Fifty Acts 47. Pick up Your Church and Walk

The church I was in this morning has a bit of a history.  It's a Tin Tabernacle, one of the many prefabricated buildings that were made out of corrugated iron in the late Victorian era and were exported throughout the world.  It's not just ships and trains that Glasgow exported to the world.  Schools, hospitals and churches were made flat packed and shipped everywhere.  The church I was in this morning was originally located 15 miles down the road, and was moved in the early 1900's.  The church is still very original inside, and is in very good condition.

The church is Episcopal, and the service was a quiet reflection.  Some parts were communal from a service sheet, there was a short reflection on the Good Samaritan, with a long period of silence.  I like being given a bit of time to find my space, and despite the traffic thundering past on the main road outside, and the persistent ticking of the electric meter, it was pleasant.

Afterwards, we had a brew with the local priest.  While we have joked about the size of Mrs Gerbil's combined parishes, Steve is responsible for an area that,(as best as I can work out) if it was a country, it would be larger than many countries that are UN members and who have their own international dialing codes.  This includes (+670) and (+1-242), although not quite as large as (+268)*1.  The City of Edinburgh is tiny by comparison, about the size of (+1-345).

Steve has lived here for a few years and gave us a fresh insight into the community.  There were some things we agreed upon that the local communities could benefit from, and he let us know about recent developments in the community, and how events and decisions taken many years ago still have an impact on a community, and can still be hurtful.  The three of us could certainly see that there are times that all the various denominations could work together within a community, although we also agreed that there were people who may disagree with this approach.

Steve is a genuinely nice guy, someone with a genuine concern for his communities, and someone with vision that it would be a pleasure to work with.

And as we sat there drinking our tea, and discussing God's work, this came on the Jukebox... You've got to laugh...


*1 I worked it out to be 15,000 square km putting him 159th on the list.