Bishop Mark's Blog

All Souls and Fireworks

Posted Wednesday 11 November 2009

Fireworks

The Kitchen

All Souls Day also happens to be my birthday; it always gives a peculiar feel to the day.  “What did you do on your birthday?” “I read out lists of the dead”! This year I led the requiem Eucharist at Arpafeelie, the service was at 8.30am leaving the rest of the day for the birthday. Jane and I went to the local garden centre to buy a number of climbing plants for the garden which I then planted down the length of the new drive, six plants in - so many more spaces to fill.

The middle of the week was taken up with meetings and visits and on Friday I watched as the final destruction of our kitchen took place. We are now left with an empty room, no plaster on the walls, no light, no heating and one socket for the cooker, even the floor has been lifted, it makes cooking an interesting experience!

On Saturday I led a day of discussion and discernment on the future of the vocational diaconate in Moray, Ross and Caithness, it was good to see so many people at the meeting and good to enjoy the hospitality of St Andrew’s, Fortrose. The day ended with fireworks and sausages at Arpafeelie, the congregation and the neighbours enjoying fun and fellowship.

On Sunday we drove over to The Gordon Chapel, Fochabers. The congregation are meeting in the Rectory lounge at the moment as the church is undergoing renovation. The Gordon Chapel was originally the private chapel of Gordon Castle and was used by the local Episcopalian congregations when the three meeting houses were closed down. The church is on the first floor and the ground floor was a church school and teachers flat. It is now the Rectory, though the chapel has no resident priest at this time. The Church windows are filled with Burn-Jones glass and as the new bypass is to be routed past the East End of the chapel the windows need to be removed, repaired and stored while the work goes on. The masonry and roof of the church is being repaired at the same time, hence the congregations worship downstairs in the Rectory.

Following the service I assisted in the Remembrance Sunday services at the war memorials in both Mosstodloch and Fochabers, enjoying a light lunch in the manse of the local Bellie Kirk between the two services. It was good to see so many youngsters from the Scout Association in attendance and to catch up with my scouting friends.

A “Restful Week” I don’t think so.

Posted Monday 2 November 2009

View over Blairfindy to Ben Rinnes

St Marnan's, Aberchirder

Any hope that I would be given a couple of days to recover from the trip to Canada disappeared on Monday morning with four phone calls before 8.30am! I then decided to try and sort out the E mails on the computer, unfortunately the body had woken up but the brain was still asleep and a long and vaguely unproductive day commenced.

Hoped Tuesday would be better but realised that I needed to be in Edinburgh for the excitement of the Faith and Order Board meeting.  On to the 6.45am train out of Inverness held up by signal problems at Blair Atholl, late into Edinburgh, meeting, 1.39pm train back to Inverness, nice chat with Sarah and Johnny Aikhurst on the train, home by 6.00pm, realising that the trip from here to Edinburgh and back was the same as from Heathrow to Quebec, I think I have train lag!

On Wednesday I set off at 7.30am for the drive to Oban, we were beginning the work of the Preparatory Committee for the Vacant See of Argyll and the Isles, it is all confidential so I will simply tell you that the drive there was good, the drive back was excellent and the bit in the middle was……..

I had been invited to contribute to the Highland Hospice conference entitled ‘The Space Between 2’ and on Thursday it was my turn. I had been asked to talk about the churches attitude to Assisted Suicide, with special reference to the depth of the debate, the breadth of opinions held and the history of the debate from biblical times until now, basically to allow the audience to see a theological process rather than a simplistic “no”. I have to confess that my nerves began to twitch when I saw the list of other contributors, they were coming to Inverness from across the world and they had many years of experience in their chosen fields. It was a bit like entering a polite court room when you know that your starting point is rejected or worse disregarded as irrelevant by many of those you are to address. I needn’t have feared, I was listened to, questioned and clearly appreciated for what I had offered, but it was a relief to see the shores of the Black isle at the end of the afternoon. On Thursday evening I celebrated Eucharist at St Andrew’s, Tain before heading off for a joint vestry meeting in Invergordon then home and sleeeep.

Friday was quieter, only two appointments, this gave me time to prepare for the Diocesan Synod on Saturday and time to think about Sunday. The Synod Eucharist was held in the Cathedral and at the end I was able to make an announcement that hasn’t been heard for many years, “The Bishop will meet you at the door of the Bishop’s Palace”! The palace was sold many years ago and now forms part of Eden Court Theatre. It was built as a gift to Bishop Robert Eden the first Bishop of the United Diocese but by the 1940’s it had become too big and the Bishops moved out. In fact the bishops of the Diocese kept on changing houses until we arrive at the present building works needed to provide us with suitable accommodation! For many years the Palace was used as the Green Room for the theatre but t has now been restored to its former glory.  We met in the MacLean Room, named after +Arthur MacLean and ate lunch in the reception hallway at the foot of the grand stairs!

