Mumsnet Talk

YY to long hair, and always skirts, never trousers or jeans.

If I remember the "gossip" about this semi detached house becoming detatched by 1 cm, everyone in the Brethren pitched in to pay for it. Small village so not much housing stock.

The women always beautiful long hair - I don't think they can cut their hair?

Thank you re William Penn - It is the unjust trial story that I remember and that he founded my old school.

I know at our church the Patron (him from the big house !) used to get a say in the appointment of the vicar. Not sure that happened last time I'm sure the wardens and PCC had more of a say in who they interviewed.

If the Trustee is an Oxbridge College does the vicar have to have been to that college?

I have known Brethern of the non "exclusive" kind. Girls go to normal schools, look normal and often go to Uni. One couple I knew he is in IT and she's a Doctor. (You also wouldn't necessarily known their religion by looking at them.)

C of E Parishes choose their new vicar by a panel made up of representatives of the Parish/Parishes and the "Trustees" of the Parish which could be an Oxbridge College, or handled by a separate trust. There is a problem if a Church has been traditionally High, but its congregation has become Low, and the Parish and Trustees can't agree (I have known this happen in at least two cases).

Most C of E see Rev as quite an educational program.

Good grief - you neglect to check a thread for several days and see what happens! A mini course on theology

There are a lot of clever people out there, evidently!

A further word about Presbyterians: the Presbyterian Church USA, (the one with which I am most familiar) is the largest Presbyterian denomination in the US and has a strong commitment to social justice and to reaching out beyond its congregations to those in need. Presbyterians also are responsible for the establishment of many hospitals, colleges, and universities in the US.

There were a few Plymouth Brethren families in my secondary school in Dublin. They were all well off so no need for semi detached living.. The girls married young, pretty much two years out of school. No university for them. Their husbands tended to be all Plymouth Brethren -- I think the reason they were not sent to university even though they were bright girls and good students was that they were likely to meet non PB young men and form unsuitable attachments. The CofI communities (there were two very distinct ones) near my home also seemed to celebrate a lot of weddings of quite young couples every year.

William Penn was a Quaker. A key tenet of Quaker belief and practice is pacifism. Pennsylvania's nickname is the "Quaker State."

It is amusing to me that the University of Pennsylvania's sports teams use the nickname the "Quakers." You don't usually associate a sport like American football with a pacifist approach.

Re the 'church' and 'chapel'

Growing up in the 60s I was always aware that there was a difference.

We were chaple and I always felt that C of E (church) looked down on us. Even at school the HT and most of the teachers were C of E and I thought they favoured their own. I might have been wrong but that's what I felt. I never mentioned this....until now!

I went along with all my siblings and cousins to the Methodist Sunday school. My grandma and aunts also went to chapel but the men only went for special occasions.
Mum didn't go unless her DC were singing or performing. She was chaple as well but Baptist (signed the pledge!).

I know that Grandma's family were all Methodist and it was very important to her. So I was surprised to find when doing the family tree that she was married the at the C of E parish church. She wasn't the only one. Her parents did the same and so did all the aunts and uncles.

DH thinks that they did it to save money because if they were married at the Methodists the Minister would perform the ceremony but they would have to pay a registrar to do the legal bit. Whereas at the parish church the vicar would do the lot. It certainly wasn't to look good on the photos because none were taken.

Too bad if you're a poor Brethren then

I taught a couple if children from Plymouth Brethren households years back. They couldn't do ICT and other than that I knew very little about it. Didn't feel able to ask them all about it for some reason. A pity.

Oh Mummy thank you - I couldnt remember the name - Brethren. They are the ones who discected the semi detatched house as they can't have a house attached to a non Brethren.

William Penn anyone? Set up Pennysilvania - was he of the John Wesley time as Penn was thrown in prison and when tried, the jury failed to deliver the verdict required by the Judge, so they were thrown in prison. Is this why he then went over to America? And if so, what type of Church did he instigate in America?

I think the leanings are just traditional. The PCC appoint the kind of vicar they want.

