This edition of the Newsletter is the first of the new academic session.  Orientation Week this year was held on-line (see image above) and gave the new and returning students the opportunity to get to know each other and the staff.  Read all about it and much other SEI news in SEI Newsletter October 2020.

The SEI Journal’s Autumn issue features a set of articles on Pilgrimage. It includes papers from a Conference at the Church of St Margaret of Scotland, Aberdeen, in September 2018, organised by the Church in Society Committee of the Scottish Episcopal Church. The aims of the Conference were to review the history of pilgrimage in the northern part of Scotland, to assess its contribution to Scottish heritage and culture, and to look ahead to how it might continue to contribute to the development and maintenance of Christianity in Scotland.

The Journal hopes to continue to publish on the topic of pilgrimage in
its Winter 2020 issue and throughout 2021. Two years ago, the College of Bishops designated 2021 a Year of Provincial Pilgrimage. The Rt Revd Anne Dyer, Bishop of Aberdeen and Orkney, lead bishop in this initiative, said: “In this designated year of pilgrimage we will be encouraging as many people as possible to make a holy journey of some kind. This can include taking part in an organised pilgrimage or spending time individually or in groups simply focusing on our own spiritual journeys.”

This edition of the Newsletter is a bumper issue for two months.  It covers the SEI Lecture by Dr Cathy Ross, the Institute Council, Diocesan Advisor Training and  special edition of the SEI Journal. SEI Newsletter July-August 2020.

The SEI Journal’s Summer issue is entitled ‘Church, Ministry and Coronavirus’. It was conceived as the nation entered ‘lockdown’ and the churches with it. The impact on our lives is unprecedented. Significant theological concerns have come to the fore in the worldwide crises of the COVID-19 pandemic. This issue reflects not only on the life of the Church, but on society, community and the value of human life.

‘Church, Ministry and Coronavirus’ draws together contributions from a variety of disciplines to resource the people of God in their exploration of the issues and discernment of the theological truths to be applied now and in the coming years.  In the bedrock of our Christian faith is the belief that every human being is created in the image of God and that the glory of God is each one of us fully alive and flourishing in a community of persons. In a time when a cacophony of voices shout for our attention, the prophetic voice of the Church is urgently needed.

This edition of the Newsletter says goodbye to those whose training has been completed, in spite of Lock-down.  What will training for Ministry look like in the coming year and in the Future?  What indeed will Ministry look like?  You might find some hints in the SEI Newsletter June 2020.

This larger-then-normal edition of the Newsletter focuses upon ‘work and worship’ at SEI during the COVID-19 pandemic. It opens with two of the Associate Tutors – the Revd Professor David Jasper and the Revd Jane MacLaren – reflecting respectively upon their current teaching methods. SEI Newsletter May 2020

One of those Ordained as Deacon in Moray, Ross and Caithness this autumn, Katrina O’Neill, spent some time in our companion Diocese of Quebec prior to her Ordination.  During her time in
Quebec she preached four times, went hospital and home visiting, assisted at services including the Pet Blessing Service pictured above, helped at a Confirmation class and also at the yearly agricultural show lunch (amongst other things:-)

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.