The next edition of the Scottish Episcopal Institute has just been published, and its opening theme is ‘turning negatives into positives’.

The Newsletter opens with a celebration of the January Residential Weekend which had to be held online instead of in-person. Judging by the smiles in the photographs from the weekend, any disappointment about having to meet virtually did not dampen the mood.

Continuing the theme, Rev Paul Watson, Rector of St James the Less, Bishopbriggs, gives encouragement with an account of a fruitful development begun during lockdown. Pastors in a Secular Age began out of a series of conversations he had with fellow church ministers from different denominations just before lockdown, which evolved beyond all expectation when the sudden arrival of Zoom in everyone’s lives meant that far more people could participate than would ever have been possible in-person.

Elsewhere in the Newsletter, the Rev Rosemary Bungard describes her visit to December’s Residential Weekend in Kinnoull in her role as a Diocesan Advisor, an experience she would heartily recommend to all Diocesan Advisors, and there are details of a new six-part webinar series in Lent 2022 to be presented by Rev Dr Michael Hull titled Episcopalians and Their Ethics.

The February 2022 SEI Newsletter can be found here.