A high church would appoint an anglo-catholic vicar and call him father as the RC do.
A vicar who didn't want that wouldn't apply for the job.

Am loving this thread. I have wondered these things for years.

As for the "leanings" of a parish church, is that decided by the priest in charge? Who decides if a congregation will be "high" or "low", given that many churches in this country are just little Norman village churches? And as for the cities, are/were the churches built with the intention of being one thing or another? And where did the funds come from to build them, particularly more modern 20thC churches and chapels. So many questions!

One more thing - here in Cornwall, Wesley preached EVERYWHERE. In fact, I'm thinking of getting some plaques done: "John Wesley didn't preach here."

Thanks blueEye I've always wondered! & just seen blooming iPhone spell checked wondered to wandered...

Aftereights - "Chapel" in that context probably means Methodist, but could be any non-conformist (ie not CofE denomination) where "Church" meant CofE - "is he church or chapel?"

My step dad often refers to a friend of his as being a "wee wee free" church member. He goes to a free Presbetarian church. He doesn't do things on a Sunday, one time he was due at a wedding and wouldn't go as it meant travelling home on teh ferry on the Sunday.

(he lives in the Western isles)

I also used to help out at youth club sport events and teams from the western isles wouldn't travel on sundays either

What a fascinating thread. Thanks to all that have contributed, can I ask what 'chapel' means? I've always wandered its a line in an agatha christie (can't remember where but something like 'I'm chapel').

That should have been sing. Can anyone tell me the difference between a Primative Methodist and a Wesleyan?

I grew up in a small village that had both of the above and a C of E, RC church and a Baptist church.

No, I edited out his remarks on RC as not being suitable for the elevated tone of this thread (it ranged from disapproving of the doctrine of transubstantiation to disapproving of the cover up of child abuse by senior members of the church hierarchy).

He was brought up nice but dull and is now a non-believer, but very happy to benefit from the endless cake stalls!

His he RC Grendels?

I grew up nice but dull and now I don't believe in anything.........I do love a good sign/cake stall!

I was telling my DH about this thread last night, and he would like to contribute the following summary

Baptists: nutters
Methodists: nice but dull
CoE: don't really believe in anything

I shall leave it up to your imaginations to decide which one I am!

I went to a service in a very 'strict' Baptist church once. The preaching went on for sometime and was very much 'Hell fire and brimston'.

The women all wore hats or little lace squares to cover their heads. I was OK as a C of E church goer. Those who were not really were .

This has been an interesting read even though I was aaware of most of it.

I don't think it's been mentioned yet that Baptists and Methodists were often tea total. In the past one of their main aims was saving the working classes from the evils of drink!

This definately set them apart from the C of E and RC.

FIL used to call Methodists and Baptists the Ranters. He was very traditional C of E.

Baptist Churches tend to operate as independent congregations, or small clusters. They can vary a lot within that, so within my town (that I know of) there is a group of Baptist Churches (one big central one, and satellite congregations) which is pretty Happy Clappy but also a fairly broad church and has women ministers. I know when they choose their "in chief" Minister he wasn't actually a Baptist but from an independent church.
There is also a smaller independent Baptist which is a bit more fundamentalist, but is quite welcoming to strangers and runs toddler groups and holiday clubs. There are also 1 or 2 "strict" Baptist congregations, which don't seem to mix with others much. They seem most similar to the Brethern Church, which seems to be pretty exclusive; I have known lots of "non exclusive" Brethern, but the ones here shun technology, women wear head scarfs and no make-up, and they have their own school.

Very interesting fair so have i got this right Anglicanism is actually more diverse than Protestantism is as a whole?

Not quite. There are lots of protestant denominations, both mainstream and non-mainstream, far more than the different strains of Anglicanism.

'The frozen chosen' refers to a certain up-tightness among Presbyterians. It bespeaks a coldness of attitude, judgemental towards the poor, AIDS victims, etc. Used as a derogatory term by non-Presbyterians when this is the intended meaning.