Impressions...

Three weeks ago today I was consecrated as the Bishop of Brechin, a diocese in the Scottish Episcopal Church.  The diocese is centred in Dundee, and follows (more or less) the coast from (nearly) Aberdeen to (nearly) Perth.  This blog will be an occasional space to reflect on my ministry in Dundee City, Angus and the Mearns and the Carse of Gowrie, the proper names for that geography.

So what have my impressions been of the past three weeks?

Welcome. People smiling as I meet them for the first (or second, or third) time.  Communities (church and other) that are busy with their internal life and wondering about their external life.  Places that are a mixture of hope and prosperity and despair and darkness.  People who are wondering a) what a bishop is and b) what this one might be like or even do.

I described the first few days to someone as being a bit like boarding a speeding train without waiting for it to stop.  So much is going on, there is busyness, there is a whirl of activity.  The wrench of leaving one place and the people there, and the rush of arrival here is a confusing, stimulating, almost overwhelming feeling.

But there has been prayer, worship, stories shared.  There is a sense of wanting to find what God has in store for these places in the short and long term.  There is a sense of great potential, but an inevitability of change to achieve that potential.

But what do i hope to do?

As the title of the blog, maybe ambitiously, says, I hope that we can all get glimpses of heaven through the metaphorical haar, the mist of the north east coast, the struggles and joys of being Christian disciples in Scotland in the 21st century.

Here are a few photos of the first few weeks!