I think @Cathscats mentioned this wedding some time back, and expressed doubts as to the wisdom of the choice of venue then!
Ah well - if they've all got a GSOH, hopefully no harm has been done. No doubt a number of wee drams were taken, purely for medicinal porpoises, of course.
Currently alcohol may only be served outdoors in Scotland (or in your own home, but no visitors there). I did not stay for the reception, but it would have to be dry if they wanted to stop being so wet!
To the kind of family that drink at 10 a.m.! Actually weather apart (which is only possible in retrospect) it was really lovely to see how the groom’s family, which everyone was, bar the bride, really took the girl to their hearts. His younger brothers had tried to make a floral arch for her to walk through (had to be abandoned) and had rigged up fairy lights inside her umbrella, both as surprises for the couple. I will be able to tell the absent bridal parents that their daughter has been truly take into the bosom of her new family, which will be a relief to them, being so far away with travel not possible.
Similarly, when people ask me why I usually go to Iona in October, I tell them it's to take the uncertainty out of being rained on. Such things do not require the gift of prophecy. (I should be there right now, were it not for the accursed plague).
Similarly, when people ask me why I usually go to Iona in October, I tell them it's to take the uncertainty out of being rained on. Such things do not require the gift of prophecy. (I should be there right now, were it not for the accursed plague).
Though we did (I'm just across the water from that blessed isle) have quite a dry spell in the first half of October this year. Had you been there last week, on the other hand, you'd have risked floating away. Our weather station reported more than 70mm of rain in 24 hours.
If you're looking for rain, it is currently falling on Edinburgh in no uncertain manner while simultaneously being sunny. Very annoying for those of us poised to rush the last of the tulips into the ground.
Oh for the days when a chittering bite was something you had after swimming, or sledging, or making a snowman.
It looked sunny here today, but the wind was baltic. The NE Man and I went for lunch at an outside table, and needed a chittering bite when we got home.
I was supposed to be visiting my bridesmaid and her husband for coffee in their garden this afternoon, but although it was a nice day here, it wasn't quite outdoor coffee weather, so we had a lovely little amble along the High Street followed by coffee and wicked chocolate cake in a café.
They pointed out various local landmarks, including the Piskie church where they're members, which is right across the road from my flat.
Thanks, all - I'm slowly finding my bearings. I took a stroll to the other end of the High Street this morning and patronised Tesco's (despite having left my shopping list on the coffee table) and found it to be a nice little amble - and pleasantly flat.
So the CofS has announced the Moderator designate: Jim Wallace, elder in St. Magnus, Kirkwall (hey @Piglet!) and member of the House of Lords.
Hmm. He may be OK. And I am glad to note he has to give up his political party affiliation for the year. But without being party to the discussions which went on by the committee to nominate (which in turn the nominations committee on which I do sit had to select - the CofS committee structure has more layers than an onion) I wonder if they thought it would be good to have someone whom Scotland outside the church had heard of.
Not really. It depends what he or she does or says. There is a little press coverage when the person is announced - yesterday - and then it varies a lot. The current Moderator, Martin Fair, is proving an excellent choice for what this year has turned out to be, but most of his work is internally focussed on helping struggling ministers and churches, so he has not made many headlines.
The C of S moderator usually gets press coverage, but only once they become moderator. They are often names unknown to the public until the point at which they are announced.
Yes, the cynic in me wonders if someone on the committee wanted to get a few more headlines by appointing an already known name. Not that I think he will be a bad choice, but I can't help my inner self speculating.
When I saw the post on Facebook about Jim's appointment, I was quite surprised - I didn't realise the Moderator didn't need to be a clergyman.
I wish him well - I've sung alongside him in the Cathedral choir* when we've been home on holiday, and I reckon he's a decent chap.
* He didn't join the choir until after he retired, which was well after we left; David always reckoned he'd have been an asset to the choir if work didn't take him away.
My understanding is that the moderator (any moderator) needs to be ordained, but not necessarily to the ministry of word and sacrament. Our current interim moderator is a reader and elder, and moderated presbytery last year.
That's right, and weirdly you can be a Reader and not ordained - because Readers are "set apart". So if your IM was not also an elder he or she would not be ordained. We have had an elder as Moderator before, Alison Elliot, and she was excellent.
I remember when I was working in an office overlooking Parliament Square, watching a Jim Wallace (then Deputy First Minister) hovering about to welcome Vladamir Putin (who, of course, kept everyone waiting before swooping in a cavalacade of black limos spilling men in lumpy suits).
