sure they got the comedy bit. But it was rather good I thought.

Episcopalian priest called Daniel, alcoholic wife, daughter caught dealing drugs to fund her Manga comics, gay son, adopted Chinese son whose girlfriend is under 16, brother who has embezzled millions of dollars of church funds and is found dead by friendly 'mob connected' RC priest. Oh, and there was a bishop who happened to be a woman and the other bishop is Daniel's dad. And not to forget that Jesus keeps turning up to chat, especially when Daniel reaches for the Vicadin.

It was great. Can't wait for the next episode.

My favourite line...
Life is hard for everyone - that's why there's such a great reward at the end of it.