[Magdalen] The US Episcopal Church and the Scottish dimension

[Ferdinand von Prondzynski]

Some of you know me on this list, and may know that I am head of a university in Aberdeen, Scotland. As I hope many of you will also know, Aberdeen was the birthplace of the US Episcopal Church – it was here that Samuel Seabury was consecrated bishop in 1784 by the then Bishop of Aberdeen, Robert Kilgour; and this is also why the US liturgy is based in broad terms on the liturgy of the Scottish Episcopal Church.

Anyway, I mention all this because one of the interesting aspects of all this is that one of the Canons of St Andrew's Cathedral, Aberdeen, is always a priest of the US Episcopal Church. This position had become vacant, and today the new Canon was installed by the current Bishop of Aberdeen and Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church, Bishop Mark Strange. The new Canon is  C.K. Robertson, Canon to the Presiding Bishop for Ministry Beyond The Episcopal Church. Also attending the installation and preaching at it was the US Presiding Bishop, Michael Curry. I have to say it was an amazing sermon. All this was done in the setting of Choral Evensong, and the whole event was entirely uplifting.

Ferdinand