Chickened out of the 10am Eucharist today although Val went. I was busy at home seeing to Christmas cards to the immediate neighbours and doing the Weekly News Sheet for next Sunday, the fourth Sunday of Advent, and also preparing the draft WNS for the 1st Sunday of Christmas (30/12/07) as we have decided to get away for a few days after Christmas Day to the Killiecrankie Hotel. We know the area so well, although have never stayed there before. We usually stop at the Loch Rannoch Hotel overlooking the lovely, quiet loch with Schiehallion beyond. It was at this mountain that the weight of the earth was calculated! How did they do that? In the village of Kinloch Rannoch is a lovely Scottish Episcopal Church. It depictes a painting of the consecration of Bishop Samuel Seabury of Connecticut in an upper room adjacent the Cathedral in Aberdeen. It was in an upper room for fear of English troops stopping Episcopal Bishops consecrating a 'rebel Church's' first bishop. England had refused the American Colony the right of their own Church and self-determination, which was why the Americans contacted another rebellious Church - our Scottish Episcopal Church. And so we formed the beginning of the Anglican Communion by that consecration. There is no Rector at Kinloch Rannoch just now but the Diocesan Bishop has laid hands on the local Presbyterian Church of Scotland Minister and so given him permission to consecrate the elements and Celebrate the Holy Eucharist according to the Episcopal Rites.
I popped into Turnbull Hall RC University Chaplaincy to give my friend Harry a Christmas bunloaf wich Val made for him, plus a bottle of vintage Rioja. Harry was delighted and we had a good laugh, as well as an interesting chat about Edvard Munch in whom Harry has developed an interest of late. I missed Father John as he was saying Mass at 1pm, but I left him a similar bottle on his desk with a card and a note to say 'Aprés Mass Wee Refreshment', which will amuse him, I'm sure. Then off to see Natalya and her sister Vrnda. Vrnda was quite unwell so I just said hello and she returned to bed. Natalya and I had quite a deep chat. She is a most talented and insightful girl as is Vrnda as a film-maker, and I love them both. Home early today but by 2-30pm it was already getting dark and everyone had their car lights on. By 3pm the mist had desceneded from the Argyll hills, blotting out the City lights in the Clyde valley below us.
Wednesday, 19 December 2007
Sunday, 16 December 2007
Sunday, 16 Dec-07: Third Sunday of Advent.
Interestingly the Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, on Saturday, 08 Dec-07 really passed us by. Mary has never really been venerated in the Scottish Episcopal Catholic tradition, although is in the Roman Catholic tradition of course. Paradoxically our Lady Chapel is named after Mary and has a wee niche with a small statue of her there. I believe it is to do with the Scottish Reformation when such 'extras' were thrown out as 'non-Biblical', whatever that means nowadays. But then our Roman Catholic friends have many practices which don't seem to make sense to the Christian Church. The 'Catholic Church' as they call themselves rely on Dogmas issuing down from the Pope, which they accept without any debate or argument as to whether it is Biblically true or not. The attitude within the consituent Churches of say the Anglican Communion, is to debate and argue until a concensus is agreed. Attending the Angelus in an RC Church I am struck with the thought 'Have I missed something in the Bible after all?' Jesus said 'No man cometh to the Father but through me. I am the only advocate and mediator' and so our prayers always end with something like '....through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.' The Catholic Church have taken a different route than the Christian Church and make saints of folk, then pray to them to intercede. In the reformed tradition that makes little sense really. This is not to cast doubt on the sincerity of the Roman tradition but, as we say in Scotland "Aye...but ah hae me doots..!"