At the Synod we were very pleased to welcome Lorna Finley the provincial Communications officer who addressed the Synod on the subject of relationships with the press. Synod ended with a beautiful Service of Light and the singing of the Litany of Saints in a candlelit Cathedral, a good way to keep All Hallows Eve.

On Sunday we were to be at the Eastern end of the Diocese so Jane and I spent Saturday night at the family home in Glenlivet before an early start to reach St Marnan’s, Aberchirder for the 9.00am Eucharist.  We were greeted by Kevin, Mary and Lucy who had turned up early to make sure we had a cup of coffee after our journey.  Lucy (who is six) also insisted on putting Jane’s hair in bunches! After St Marnan’s we drove to Christchurch Huntly for the 10.30am Eucharist and a chat with the congregation before heading for Nairn.

Nairn is a wonderful place with very generous people, this was seen yesterday afternoon.  I blessed the marriage of Galina and Viachaslav Galukha in a lovely highland ceremony. We had pipes, hymns, flowers, copes and mitres, toasts, speeches, dinner, dancing etc etc. Not unusual I hear you say, except that all of this had been provided by the congregation and their friends in Nairn.  Galina has been part of a group bringing children from Belarus to Nairn every summer and her personality and her love has touched people’s hearts.  So when she announced she was to be married at home but in a civil ceremony the members of the church began to plan this blessing for her and Viachaslav, because each summer it is at St Columba’s that Galina has made her spiritual connections.  Yesterday was a wonderful and lasting memory of the links between Galina, Viachaslav and the people of Nairn and I felt blessed to have been part of it.

Home Again

Posted Monday 26 October 2009

Sleepy Bishop

A Very Sleepy Mrs Bishop

A last rush around the shops, a lovely evening meal with new friends, packing, more packing and yet more packing, fond farewells and promises of visits and then a drive to the airport. We left Quebec City at 5.00pm Eastern Time and arrived at Arpafeelie 6.30pm GMT, sadly not by travelling so fast that we did it in an hour and a half, rather in twenty five and a half hours, give or take the odd time change.
In Canada we had travelled 3250Km by car, we had eaten about 20 celebratory feasts, I had spoken to hundreds of people, I had preached three times, spoken on the radio once and all four of us had smiled...all the time. We have had a great visit, thanks to everyone in Quebec, I am now going to sleep until Faith and Order on Tuesday, Argyll and the Isles on Wenesday, hospice confernece on Th........

And Back again

Posted Friday 23 October 2009

The Lake

Advent Church

We had a slow and lazy start to the day, coffee and muffins, a stroll on the veranda and a catch up on the events of last night.  +Dennis and Ven Garth arrived and we said goodbye to the lovely house, the welcoming pets and John and Louise our generous hosts. We drove back top Lennoxville and stopped at St Georges Church where a revival seems to be taking place, both in fabric and spirit, Ven Dean was so enthusiastic about his ministry, no gloom or despondency here, and from there we followed him and his wife to the Church of the Advent, a beautiful and historic church, well cared for and again full of vitality and spirit.

Our drive back gave us a last chance to chat before we said farewell to +Dennis as he headed back along the long long road to Gaspé and his family, what have I ever to complain about in our small and compact Diocese!

To the East

Posted Friday 23 October 2009

Networking

Two Bishops

On Thursday we were back on our travels, this time we were off to the Eastern Townships an area of Quebec that was one of the destination of the loyalist communities that fled from USA following the American Revolution, over the years many of the communities have become French speaking, though the Anglican Church has maintained a strong presence in parts of the community.

The day started with snow falling and settling across Quebec City so with the usual excitement of the first fall of the winter we all set off, me with the first snowball down my neck courtesy of Mara. We travelled through a winter landscape that was very familiar, the hills and farms reminded us of the country around Huntly and Foggie, the names were clearly British, we passed through Thetford and Disraeli, we skirted Inverness and Stratford but when we stopped in Disraeli for lunch, sitting at the counter in a truck stop eating burgers, the language and mannerisms were clearly French.

We stopped off in Lennoxville to visit the Diocesan meeting of the Anglican Church Women before driving through the grounds of Bishops University, the former theological college for Quebec. The ACW committee are very keen to link with the Mothers Union in both Burundi and Scotland and so another task to get on with on our return home.

