At the end of General Synod there was a Valedictory Eucharist for the 2019 leavers. They are listed here from back left, followed by the initial of the Diocese in which each will serve.
Don Grant (MR&C)
Jenny Holden (A&O)
Kathryn Sanderson (MR&C)
Jane Edwards (Ed)
Jean Souter (A&O)
Sue Ward (Ed)
Roxanne Campbell (Br)
Annie Hughes (StAD&D)
Peter Woodifield(Ed)
Susan Henderson (URC)
Katrina O’Neill (MR&C)
Harriet Oxley (G&G)

The service was a truly joyful act of worship, made all the more so by the wonderful playing and singing of first year ordinand, Dr Lesley Penny, and fellow musicians from St Mungo’s Balerno. Afterwards students, their families and friends, staff, and the Convenor of the Institute Council, the Rt Revd Kevin Pearson, enjoyed lunch together at Mamma Roma’s restaurant where they were joined by five of the SEI Ambassadors and two clergy who have supported SEI hugely through the past year by giving their deputising fees to the Training Fund.

The final residential weekend of the 2018-19 session took place at the end of May, its focus being ‘Vocation’. The Rt Revd Anne Dyer led two separate sessions on that topic with the Leavers and the Continuing Students respectively, while the Revd Dr James Currall gave a session to the whole cohort entitled ‘Married to the Church?’ That’s him above with his Diocesan Advisee, Janet Spence.

It was also Don Grant’s final residential weekend.  Here he is relaxing with Bishop Mark after preaching in Inverness Cathedral. Don will be ordained in September and serve his curacy at St Columba, Brora.

During Holy Week three of the SEI community, Lisa Curtice (from Glasgow), Janet Spence (from our Diocese) and Principal Anne Tomlinson, spent time with the Community and College of the Resurrection, Mirfield, experiencing their Holy Week journey. And what a journey it was!

Lisa writes: ‘During Holy Week the first words of the morning were the morning office, and we fell asleep with the cadences of the plainchant in our ears. This rhythm quieted our minds in preparation for the journey ahead. And while we breathed in a warm spring, blossom and birdsong, that inner journey continued softly through sorrow and waiting until it burst into a crescendo of noise and light on Easter morning. This was the day.’

Janet writes: ‘I am so grateful to have received support from the St James’ Fund to enable me to spend the Easter Triduum at the Community of the Resurrection in Mirfield. A time of silence, and modest fasting. And yet this time was a feast: the intense taste of a plain hot cross bun on Good Friday, having fasted since Thursday’s high tea; the darkness at 4.30am making the Paschal Candle flame that we followed into the dark church shine SO brightly; the song of a single bird as we entered the lower church at 4.45am on Easter Sunday; and the exuberant joy and touch of blessed water from the font splashed with abandon as we felt the joy of Christ’s resurrection. Hallelujah! Christ is Risen!’

Megan Cambridge from Moray, Ross and Caithness, spent her Final Year placement working in and with the local Church of Scotland parish in Keith: Keith North, Newmill, Boharm and Rothiemay together with Keith St Rufus, Botriphnie and Grange. Since being licensed as a Lay Reader last autumn, she and the SEC congregation in Keith under the Revd Canon Michael Last have continued to foster these links. She writes: ‘I had the great privilege of leading worship at Keith St Rufus in the first of their week-long celebrations for the 200 anniversary. We had the Keith and District Silver band playing which gave us a rousing start.’

The SEI now has a mode of training where students spend the majority of their time on placement in one congregation, receiving a lot of practical hands-on training from the local clergy.  Both our Provost (Sarah) and our Synod Clerk (Michael) are helping to train students.  All those clergy involved in training Mixed Mode students or supervising curates, themselves received training at a gathering on the 29th January: Sarah Murray is in the photograph, but Michael joined via Skype.

The SEI was thrilled to learn before Christmas that it had been awarded a generous grant from the Rebecca Hussey’s Book Charity. The object of the Charity is ‘to provide religious and useful books to institutions in theUnited Kingdom’.  The grant will be used to expand the SEI Library, to support the new modules on evangelism, mission and ecclesiology.