A full Family Eucharist this morning with Val as Intercessor and both of us as Sidesfolk. Val forgot her specs so we brought the Collection home, counted it, accounted for it and then deposited it in ther Night Safe of the Bank of Scotland this afternoon on the way to the Festival of Nine Lessons with Carols, followed by mulled wine and mince pies in the Hall. Again a full service with many visitors including relatives mainly from England, visiting folk here for the Christmas period. Julie Legowski our Organist had brought some of her singing friends - professional singers, to swell the somewhat depleted church choir and they sang the anthems. Singing 'O little town of Bethlehem....' the main lights were dowsed and we sang by candle light. During the mulled wine, mince pies and the blether I got up on the stage and called for order so that Phyllis Cross, Rector's Warden could present two lovely hampers to Colin, our Assistant Priest, his wife and daughter, who had really been such stalwarts to pull us through a difficult time after our Rector left. Colin, Rosemary and Victoria seemed quite surprised and a bit overwhelmed by our generosity towards them but, as Phyllis said, it was to show the congregation's appreciation and love towards them.
A full Family Eucharist this morning with Val as Intercessor and both of us as Sidesfolk. Val forgot her specs so we brought the Collection home, counted it, accounted for it and then deposited it in ther Night Safe of the Bank of Scotland this afternoon on the way to the Festival of Nine Lessons with Carols, followed by mulled wine and mince pies in the Hall. Again a full service with many visitors including relatives mainly from England, visiting folk here for the Christmas period. Julie Legowski our Organist had brought some of her singing friends - professional singers, to swell the somewhat depleted church choir and they sang the anthems. Singing 'O little town of Bethlehem....' the main lights were dowsed and we sang by candle light. During the mulled wine, mince pies and the blether I got up on the stage and called for order so that Phyllis Cross, Rector's Warden could present two lovely hampers to Colin, our Assistant Priest, his wife and daughter, who had really been such stalwarts to pull us through a difficult time after our Rector left. Colin, Rosemary and Victoria seemed quite surprised and a bit overwhelmed by our generosity towards them but, as Phyllis said, it was to show the congregation's appreciation and love towards them.
Friday, 14 December 2007
Friday, 14 Dec-07. again -Ember Day
Today is the Feast of Juan de la Cruez or, as we know it in English: John of the Cross. He helped Theresa of Avilia, Spain, rejuvinate the Carmelite Community for women and so they are now worldwide. I used to work in Bon Secours Hospital in Glasgow, where I consulted. It was run by the Soeurs de Bon Secours de Paris, a Nursing Order of RC nuns. Opposite was the Carmelite Monastry and nuns from there would often come across to the hospital chapel for services and meetings afterwards. I was always under the impression they were a contemplative Order but whenever I met the lovely sisters from over the road, they were always friendly, smiling and very chatty; a most interesting group of ladies, far removed from the idea of nuns shut away from the world so much they can no longer relate to it. Nothing further could that be from the truth. My consulting room was adjacent to the chapel so it was well used by me as well. The altar was carved by the Benedictine monks of Pluscarden Abbey by Nairn. Anyway, there I met a 6ft tall blind Franciscan brother, with a great shock of white hair and a beard, a deep and sensitive voice and a great bellow of a laugh. He could have got a job immediately on the set of 'Whisky Galore! ' He lived at the Franciscan Friary in the Gorbals, Glasgow. I met him as he left the chapel one day. He hesitated before the door and asked 'Hello?' I spoke "Hello Father, I'm Graeme." 'Ah, you have the consulting room next door, which used to be the chapel years ago.' "Oh, I didn't know." ( Curiously, my last consulting room was the Prayer Room, adjacent the chapel of St Mungo in the RC Chaplaincy at Glasgow University. ) We used to meet and chat about inner anguish, as well as football - not that I know much about the latter. I had to laugh as he told me he hears Confessions from various convents dotted around the south-side of Glasgow. 