Bonnie Dundee in 2010

Oh, Bonnie Dundee I will sing thy praise
A few but true simple lays.........

It's tempting to go on but I won't........ Our family has a longstanding affection and appreciation of the poetic gems of William Topaz McGonagall. I spent Friday and Saturday of last week in his native city, formerly known for the 3 Js (Journalism, Jam and Jute), still the city of the Oor Wullie, Dennis the Menace and the Broons, but also now of Computer Games and medical research.

The Church of Scotland was holding an Enquirers' Conference at the West Park Centre. This is the start of the process used by the Church to test the calling of individuals to ordained or commissioned ministry.

There is the story told of Spurgeon that a young man came to him saying, 'The Holy Spirit is telling me that I should preach at the Tabernacle on Sunday evening.'

'That's strange,' replied Spurgeon, 'He's not told me.'

So, such a conference is a useful way to for those with a call to reflect and see what areas of Christian service that the Church offers and where God might want them to serve. We had two keynote speeches from parish ministers outlining their work, then a series of shorter presentation from the Ministry of Word and Sacrament, moving on to the Diaconal, World Mission, Social Care with Crossreach and finally Readership. There were practical sessions on how to take the Enquiry further and the session closed with a final keynote speech about responding to the call.

A point made during this was that Our Lord, himself, because of amongst other things the questionable company he kept and the radical theology he espoused might have found it difficult to get through the Church's selection process! I believe the Congregationalists turned down Campbell Morgan.

We finished with a warm and informal Communion Service. It was a good two days, well organised by staff from a variety of departments at 121 and drawing from frontline troops who were happy to share something of their lives and work in the part of the vineyard they had been called to. There was also wonderful fellowship with an astonishing variety of people of all ages, backgrounds, gifts and talents. Particularly striking were the number of young people who were also saying: Here we are God, in the spirit of new life we want to share that limitless life we are offered, and see this breaking through in that mystical body, which is made up of those called to be faithful brothers and sisters and his disciples. God is certainly not finished with the Church of Scotland yet.