Friday, November 13, 2009

Scottish Ministerial Courtship Practices

Two Sundays ago was my last day at Cupar Old Parish Church,
where I had been assistant minister for the past year. At a recep-
tion for me after the morning service I announced that I had ob-
tained my Certificate of Eligibility. I found out later that several
people were wondering if it meant I was an eligible bachelor now,
and thus looking for a wife. Well,...I might be or I might not.

The Certificate does mean that I am now a Church of Scotland
minister and that a congregation can call me to be their minis-
ter. Since September I have been interested in a linked charge
(two churches) in the north of Scotland. In early September I
went up to visit them and decided to continue the process with
them. Several members of the Vacancy Committee are coming
to Cupar Old to hear me conduct a full service this Sunday, 15
November.

I see this whole process to be like a courtship ritual between con-
gregations and ministers. It has been fun for me to go this far
through the process. It is all rather exciting to me.

If you do remember me in prayer, I hope you will lift up this
courtship process I'm in and this Sunday's service I'm con-
ducting.

Blessings to you and yours,

1 comment:

Canadi-Ann said...

Hi Jeff,

Cool, you're now eligible. ;)

I was in Montreal a couple of weekends ago and saw Julie Canlis - do you know her? I guess Matt is a minister just north of Glasgow or something.

Also saw Jeremy Begbie!!! They were at some religious conference or other. I was thrilled to see him and to find out that he remembered me after all of these years and only taking one course with him.

I was not at the conference, but at a very important shopping weekend with a friend.

Cheers!