Rooted in history...
Today I visited the diocesan archives. That sentence maybe isn't one that would fill the average Scottish Eposcopalian with excitement (or maybe it would...). But today's visit felt really rather significant. Scottish Episcopal churches haven't been part of anything like the establishment for many centuries, in fact one could argue they have never been anything other than 'outsiders' in Scotland, a small grouping of non-conformist churches who insisted on their historical leadership by bishops and having a deep and engaged encounter with theology in their liturgy. So why care about where our church registers, minutes and dusty old books end up. Well, in large part because we have been built on things like this: This is a 1744 publication of Bishop Thomas Rattray's 'Liturgy of St James', a book that explores the ancient and primitive forms of worship in the earliest days of the Christian church in Jerusalem. He was the Primus of the Scottish E...