We arrived in North Hatley and drove to John and Louise’s beautiful lakeside home where we were to stay the night.  We got changed into more suitable Highland attire and after dinner in a local restaurant we arrived at St Barnabas church. The service was a Book of Common Prayer Communion Service, while the choir sang Merbecke, close my eyes and I am back at St Andrew’s Aberdeen in surplice and ruff! I preached on the importance of community before we were treated to another lovely reception. We spent the night in a bedroom with floor to ceiling windows overlooking the lake, the peace was complete and the sleep refreshing.

Good Conversations

Posted Friday 23 October 2009

The Hot Dogs

On the Ramparts

On Tuesday we visited Bishopthorpe, the house that will eventually become +Dennis, Cynthia and Aurora’s home in Quebec Cit. We explored all four of its floors, from basement to attic, kitchen to chapel. +Dennis showed us the plans to create a useable and shareable space, utilising the available resources in many of the ways we are seeking to do at Arpafeelie. We also went for a walk along the battlements of the Citadel and learnt more about the history of Quebec and the place of the Anglican Church within its life. I also ate my first North American outdoor Hot Dog, a must, I gather, for all tourists.

On Wednesday Jane and the girls were whisked away by Diana Stavart for a day of sightseeing, poutin eating (Quebec’s national dish) and geese watching, they even went on the Ferris wheel and big dipper, (well Mara did anyway). Meanwhile +Dennis and myself spent the day talking, we talked through the old town, we talked across the Heights of Abraham, we talked back through the old Town, we talked through lunch at a rather posh French restaurant, we talked at the Diocesan office and we talked our way round the Cathedral. We talked about being bishops, about families, about ministry and about hopes and fears, we talked as friends sharing our experiences, our talking was truly blessed by God.

In the evening Jane the girls and myself went for supper with Louisa, Miriam and John. We talked more history and we talked about visiting Burundi, where they have visited, and we talked about music and heritage.  It was a lovely evening. Here in this place we are discovering ourselves truly among friends.

Montreal

Posted Wednesday 21 October 2009

Montreal Skyline

Montreal Cathedral

Monday saw us heading up the St Lawrence River to the City of Montreal; this is still part of Quebec but is a separate Diocese. The city is built on an Island in the river, and is also at the point where the river needed an inland waterway to avoid the rapids. This canal is now superseded by the St Lawrence Seaway and it was to the former industrial community around the canal that we headed first.

This was to be a visit that allowed Jane to begin her conversations on education and child development. We were welcomed at the Tyndale, St George’s community centre, a venue run as a joint Anglican/Presbyterian charity and congregation. Here the centre works with new immigrant families and those who find themselves on the edge of society, much of what they do in child development and education is what Jane has been trained to do in school, so a number of interesting conversations developed.

We then drove through the heart of Montreal to the Cathedral, amazingly this building was jacked up on stilts so that a shopping centre could be built underneath it, and we actually ate lunch in the mall underneath the sanctuary. The Cathedral was a very fine building but the Diocesan offices were frightening in scale and decor. Bishops office, bishops meeting room, seven further offices, archive room, artefact store, synod hall and processional l way, all paid for from the building of the Mall. +Barry Clarke the Bishop Montreal gave us a guided tour before we headed off to visit a project that is caring and supporting refugees in detention in Canada.  I had much to talk about and we discussed the difference in approach between Scotland and Canada, it was very sobering to be told bluntly what we already knew but don’t always like hearing.  Britain is still considered to have one of the worst immigration policies. The way we deal with those seeking asylum with continuing dawn raids and the treatment of families held at Dungavel being a major topic of conversation.

After the meeting we said farewell to +Pie, he was to visit some members of his family before setting off for London and then home. The rest of us then drove to the summit of Mount Royale to see the view out over Montreal. We then spent time in a very mixed and vibrant community in the suburbs of the city before heading back to Quebec. Garth felt tired and asked me to drive.....panic, state highway, in the dark, on the “wrong side of the road” automatic car and bizarre traffic lights (they are placed beyond the junctions not before them). But we got home to the rectory in one piece, though I swear I lost two or three pounds.

The Great Day

Posted Wednesday 21 October 2009

After the Signing

Montmorency

And so after hours of meetings and prayer, after months of preparations and plans, after over a year of anticipation the day of partnership signing has arrived. The three diocesan Bishops gave thanks for the links created in the Anglican Peace and Justice Network which brought +Pie, Cynthia Patterson and Canon Alison Simpson together, the hosting programme for Lambeth which gave us time to begin our fellowship and the shared experience of our trip to Gaspé.

