Celebrating with Bishop Kevin

Writing this once more at teatime, already so tired I can barely type ... I've been up since 5.30am, but it was worth it. Faithful readers of this journal (with a memory for the minutiae of other people's lives!) may remember that back in the bleak time of Covid the then Bishop of Argyll and The Isles was "translated" (for that, dear reader, is the term) to be bishop of Glasgow and Galloway. Because of lock-down, we were unable to have any celebration of his time with us, unable to say goodbye. 

Today some of us felt able to set that right for ourselves, because +Kevin, on the verge of retirement, celebrated the anniversary of his ordination and his years as Bishop with a great service in St Mary's Cathedral, Glasgow. The place was packed - it's not a small church, and the nave was full, with some latecomers in the side aisles - and +Kevin was in fine form. He spoke of love, and hope, and belief - and how we express it, and how it matters - both in his sermon and in the speech he made over wine and snacks at the back of the cathedral afterwards. And we sang all his favourite hymns - Himself opined that he could have chosen them without any consultation. 

Afterwards I had the most amazing time socialising - amazing because so many of the people there knew me, or remembered me from years ago in Synod, and were warm and friendly and fun. There were people whom I couldn't place, and there were people familiar but only through Facebook, and old friends who'd gone off - to become a bishop, for example - and with whom we shared laughter and memories.

I don't know how we made it back on the Subway to the car park in the centre of Glasgow, don't know how we coped with the milling crowds, the packed subway compartments (on their first day - the new rolling stock). I certainly don't know how we escaped the city so swiftly (me navigating, Himself driving more or less smoothly) We're now both starving and about to eat an early dinner. There will be wine. We'll eat, we'll toast +Kevin again, we'll wish him and Elspeth a happy retirement. And then bed ...

Collage shows the interior of the Cathedral before the service; me with +Kevin, Bishop Andrew Swift, our previous Rector in Holy Trinity, and Himself with Mary Swift. Here's to old friends and hope in the future!