'I have a queue to see me as they think I don't know who they are, so I hear all sorts of things!' And then he had that great guffaw and he would say, 'You see, I DO see, but not with my eyes; you'll know what I mean.' "I see" I replied and then we'd both laugh. This led to many discussions about confession and absolution in both the Roman Church and other Catholic Churches such my own Scottish Episcopal Church. He was interested in my views on individual morality versus corporate morality. I said I viewed it all as firstly individual conscience, but that is nurtured by psychosocial development initially, so is sometimes flawed in some people as adults, who often fall foul of the law and end up in prison. I said that when visiting both the only Women's Prison in Scotland at Cornton Vale and indeed, the State Hospital, Carstairs, I was always struck by how "innocent" folk were at heart; innocents abroad or, "for they know not what they do" in the sense of individual conscience, although they often did see the 'Oh well, I was caught out and so here I am' idea that the state imprisoned them. The key then, is early nurturing before the age of seven or eight when by which time the personality is set and formed. Thereafter we all hope to get wiser. Some of us do and some of us are still foolish at times. My individual psychoanalytical psychotherapy work over many years is often about re-addressing the inner self problems of personality characteristics which need correction - by interpretation and not by condemnation or criticism; by example and by an accepting love of them, warts and all, so to speak. Curiously, many folk; indeed most folk in psychoanalysis with me, eventually ask about the spiritual life. Their question is usually something like, 'Are you a Christian then?'[ I think it must show ], Or perhaps, 'Is there a God? If there is, why does he let me suffer so much?" Or, "I pray so much to God but he doesn't hear me." I am often tempted to answer the last one with something like "But perhaps he sent me" I don't say that, but that's what I feel. So, my ministry is all bound up with my professional and personal selves. "That's me" as we say in Scotland. I do feel that my professional / personal / Christian SELF is parental. Why do I feel this? It feels so, and my 'faithful' as I call my people, intimate that they want to regress to 'grow again' this time to get it right in safe hands. Such awesome tragedies; such lovely people; I wonder often if they are angels - certainly they are often 'innocents abroad', for they do not know they do wrong or 'they know not what they do'. My 'faithful' folk are therefore gifts from God, for they and I are all God's folk. My individual care of my dear folk is therefore an 'in-house' job in the Christian family sense. "Home is where the heart is"
(Donald W. Winnicott).
Talking of Bon Secours Hospital, Glasgow, which is now a block of luxury flats, with the Convent still there though, I had a friend in a resident there. He was the Auxiliary Bishop of Glasgow RC Archdiocese. He said he was retired but still did all the Confirmations in the Archdiocese.
We'd sit by his fireside in his residence and drink tea and he'd smoke his pipe and have a good 'craic' (chat) and a laugh. He was a friend of our then Diocesan Bishop and the two would go in mufti to evangelical rallies, raise their hands and should halleluliahs, which he thought was great fun. He said 'all your Piskie ladies fuss over me, just like our Catholic Mothers - just the same. One day we will all be one, but sadly it won't be in my time.' I'd see him 3 times a day wending his way along the corridor to the chapel next to my consulting room. He had to attend the Western Infirmary twice a week for renal dialysis ('good time for prayer' he said). He would stagger a bit as he was frail. The Rt Revd Charles Renfrew was a Glaswegian, born and bred. He had been Principal at Blairs College, Aberdeen, the RC Seminary. Then sadly he died and was no longer there, and I missed him. He body lay overnight in the chapel. Next morning I was there at my door to pay respects as the cortege and all the nuns wended their way down the corridor and out to St Andrew's Cathedral on the Broomielaw in Glasgow. Because of the gait of the pall bearers I noticed that the coffin staggered down the corridor and I admit to having to suppress a laugh which I think Mother Superior noticed as she looked quizzically at me. Later I told her why and she threw her head back and laughed loudly: 'Bishop Charles would love that comment' she said. Sister Irene was the Matron of the hospital and she ran a very efficient and caring hospital. Some of the nuns worked as nursing sisters; one worked as chaplain to the nearby Victoria Infirmary. One of the nuns was Consultant Pathologist at the Vic. A tall, graceful and most attractive young Irish nun. But, she was not one for the 'craic' as I learned when trying to make conversation when she came home in the evening. I became a patient in my own hospital and I was impressed with the care. I had an intra-occular transplant and after surgery was in my room recovering when the ward sister arrived with a tray and a book. She was a Baptist and she bathed my eye and after re-dressing my eye, opened the book - it was the Bible, and she read from the NT the story of Jesus's healing of the man with eye disease at the Pool of Siloam. 'Nae mud packs for you though tonight, but prayer. Let us pray...' I found that infinately comforting in a profound way and I was soon asleep. I was awakened by the Mother Superior. 'Now Mr Vahey, have you said your Morning Office?' 'Well, er...no Sister, I, er..." She got my dressing gown and produced a wheelchair and wheeled me to the lift and down to the chapel where the Community awaited us. She led us all in the Morning Office, with the nuns intoning the lovely Gregorian chant. I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. Such care, as they took me to their heart as "one of them". Nice memories.
