I opened an email from an Anglican friend wishing me a 'happy Ash Wednesday' which seemed an odd kind of greeting, if a pleasant one.

Yesterday was spent with some C of S colleagues in Dunblane being quiet on a retreat day.  It was a good day, with plenty to ponder and enough space to draw breath before heading into Lent proper.  There was a vague Ash Wednesday theme going on, but it was more the idea of "greening", the new life that comes with spring as the days lengthen (the word Lent has its origins in Lenct which means lengthen).  The day ended with an ashing ritual, which was quite meaningful, but, not being Anglicans or Catholics, we all carefully wiped off the ashes before setting off for the train back to Glasgow. I'm not a massive fan of 'ashing' and always find the traditional words 'from dust you came and to dust you will return' rather discomfiting - even if they are valid.

And so to my daily readings from Genesis, which focused on the Genesis 2 creation story in which God first fashions Adam from dust, then the animals (cf chapter 1!) before making Eve from Adam's rib.  Although the theme of the notes was about morality, it was the making from dust that resonated in my mind.  The very 'earthiness' of our physical origins and the very 'Godly' breath of life are intimately linked.  It seemed to give me a more upbeat 'Happy Ash Wednesday' sense after all.

Just as a total side, yesterday was a glorious sunny day, despite a heavy frost.  The room in which we met overlooked Dunblane Cathedral and as the morning passed the frost melted to reveal green grass - except in the shadow of the church.  I couldn't help wondering if maybe this was a symbol of the institution standing in the way of the greening!!

Only the C of E would see this as entertaining...

More fun would be if they had Rev Dr Rowan Williams (m) and Rev Rowan Williams (f) in the same church (and they do both exist).

This from ASBO Jesus worth a moment's thought...

Advance posting as I am away at an Ash Wednesday Quiet Day with our local C of S ministers in Dunblane - a welcome pause before the Lent events begin.

I am looking forward to Lent, Holy Week and Easter for all sorts of reasons.

I am intrigued to see how the Lent studies work, using material I've used before, but with people I am just beginning to get to know.  Might need a few bleeps when we show the film on which they are based (1980s Yorkshire miners at their expletive best!) but it should be good fun.

I am pleased that there are folk who enjoy leading various aspects of the Lenten offerings, and Holy Week especially promises to be excellent with a balance of giving and receiving rather than the all-out-rush of recent years.

Each lunch time of Holy Week we will offer a 15 minute 'pause point' on the road to Calvary and each evening our Cof S friends offer more formal services.

Maundy Thursday will be a Tennebrae organised by some of my folk (a relief cos I've never done one and wouldn't know where to begin!) to which I am looking forward as a time of reflection and stilling.

Good Friday will be a sort of labyrinth thing, using materials I have developed, made, copied, whatever over many years.  A multi-sensory 'drop in' Easter Encounter suited to all ages and hopefully appealing to folk who aren't (yet) part of the church.  Then a quick trot to the cathedral (piskies) for the Easter Vigil three hour service.  Two very different opportunities to enter more deeply into the story.

Easter Sunday will probably see us "communioned out" (with apologies to all the sacramentalists out there!) with early breakfast, Easter Celebration and evening Emmaus Walk each including some form of communion.  Of course with my low, memorialist (or super high sacramental-universe) theology every meal has eucharistic potential so thrice in one day is fine.

Exciting and inspiring, lively and leisurely, light and heavy, slow and fast, long and short, experiential and cerebral, ecumenical and denominational... I think we have most options covered one way or another.

Advance thanks to those who are making it happen in such a lovely diversity of ways.

Next week I move house and will lose my twice-daily walk through the Botanic Gardens. Whilst I am eagerly anticipating the move (if not so enthused at organising all my stuff!) I will miss this source of delight and wonder.  Today, despite early morning mist and a fairly keen frost, the signs of spring were abundant - new leaves on trees and catkins bravely clinging on despite the best endeavours of sub-zero temperatures.  As I look forward to new pleasures to be discovered on my new walk to work, I am moved to praise of the one in whom the beauty I see each day has its beginning.

So, some pictures taken this morning, mainly in the Botanics but one at church, which capture a fraction of the beauty of the morning.

For the beauty of the earth,

For the beauty of the skies

For the love, which from our birth

Over and around us lies,

Lord our God, to you we raise

This our joyful hymn of praise.