Ringing out the changes on a Sunday morning....

So it’s Sunday morning and I’m lying in bed drinking coffee,

and doing some rewrites,

and I’ve just posted a reel about a performance I’m doing on Friday.

(which is what the rewrites are about)

And here’s the reel:

And I’m looking a bit furtive because I think it’s the first time I’ve made one of these things in a public place,

and the cathedral organist is practicing,

and I’m slightly apprehensive because I’ve a feeling that at any moment

he’s going to turn the volume up and blast us with the noise of his extraordinary instrument.

And then my earpiece starts to fall out,

and then actually just as I’ve finished, he really does blast us with this astonishing volume of sound.

Which is ironic because I got up early on Saturday morning partly to go to early service, which I’d missed the day before, long story,

and partly because I thought the cathedral would be quiet.

But there’s something about that place that is always drawing people into it.

They keep it open during daylight hours, and people come in because I think it meets a need.

A need for somewhere quiet.

A need for somewhere spiritual,

(though I don’t think we really know what that word means.)

A need I imagine that the two sisters who built it must have known about and foreseen.

And that’s one of the things the performance is about…

A story I love to tell in this performance is how the building came into existence.

It was two Victorian sisters defying all the expectations of their sex and their time to look after their late father’s property business,

which was about building this west end of the new town.

They seem to have had no interest in marrying or having children,

but they were very good at making money.

And their dream was to use the money to build a cathedral and name it St Mary’s in memory of their mother.

They did in fact succeed in getting together a huge fortune and tying it up in a trust that could only be used to build this cathedral,

and it only happened after their death,

so they didn’t live to see a single stone being laid,

and yet they built it.

They made it happen.

In a real sense, it’s their cathedral.

This is one of these facts that’s often only mentioned in passing.

It’s almost as if the overwhelmingly male ecclesiastical authorities were a bit embarrassed,

and so the sisters’ only memorial is a small, dusty, not very distinguished photograph in a corner of the building.

And I like, whenever I can, to give them credit.

But I think the real stars of the show are the bell ringers.

Every Sunday morning, they’re up in their bell tower creating sounds that bring comfort and reassurance somehow of the things that remain in a changing world.

But for our performance together, they come down and they stand in the centre of the nave where everyone can see them and marvel at their coordination, collaboration, and skill as they play their handbells.

The sound they make is out of this world beautiful.

It’s a very, very special event.

We’re only doing it once this year, and if you’re around in Edinburgh, I’d really recommend you come and see it.

Friday 7th August at 3.30 in St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral, Palmerston Place, Edinburgh.

Tickets

I really also just wanted to say hello to all the people who have subscribed and joined us.

It’s lovely to see you here.

I would explain in more detail a little bit more of what this Substack is about,

but I have to say I don’t really know myself.

It’s a project that’s being discovered.

Right now, I’m trying to catch up with the very profound experiences I had on Iona.

And I’m also trying to understand how this all relates to my life, to the story of my life.

And I’m also trying to make sure a copy of each one of my 115 playscripts is placed in the special collections of the library of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

And I’m also getting ready to welcome my daughter, Katie,

Whose beautiful and moving Substack is here…

Crocuses in the snow

who’s moving up from London to Edinburgh with her partner this coming Saturday.

And I’m also getting ready to travel to Gothenburg in Sweden to see the Swedish production of my “Gospel According to Jesus: Queen of Heaven,” which is part of the theatre festival there.

Me and Ro, my electric wheelchair, are travelling by train, so there’s quite a lot of preparations to be made.

And the sun is shining this Sunday morning,

and I’m drinking coffee in bed

and feeling happy and sending to you this extraordinary morning

love and wishes for your happiness, too….

Jo xxxx