(Donald W. Winnicott).
Talking of Bon Secours Hospital, Glasgow, which is now a block of luxury flats, with the Convent still there though, I had a friend in a resident there. He was the Auxiliary Bishop of Glasgow RC Archdiocese. He said he was retired but still did all the Confirmations in the Archdiocese.
We'd sit by his fireside in his residence and drink tea and he'd smoke his pipe and have a good 'craic' (chat) and a laugh. He was a friend of our then Diocesan Bishop and the two would go in mufti to evangelical rallies, raise their hands and should halleluliahs, which he thought was great fun. He said 'all your Piskie ladies fuss over me, just like our Catholic Mothers - just the same. One day we will all be one, but sadly it won't be in my time.' I'd see him 3 times a day wending his way along the corridor to the chapel next to my consulting room. He had to attend the Western Infirmary twice a week for renal dialysis ('good time for prayer' he said). He would stagger a bit as he was frail. The Rt Revd Charles Renfrew was a Glaswegian, born and bred. He had been Principal at Blairs College, Aberdeen, the RC Seminary. Then sadly he died and was no longer there, and I missed him. He body lay overnight in the chapel. Next morning I was there at my door to pay respects as the cortege and all the nuns wended their way down the corridor and out to St Andrew's Cathedral on the Broomielaw in Glasgow. Because of the gait of the pall bearers I noticed that the coffin staggered down the corridor and I admit to having to suppress a laugh which I think Mother Superior noticed as she looked quizzically at me. Later I told her why and she threw her head back and laughed loudly: 'Bishop Charles would love that comment' she said. Sister Irene was the Matron of the hospital and she ran a very efficient and caring hospital. Some of the nuns worked as nursing sisters; one worked as chaplain to the nearby Victoria Infirmary. One of the nuns was Consultant Pathologist at the Vic. A tall, graceful and most attractive young Irish nun. But, she was not one for the 'craic' as I learned when trying to make conversation when she came home in the evening. I became a patient in my own hospital and I was impressed with the care. I had an intra-occular transplant and after surgery was in my room recovering when the ward sister arrived with a tray and a book. She was a Baptist and she bathed my eye and after re-dressing my eye, opened the book - it was the Bible, and she read from the NT the story of Jesus's healing of the man with eye disease at the Pool of Siloam. 'Nae mud packs for you though tonight, but prayer. Let us pray...' I found that infinately comforting in a profound way and I was soon asleep. I was awakened by the Mother Superior. 'Now Mr Vahey, have you said your Morning Office?' 'Well, er...no Sister, I, er..." She got my dressing gown and produced a wheelchair and wheeled me to the lift and down to the chapel where the Community awaited us. She led us all in the Morning Office, with the nuns intoning the lovely Gregorian chant. I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. Such care, as they took me to their heart as "one of them". Nice memories.
Thursday, 13 December 2007
Friday, 14 Dec-07. John of the Cross
Now John of the Cross was a Spanish Carmelite Religious. He was born in the village of Fonteveros near Avilia. He is known for helping Theresa of Avilia re-start the Carmelite Community for women there, which of course, then spread throughout the world. Well, that's only one aspect of him; there were others.
Wednesday 12 Dec-07. Ember Day.
