Click on pics to make them bigger!
Monthly Archive for February, 2009Page 2 of 3
The insides of the hall were being ripped out this morning. I caught these on camera at lunchtime today. Click on pics to make them bigger!
The Anglican primates have issued a Letter to the Communion following their recent very constructive and positive meeting in Alexandria. The meeting was attended by all the Primates, other than the Moderators of the United Churches in North and South India and Pakistan where the election of a new primate is shortly to take place.
The Primates supported the recommendations made to the Archbishop of Canterbury by the Windsor Continuation Group to take action to bring the Communion to a clearer understanding of how it might, as a whole, focus more on mission in the world as we live in it today. We heard presentations from around the world which demonstrated the vitality of this World Church and the work being done in Provinces to bring the Gospel of Christ to people in practical terms as well as spiritual nurture.
On behalf of the Communion the Primates responded to first hand reports of life in Zimbabwe, Gaza and Sudan and renewed the call for peace initiatives to be taken seriously and where agreed to be respected and put into action immediately. It is the innocent poor who are the first to suffer the consequences that come from de-stabilisation of legitimate government.
We await with interest the proposed draft of an Anglican Covenant which invites participation in deeper bonds of affection within the Communion and which will be presented to the Anglican Consultative Council in May 2009. The Communion is moving towards a new appreciation of how our bonds create opportunity for deep sharing and support and which sometimes also call us to order our life with “generous restraint” in order to sustain Communion
New initiatives have begun in Faith and Order consultation; in an exploration of the place of the Bible in the life of the Church; in offering mediation in those situations where it is needed and in the creation of an Anglican Alliance to use the network of dioceses and congregations around the world to respond directly – church to church – to bring relief to those in need.
To be a part of this meeting was a privilege aided by the wonderful setting in Alexandria and the hospitality of the Diocese of Egypt. The timetable permitted no sight-seeing but the experience has whetted the appetite to return for more in depth exploration of the area.
+Idris
February 2009
The Photos of The Scottish Night, and the Thanksgiving Service for the Old Hall are now up in the Multimedia Section.
http://www.staugustinesdumbarton.co.uk/multimedia-gallery.html
We said goodbye to the old hall yesterday morning with a great service of thanksgiving in the place before handing it over to the builders today. Many memories of fun and laughter were shared, together with memories of folk who have gone on to greater places! A bumper crowd came along to say “thank you”, and the singing was just so good I feared the place would collapse before a JCB even got near it!
Photos will follow, but for now, a wee note from some of those who enjoyed a good scribble on the wall!
There are four owners involved in the operation needed to make the tenement next door safe! Unfortunately only three turned up to a meeting with Building Control this afternoon. Basically they were told that a plan of immediate action had to be on the desk of the Building Control boss by Wednesday morning of next week. Perhaps then work can begin. Until it is completed, we obviously can’t do anything about our own repairs, as a sudden wind could bring down more masonry at any time!
Unless something is done quickly, the next meeting could be with a solicitor and a man with a curly wig, as Building Control pointed out today!
I preached some weeks ago about London Buses carrying the advert that there was probably no God. This alternative popped up on the Provost’s Blog.
I’m still unhappy about the look of the gable end in the High St which looks as if it could crash down on us at any point. The Council have made it as safe as possible, but it’s now up to the owners of the building to effect the necessary repairs. This could take some time as different insurance companies are involved, and some owners seem to be not particularly keen to meet with Building Control. One hopes that solutions are found at a meeting scheduled for tomorrow.
We are grateful to Fr David Heron for uncovering this scoop! No doubt the AYPA would have been banned from his Diocese!
Auxiliary-bishop designate Gerhard Maria Wagner, the new RC Bishop of Linz, has a new theory to prevent immorality between young people. Asked why there were no altar girls at his parish church in Windischgarsten, Upper Austria, Wagner said there were “various reasons,” one of which was a large number of boys who wanted to be altar boys. In addition, he said, boys and girls had no business mingling with each other after a certain age. Obviously, boys must take precedence over silly girls. And whilst it’s OK for them to mix together as little children, they all reach the age when they shouldn’t meet. Wagner doesn’t specify at what age the sexes shouldn’t mix. His radical solution to sexual immorality means that, not only will hanky-panky cease, so too will the human population in his Diocese.
TAKE A LETTER, MS ALLEN!
From ASSOCIATED PRESS:
A Tuscaloosa church used part of its Sunday service to anoint and pray over 40 pieces of business stationery as members asked God to help those companies and their employees.
“During these hard times, so many businesses are closing down, and people are being laid off,” said Jennifer Allen, a church member who brought a letterhead from her employer, Sealy Management. “I believe in the power of God, and I believe he listens to people’s prayers, and he will help us through these difficult times.”
Well, well, well! If we’d thought about this earlier, the High St in Dumbarton could have been saved!
