The final residential weekend of the 2024–25 formational year was full of moments of celebration, including ‘Nicaea at 1700’, an ecumenical study day, which was led by Professor Lewis Ayres at St Ninian’s Episcopal Cathedral and concluded with Plainchant Evensong with the Very Rev Dr Stephen Mark Holmes, Provost, presiding. On Sunday, the Rt Rev David Railton, Bishop of Argyll and The Isles, presided and preached at the Holy Eucharist. This special service included the blessing and gifting of holding crosses to each of the Leavers, as well as an individual blessing from Bishop David as each Leaver goes forth from SEI and progresses in their lifelong formation for ministry.
The end of the first phase of Initial Ministerial Education, or IME1, is but a medial pause in a journey begun many years ago when the Holy Spirit stirred up the baptismal waters of five souls for service to God’s people. Please pray for Anne Macdonald, Stuart Thomson, Margaret Williams, Enza Gibson and Robert Garnett, pictured (in order from left to right) with Bishop David.
Anne, Stuart, Margaret, Enza and Robert go now, as the Prayer Book would have it, ‘walking henceforth in [God’s] holy ways’, following the Good Shepherd, who will guide them along the right paths for his name’s sake (Ps. 23.3).
