Fishing.

I apologise to my readers for wasting their time searching to see if I've written anything new over recent weeks. As you can see I have had a break and it's been some time since the last posting. I was able to take time off in the Highlands of Scotland during October and post  photos of a successful annual fishing trip, returning a noble Aberdeenshire salmon to continue it's quest to return home to spawn and ensure the continuity of it's family and it's magnificent species. On returning I had a number of mail items including correspondence from two Bishops. One from outside the Province, being very supportive and pastorally caring the other from South Wales objecting to a post on this blog. The result of the first was reaffirmation, renewal and  envigouration of vocation. The other...well you can probably guess. As the second was type-written on crested Diocesan Church in Wales notepaper marked 'private' and signed in the official way as +Sharky, Bishop of Samson and Buryan there is a presumption that this correspondence is not for general consumption and of course I may decide that this should be so. On the other hand I have been thinking. My blog is mine isn't it? I don't make you read it. It is the embodiment of my own life and expression of faith. If you read the posts for the most part I hope that they are for the furtherance of the Kingdom of God, flawed as they may be from time to time by the personal faults and sins of the author but they are in no way threatening to anyone. The libel laws remain in tact for those who wish to use them. The blogosphere posts can give an arrow-like directness to the issues of the day and I realise that and that not everyone is going to like what they read.  The fact that a post may have 'come to my attention' as the Bishop says won't clip my wings or threaten me. Nor do I feel that I shall reply or, let it be known, be stopped in future from reporting, just because I have a letter marked 'private' in response to a published blog. If you want to engage with a published blog should you not expect to reply even in disagreement in the published format and not behind the trappings of office? I know other Bishops who have at least made their objections known on the comments of a blog page and that seems right and proper to the debate. Anyway, as the editor with control of this blog I've made the decision not to reply other than here and to say that in future if you don't agree with what I've said, just leave a comment and I'll make the decision to reply, to publish or not. Thank you! Slippery fish can sometimes be difficult to handle.