That's right, and weirdly you can be a Reader and not ordained - because Readers are "set apart". So if your IM was not also an elder he or she would not be ordained. We have had an elder as Moderator before, Alison Elliot, and she was excellent.
The office of reader seems a strange one to me, wherever I've encountered it. It feels a bit "nout nor summit" and I wonder whether ordained local ministry will ultimately see it fade away.
Could well do. It is an ancient office dating back to the reformation, where there weren't enough ministers (sound familiar?) and Readers were appointed to take a minister's service and read it to a congregation.
Nowadays there is more training and study involved for OLM than for Readership, which is one reason that the two things might continue to exist for a while yet.
Our church had a Reader rather than a minister from 1574 to 1593. The poor man's daughter fell victim to the local witch and died as the result of picking up a malign charm. He gave evidence at the witch-trial in 1596.
(Said witch had been making a living for a couple of decades by lifting curses, but for some reason (times were hard? curses needing lifted had dwindled? greed?) she altered her business model and branched out into laying curses.
Her trial makes for interesting reading. She was strangled and her body burned in Aberdeen in 1597.
That's right, and weirdly you can be a Reader and not ordained - because Readers are "set apart". So if your IM was not also an elder he or she would not be ordained. We have had an elder as Moderator before, Alison Elliot, and she was excellent.
I was a bit surprised when I realized a few years back how uncommon it has been for elders to be elected Moderator of General Assembly in Scotland. It is very common in the US for elders to be elected moderator of presbytery, synod or General Assembly, and has been for a long, long time. (The trend now for General Assembly seems to be toward co-moderators. One of the current co-moderators is a minister, while the other is an elder.)
Moderators of Session and of congregational meetings must be ministers, except in those situations where a presbytery has commissioned an elder (who has received quite a bit of training) to particular pastoral service in a congregation where regular service of a minister is difficult.
Thanks for the information - despite being a registered member of the Church of Scotland* I know very little of its workings, except that they seem to be very fond of their committees.
* When David and I left St. Magnus to go to Belfast, we offered to "lift our lines", but David's elder said "but you'll always be coming back, won't you?" We were rather touched, but I doubt that my name will still appear on their roll after over 30 years!
Thanks for the information - despite being a registered member of the Church of Scotland* I know very little of its workings, except that they seem to be very fond of their committees.
* When David and I left St. Magnus to go to Belfast, we offered to "lift our lines", but David's elder said "but you'll always be coming back, won't you?" We were rather touched, but I doubt that my name will still appear on their roll after over 30 years!
That was a kindly gesture indeed. Around here, if you are not pitching in financially, a session is usually pretty quick to purge you from the roll if you move away, as it affects the various financial assessments on the congregation.
On the other topic, lay people have served as moderators of the General Assembly, Synods (yes - we still have them) and presbyteries. The experience has been mixed, especially the year I occupied the presbytery chair.
Have you been to the big kirk in Linlithgow yet? A lovely place, but with acoustics that take some skill on the part of the preacher to compete with the reverberation.
Thanks for the information - despite being a registered member of the Church of Scotland* I know very little of its workings, except that they seem to be very fond of their committees.
* When David and I left St. Magnus to go to Belfast, we offered to "lift our lines", but David's elder said "but you'll always be coming back, won't you?" We were rather touched, but I doubt that my name will still appear on their roll after over 30 years!
That was a kindly gesture indeed. Around here, if you are not pitching in financially, a session is usually pretty quick to purge you from the roll if you move away, as it affects the various financial assessments on the congregation.
The Kirk got wise to that years ago. Assessments are made based on congregational income alone.
Have you been to the big kirk in Linlithgow yet? A lovely place, but with acoustics that take some skill on the part of the preacher to compete with the reverberation.
Not yet - I've been a total heathen, and haven't darkened the door of a church since I moved back from Canada in February.
If I do go back to church (and I think I will eventually) it'll probably be to St. Peter's. I've been an Anglican now for longer than I was anything else; it's literally on my doorstep; and having friends in the congregation will make it easier to join a new place.
It'll feel strange no matter what: it's well over 30 years since I moved to a different church without the reason of being the organist's wife.
@Piglet the closest I can get to that is my total confusion at trying to become part of a church without being able to contribute to its music, which is weird enough in itself, having "learned church" by being in choirs. I will be praying for you.
Saw on the Web some rather atmospheric night shots of the Haar enveloping Edinburgh over the last couple of evenings. Evoked a scenery design for a Victorian mystery or supernatural series.
We're stuck in tier 2 while the other island groups are in tier 1 and can meet indoors. Yet another downside of having a local authority that covers mainland and islands.
