“Christmas Dinner” in September before we split up for a year
Term started and I was back to meetings and business, in fact this week I had a day’s meeting in Edinburgh and a number of meetings in Inverness, but we also managed to be hospitable at Arpafeelie. In fact we had an overnight event which brought young people from across Scotland to Bishop’s House. These were the young people who had first met each other at the annual youth camps at Glenalmond College and who were now moving on to new horizons. It was good to see the value these young people put on the friendships they had developed over a number of years. A good night was had by all. Many thanks to Ley-Anne and Matthew for sorting it all out.
On the Sunday I was in the cathedral for the two main services and thoroughly enjoyed the fellowship and the music.
The following week was wedding week. I was to conduct two ceremonies, one in St Michael’s, Inverness and the other in Holy Trinity, Elgin. The wedding in Inverness was for a family who used to camp alongside us at Fidden, on the Isle of Mull and the wedding in Elgin I was joining together Claire and Stewart. Claire is a former member of the Elgin Youth Club, and we consider her and her family as among our closest friends, Claire in fact refers to us as her second parents! The wedding was wonderful, all three of our children were there as were Jane’s Mum and Dad, many of our Elgin friends and people special to us also joined the party, we reeled and danced into the night. Off to St Margaret’s, Lossiemouth on the Sunday morning and again a lot of catching up with old friends, all in all a really good weekend.
The College of Bishops met during the next week on Wednesday and Thursday. We were meeting to undertake our own version of the Cascade process on the issue of equal marriage. We stayed at The Bield outside Perth and spent the two days in powerful and personal debate, I came away feeling a lot better than when I arrived and thankful for the opportunity to listen to my colleagues.
The week ended emotionally as we drove Beth back to Aberdeen University for her third year and then drove Mara down to Edinburgh to start her first year at Edinburgh University. Our baby now away as well, it was a quiet drive home.