After a quite early ( well, for me ) Morning Office there was the 10.oo hrs Holy Eucharist in church with Colin Curtis, our Assistant Priest as Celebrant. Today is an Ember Day, When they occur, they occur on Wednesday, then Friday and Saturday of the same week. They are a curiosity to many folk as they seem to pass them by. As a teenager we always prayed for the Ministry of the Church, and in particular for Ordinands. There became so few Ordinands that the practice lapsed, although still appears in the Church Calendar. It is a practice which I hope is returning for last year within the Diocese of Glasgow & Galloway I recall being asked to give a talk to the Ordinands at a Retreat House near here and there were about 10-12 there, so perhaps there is a revival. It follows from prayers for Ordinands and the Holy Priesthood, that there would be such an increase - surely? Now I hadn't made that connection until I typed that! How we soon forget to give thanks to God: 'O give thanks to the Lord for he is gracious' "And his mercy endureth for ever. Amen.
Thursday, 6 December 2007
Thursday, 06/12/07: Bp Nicolas of Myre again
Bishop of Myra
 From Saint Nicolas, by Pierre & Germaine Noury, Paris, 1928 |
As Bishop of Myra, Nicholas lived the qualities that caused his fame and popularity to spread throughout the Christian world. His vigorous actions on behalf of his people and in defense of the Christian faith reveal a man who lived his convictions. Nicholas was not timid—he did what was necessary and was not easily intimidated by others' power and position. His concern for the welfare of his flock and his stand for orthodox belief earned him respect as a model for bishops and a defender of the faith.
Selection
 From Saint Nicolas, by Pierre & Germaine Noury, Paris, 1928 |
Nicholas' selection to be a bishop was unusual. After the former bishop's death, other bishops gathered to select the next bishop for the See of Myra. During the conclave, the wisest bishop heard a voice in the night telling him to watch the doors of the church the next morning at matins. The first person to enter named "Nicholas" was to be the new bishop. The wise one told the others, counseling them to be at prayer while he waited at the doors. When the hour came, the first to arrive was a young man. When asked his name, he replied, "I am Nicholas." The bishop addressed him, "Nicholas, servant and friend of God, for your holiness you shall be bishop of this place." They brought him into the church and placed him in the bishop's seat where he was consecrated the new Bishop of Myra.
 From Saint Nicolas, by Pierre & Germaine Noury, Paris, 1928 |
Grain Ships and Famine
Myra experienced famine in AD 311 and 312, and again in 333. Crops had failed and people were hungry. Bishop Nicholas learned that ships bound for Alexandria with cargos of wheat had anchored in the harbor. The holy man implored the sailors to take a measure of grain from each ship so that the people would have food. The sailors said, "No," as the wheat was "meted and measured" and every bit must be delivered. Nicholas replied, "Do this, and I promise, in the truth of God, that it shall not be lessened or diminished when you get to your destination." So the sailors took a measure from each ship and continued on their way to Alexandria. When the wheat was unloaded, the full amount was accounted for and the tale told—all the emperor's ministers worshiped and praised God with thanksgiving for his servant Nicholas. Throughout the famine people came to Bishop Nicholas for wheat. He gave it to all who had need and the grain lasted for two years with enough remaining to plant new crops.
 From Saint Nicolas, by Pierre & Germaine Noury, Paris, 1928 |
Council of Nicaea
In 325 Emperor Constantine called the Council of Nicaea, which was the first ecumenical council ever held. More than 300 bishops from all over the Christian world came to debate the nature of the Holy Trinity, one of the early church's most intense theological questions. Arias, from Egypt, taught that the Son Jesus was not equal to God the Father. This was the Arian controversy which shook Christianity's very foundations. According to one account, when confronted by the unyielding Arias, Nicholas slapped him in the face. For such a breach of decorum, Nicholas was brought before Constantine, who stripped him of his office and had him thrown into prison. During the night, Jesus with his Mother Mary appeared to Nicholas: Jesus bringing the book of the Gospels, and Mary, the bishop's stole which had been taken from him. In this way Nicholas was reinstated. Many Eastern Church icons of St. Nicholas reflect this event with Jesus on the left returning the Gospels, and Mary on the right, bringing the bishop's stole or omophorion.
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