No I saw the footage, but it was still a great victory. I understand that the bar has been told to remove its TVs. Puzzled me, as I thought that TVs in bars were already on the no-no list. But then, when was I last in a bar? (It was pre-COVID). Sorry about your tier 2 @Arethosemyfeet. We are tier 1 but with no visiting. But I heard of a case in the village relating to the landlord of one of the pubs, so I am being even more careful at the Coop!
I was in Inverness yesterday (crematorium) and thought I would do the shopping in Lidl for a change. But it was “mobbed” or seemed so after what I’ve got used to. Back to the Coop for me, or the Aviemore Aldi at opening time, if I can be bothered driving there.
Aberdeen's last lockdown happened largely as a result of the same bar's laxity, and to see them being lax again is galling.
We are Tier 2 in Aberdeenshire, but allowed to visit my parents in their home because Dad is terminally ill. We are being ultra-cautious, because the implications for us if we had to self-isolate for two weeks are unbearable.
Comments
I think @Cathscats mentioned this wedding some time back, and expressed doubts as to the wisdom of the choice of venue then!
Ah well - if they've all got a GSOH, hopefully no harm has been done. No doubt a number of wee drams were taken, purely for medicinal porpoises, of course.
Good luck to the pair of 'em - brave (if possibly foolhardy) souls!
Though we did (I'm just across the water from that blessed isle) have quite a dry spell in the first half of October this year. Had you been there last week, on the other hand, you'd have risked floating away. Our weather station reported more than 70mm of rain in 24 hours.
It looked sunny here today, but the wind was baltic. The NE Man and I went for lunch at an outside table, and needed a chittering bite when we got home.
They pointed out various local landmarks, including the Piskie church where they're members, which is right across the road from my flat.
Hmm. He may be OK. And I am glad to note he has to give up his political party affiliation for the year. But without being party to the discussions which went on by the committee to nominate (which in turn the nominations committee on which I do sit had to select - the CofS committee structure has more layers than an onion) I wonder if they thought it would be good to have someone whom Scotland outside the church had heard of.
Our Archbishop of Canterbury is often in the news, mostly being vilified, but there yer go...
I wish him well - I've sung alongside him in the Cathedral choir* when we've been home on holiday, and I reckon he's a decent chap.
* He didn't join the choir until after he retired, which was well after we left; David always reckoned he'd have been an asset to the choir if work didn't take him away.
The office of reader seems a strange one to me, wherever I've encountered it. It feels a bit "nout nor summit" and I wonder whether ordained local ministry will ultimately see it fade away.
Nowadays there is more training and study involved for OLM than for Readership, which is one reason that the two things might continue to exist for a while yet.
Her trial makes for interesting reading. She was strangled and her body burned in Aberdeen in 1597.
Moderators of Session and of congregational meetings must be ministers, except in those situations where a presbytery has commissioned an elder (who has received quite a bit of training) to particular pastoral service in a congregation where regular service of a minister is difficult.
* When David and I left St. Magnus to go to Belfast, we offered to "lift our lines", but David's elder said "but you'll always be coming back, won't you?" We were rather touched, but I doubt that my name will still appear on their roll after over 30 years!
That was a kindly gesture indeed. Around here, if you are not pitching in financially, a session is usually pretty quick to purge you from the roll if you move away, as it affects the various financial assessments on the congregation.
On the other topic, lay people have served as moderators of the General Assembly, Synods (yes - we still have them) and presbyteries. The experience has been mixed, especially the year I occupied the presbytery chair.
Have you been to the big kirk in Linlithgow yet? A lovely place, but with acoustics that take some skill on the part of the preacher to compete with the reverberation.
The Kirk got wise to that years ago. Assessments are made based on congregational income alone.
If I do go back to church (and I think I will eventually) it'll probably be to St. Peter's. I've been an Anglican now for longer than I was anything else; it's literally on my doorstep; and having friends in the congregation will make it easier to join a new place.
It'll feel strange no matter what: it's well over 30 years since I moved to a different church without the reason of being the organist's wife.
Better go and tie down the garden furniture........
I was in Inverness yesterday (crematorium) and thought I would do the shopping in Lidl for a change. But it was “mobbed” or seemed so after what I’ve got used to. Back to the Coop for me, or the Aviemore Aldi at opening time, if I can be bothered driving there.
We are Tier 2 in Aberdeenshire, but allowed to visit my parents in their home because Dad is terminally ill. We are being ultra-cautious, because the implications for us if we had to self-isolate for two weeks are unbearable.