News from The Scottish Episcopal Institute
Farewell: We say farewell at the end of next month to Mrs Denise Brunton who has been SEI’ s Administrator throughout its life, and before that worked for TISEC and Coates Hall. In total, Denise has served the Scottish Episcopal Church for 27 years! We are highlighting her retirement now in order to give the very many people whose lives Denise has touched, through her immensely caring attitude to all that she does and all whom she meets, a chance to write to her or‘ phone her before she leaves.
Meet the Ambassadors 7: The Revd Nick Bowry writes:’ I am the SEI Ambassador for the Diocese of Aberdeen and Orkney. I am in my second year of my curacy, at St Clement’ s, Mastrick, on the outskirts of Aberdeen. I was a student, initially of TISEC( Theological Institute of the Scottish Episcopal Church) and then of the SEI from my second year onwards. The first three years of training, as an ordinand, was with an incredibly supportive cohort of fellow students. The peer support from those I met frequently at mid-week classes and those who I met less frequently on residential weekends and at the Summer School was an important aspect of the studies. Meeting people with different styles of worship and theological outlooks contributed to my formation, alongside the studies I undertook. I had not studied for many a year, and started the course with considerable trepidation. The support and encouragement of fellow students, both ordinands and Lay Reader candidates, was of considerable help, and eased me into the challenges of studying, or writing essays and preaching to the SEI community. In my curacy I continue to be an SEI student, as I study to convert my diploma achieved after the third year to a degree. The challenges are different, juggling the role of curate( especially in the first year of curacy) with study time and essay deadlines. The relationship with the peer group changes as we connect for seminars solely by computer video links, but luckily the peer group members are people I have studied with over the past five years.
The seminars are also more personal, with a smaller group of students. This enables some deeper and richer discussions compared to a large group 21