Installation of The Rt Revd Dr Dagmar Winter as Bishop of Edinburgh

Ephesians 4.4-16 and Luke 22.24-27
Lord, may the words of scripture we have heard continue to dance before us and weave themselves around us with a message for this day.
What, I wonder, is God’s favourite colour? For half of this city, it is maroon for Hearts; for the other half, Hib’s green. But I believe, if God has a favourite colour, it is tartan!
Tartan, because God brings together the threads of our experiences, joys and failures, dreams and dashed hopes, to create the colour and pattern of our lives. Tartan, because God brings together the threads and messiness of individual lives to create the colour and pattern of our communities. And God brings together often broken threads to create the colour and pattern of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.
Dagmar, as a bishop you have the privilege of seeing the next length of that tartan emerge from the loom of the Diocese of Edinburgh. Through what you bless you will see new colours and patterns emerge, and, like so many clergy and laity, you will witness the glint of the golden threads of the mini-miracles of God’s Holy Spirit at work in churches across this diocese - vows of marriage and baptism made and honoured, inspiration gleaned, prayers answered, forgiveness offered and received, healing brought, and times of loss and mourning marked.
But you come first and foremost, as our Gospel reading reminds us, as one who serves. At the Last Supper, the disciples had begun to rank themselves and Luke says that “a dispute arose among them.” They were having a real barney. Jesus will have none of it. “A leader is the one who serves”, he said. John’s gospel goes further, and shows how Jesus models these words by washing his disciples’ feet. I wonder what our church would be like if, rather than bread and wine being blessed and shared, Jesus had said that foot washing was what we are to do in remembrance of him?
The symbols of episcopal office – the mitre, the pastoral staff, even the position in processions, can seduce us far too easily away from that simple call to live in the shadow of the Galilean and be like him. One former bishop of Edinburgh said that new bishops have an operation to fit them with roller-skates to glide around their cathedral, and at the same time their backbone is removed! Being a runner, and having Tilda the lurcher at your side, means you have no need for roller-skates. But hold on to your backbone!
Remember, too, the words of a wise Borders’ shepherd who said that she uses her shepherd’s crook not to prod the sheep, or hook them by the leg, but plants the staff in the ground so as to hold on to it and be still - so that the sheep learn to trust her and gather round. I know that folk will gather around you as your quiet and gentle authority, attentive pastoral care, desire for accountability, and ministry as a teacher, grows to be appreciated - just as it has been in each place you have ministered.
And that is not least because you listen well. I know you come here ready to serve with love and courage. I know you don’t come here with ready-made answers for the uncertainties and difficulties of the future. As the green of ordinary time gives way to purple, then the white and red of the other seasons of the liturgical year, so you will add your own colour and texture to the tartan weave of this place.
That weave in the life of this nation and our family of nations is sadly frayed and torn in so many places. Inequality, poverty, differentials in life’s outcomes across this city and diocese, are rife. Popularism and polarisation are stoking division and refuse to see the face of Jesus in the vulnerable. We are experiencing how the mighty have no fear for the consequence of their latest angry reactions. Antisemitism, that perennial light sleeper, is awake on our streets. We continue to cook the climate and mute the creatures of our God and King.
Alongside the other denominations and faith communities of this nation, there is a continued need, to bind up the broken-hearted, challenge injustice, and care for our single-island planet home, and to be the peace seekers, peace makers and peace keepers we so desperately need. We are called to be good news, sharing our joyful faith with our communities, our country, and our world - living a parable of hope.
The Scottish Episcopal Church’s has long done that. Her contribution to the Anglican Communion continues to be a gift. Just as she was a gift to me as a student in this city thirty something years ago – and some of you who wonderfully inspired me about the Gospel are here! To be that gift, Saint Paul begs the infant church in Ephesus, and us, to have humility, gentleness and patience in our relationships, bearing each other in love.
We need to hold both a passion for the unity of Jesus in his love with his Father in the Spirit, with a passion for unity in our love for each other and with the rest of the Church, for the sake of our common mission to the world. But we know all too well that mission can all too easily be damaged by poor safeguarding practices, by internal conflict, words said or not said, or an inattention to root who we are and what we do in deep scriptural reflection. When this happens, we must urgently look to weave again ways for the “building up of the body of Christ”.
Dearest Bishop Dagmar, be encouraged to weave into the body of Christ in this diocese the threads of saints that have charted your life. From Heidelberg, bring St Peter’s building up of the church; from Aberdeen, St Machair’s missionary vision; from Bromley, St Mark will firmly ground you in teaching the truth of the Gospel; from Hexham, may St Andrew help you to bring others to Jesus; from Kirkwelpington and Kirkheaton et al bring St Bartholomew’s preaching. St Wilfrid’s zeal and perseverance will help you from your second spell in Hexham. The land at Hexham was gifted by St Etheldreda, in a sense an early church planter, and she linked you to Ely and Huntingdon. Let her inspire your imagination of new things, and your prayerful faithfulness seeking God’s kingdom. And here in Edinburgh, St Margeret could be your mentor in her love for people and instigator of good works. Together, these threads of the saints will weave colour and pattern to these days.
My prayer, and the prayer of all of us here, is that this next season will be a joyous adventure under God for you, and for the people and places of this diocese. It is that God who, in Jesus and by the power of the Holy Spirit, invites us to a banquet; a glorious, joyous banquet where all are invited, laid out before us on a tartan tablecloth!