Sunday began with +Pie preaching at the French service in the Cathedral, we as a family tried to follow the service and found it simpler than we had feared, we were also delighted to greet +Bruce Stavart and his wife Diana who also shared the early parts of this process when he was Archbishop of Quebec. The signing took place at the 11.00am Sung Eucharist, I preached and presented two of our diocesan scallop shells to the bishops and I was delighted when it was immediately used at the baptism of young Sarah.  The partnership was signed in both French and English and during the service we had words in both languages. At the end of the service I gave the Celtic Blessing, +Pie in Swahili, +Dennis in French and the choir than sang us out.

Garth then took us to the Montmorency waterfall, we climbed to the top of the falls, getting very wet on the way, the view from the top was stunning, looking right out over the St Lawrence river and the skyline of Quebec City.  We then explored some of the communities of the city suburbs before heading off for a delightful dinner at the Diocesan Chancellors house. The Blairs live in a very old house in the centre of Old Quebec City and had invited the four of us, Ven Garth, +Pie, +Dennis, +Bruce and Diana, Bruce the Archdeacon of Quebec and a number of their own family and friends, including a lively French Canadian called of all things Murray! The evening was very happy, the first action of a very family orientated partnership.

Miles and Miles of Shops

Posted Tuesday 20 October 2009

The big shots

Scots graves

Friday morning was free time and you guessed it, the girls dragged me off to the shops, +Pie came along as well and we both tagged along behind complaining about the prices. I have never been in a shopping centre with so many shops, Beth was in heaven. I managed to drag them away before they spent too much money and we then walked back to the Rectory in Sillary, we stood and waited for the lights to change for rather a long time before we realised that there was a little button to push, we really are becoming country folk.

In the evening I had to attend the Diocesan Council, the equivalent of our standing committee, they did everything by standing orders and rules; I think I prefer our more relaxed approach. There was a buffet reception afterwards and the food had been prepared by the member from the Magdalene Islands.  “Nice pate,” I said.  “Seal” he replied!! The reception was in Bishopthorpe, the official residence of the Bishop of Quebec, guess what? It needs many thousands of dollars spent on it, sound familiar? Jane and the girls found a local Starbucks so they came home full of coffee and good will.

+Dennis has done his back in and he was unable to attend the rest of the Diocesan Council meeting on Saturday.  I gave a presentation about our diocese and as we had been given full rights to enter into the meeting as usual I did just that, joining debates on Youth Work and mission statements. When the meeting ended I went in search of Jane, Beth and Mara who were exploring the Old Town of Quebec, searched all the coffee shops but couldn’t find them, they were playing on the cannons above the harbour, al made at the Carron Ironworks in Scotland! When we got back to the rectory Jane and I went for a walk through St Michael’s Cemetery and we found names from Croy, Dalnain, Strathconon, Duthil ....

Bonaventure and the Seafaring Bishops

Posted Saturday 17 October 2009

Bishop Pie (left) and Bishop Dennis inviting Bishop Mark to come meet the bears!

Tuesday dawned bright, clear and frosty, just like home and in fact the whole of the Gaspé peninsular looked just like the west Coast; sea lochs and hills. We drove over to Percé and boarded a boat to sail around Isle Bonaventure, a nature reserve that has recently overtaken the gannet colony of St Kilda as the largest in the world, the trip also took in “The Rock” an aptly named edifice in the bay.

The nine of us then ate lunch in the local seafood restaurant and I even managed to say a couple of words in French! The rest of the day was taken up with a lengthy but stimulating discussion between the three bishops. Dinner was at +Dennis’s house, Cynthia had cooked moose!

We then drove over to St Paul’s church for an evening service in which both +Pie and myself spoke of our dioceses and our hopes for the partnership, this was followed by an evening reception and the long drive back to the rectory.

Wednesday began with another long meeting between the bishops and a shopping trip for the girls.  We all gathered for lunch and then the bishops and venerable headed off to the local nature reserve to see the stunning coastal scenery, I asked what animal had deposited the rowan berry poo all over the place… bears I was told.....oh my goodness! 

We shared a lovely supper at the rectory and then packed ready for the long drive back to Quebec City. Thursday was the drive back, fresh snow on the road side and freezing winds blowing off the St Lawrence, we stopped at a Canadian institution, Tom Horton’s, for coffee and doughnuts..bliss.