I am a Christian (presbyterian with a 'Wee Free' background). AMA

[NoHaudinMaWheest]

This is a follow on from the brilliant orthodox Jewish threads to enable people to ask questions about Christianity without derailing those ones.

I was brought up in the Free Church of Scotland. It is often known as the Wee Frees so I have put that in the title but it is a somewhat derogatory term and not one I would usually use.

I left the Free Church when I was about 30 for really complicated reasons. I spent a long time as an Anglican but having recently moved back to Scotland I now go to the mainstream established Church of Scotland.
I have also attended various independent evangelical and Baptist churches in my time.

So I am happy to try to answer any questions but please note I really am not qualified to speak on behalf of Catholics, or many other Christian branches.

On the tattoos thing from a Catholic POV, they would almost certainly just ask a priest, or sometimes me (I'm never sure, when they do that, whether they're asking me as a catechist, or a theologian, or just a general insufferable know-it-all). They probably have quite a blurred understanding of whether they're expecting there to be a defined doctrinal position they have to follow or whether they're asking for non-binding advice on a sort of 'what would you do?' basis. Hopefully a decent priest would make clear whether he was giving the Church's official teaching or his own, theologically formed, opinion. I have actually been asked the tattoo question by a family in dispute (the mother didn't want her adult son to get one and wanted me to back her up so she sent him to me).

This is THE definitive thread on Protestant church treats. Admittedly it’s pertaining to Northern Irish culture rather than Scottish, but it has a rightful place in MN Classics and is well worth a read!

fink I like your biscuits after the service survey.
Traditionally the Free Church did do after service coffee. We just stood outside in the cold talking instead and of course the minister's family was last to leave.

The tea was after missionary meetings, inductions etc and was a feast of home baking and sandwiches. If all the helpers didn't go home with a tin of left overs the organisers had under catered.

didn't do

fingeroffudge dd was just urging me to find the link to that thread. The Free Church baking is very similar.

I remember the Traybake thread (I might even be on it somewhere). It made me really jealous that my family are Irish, not NI, and we never got a sniff of a traybake. Ours was all Granny's rhubarb tart and Niamh's apple cake, not a Malteaser in sight. I didn't have a millionaire's shortbread, or even know what one was, until well into adulthood.

I don't remember what sort of things we had at big church events in England growing up. My family weren't very deeply involved, so maybe we just didn't go to them. Nowadays I'm in a very multicultural parish so it's all jollof rice and pansit. We bring tupperware for leftovers!

The protestant tray bake thread is brilliant. And certainly reminds my of CoS events and my mum baking stuff.

But I didn't realise the RC churches don't really have such events. However I've been to an adults party in a Chapel Hall with a proper bar and alcohol, I think the Preist might even have been DJing.
That is something that I don't think would ever happen in a CoS.

We do certainly have gatherings with plentiful food: hot chocolate, biscuits and cake after Midnight Mass at Christmas and the Easter Vigil; big parties with lots of home cooked food for things like ordinations, major saints' days, national festivals; tea, coffee, shop-bought biscuits and cake a couple of times a week ...

A lot of parishes have an associated Catholic club, which usually has a licensed bar. And you will often get entertainment on a Saturday or Sunday evening.

It's just we don't have traybakes!

I’m Catholic. It just means that Catholicism places more emphasis on tradition than scripture ( compared to Protestants who obviously rejected traditional veneration of saints and Mary in favour of the primacy of the Bible)

Just wondering... you say that yoga is a no no because it has roots in Hinduism but yet you're happy to celebrate Halloween that has roots in Paganism? Why is one thing ok and the other not?

Halloween is rthe evening before All Hallows- a day to commemorate saints . Early Christians often adopted previous pagan festivals and gave them a Christian “interpretation.
The original pagan celebration was Celtic ( called Samhain)

I thought you said you were Presbyterian not Catholic?

No …

the OP is presyterian / protestant this is a zombie thread

I am the OP. There are Christians from the presbyterian tradition who would not be happy with yoga or Halloween. Others would feel that both are sufficiently far away from their pagan or Hindu roots to be ok.
In the Free Church context in which I grew up, Halloween was just about ok as it was very much part of general Scottish culture. We weren't allowed to dress up as eg witches or ghosts but as fairy tale characters or generic pirates or ballerinas for example. The custom was to go to houses and do your 'piece' (a song, dance, poem or joke) and get apples, nuts and sometimes sweets in return. We only went to a few neighbours we knew. Then at home we would dook for apples and maybe have a special tea. The horror aspect of modern Halloweens just didn't exist. There were some Free Church families who wouldn't celebrate Halloween even then and I think with the modern forms that has become more common.
Yoga didn't really feature until I was a young adult. Some people felt it could be separated from its roots as just a form of exercise; others felt that it was too tied up with Hindu practice. It is not something I have ever really wanted to do so I don't have strong feelings or much knowledge either way.

Thanks for this, sorry I didn't realise someone else replied instead. Do you know of any parents right now who don't celebrate Halloween and how they navigate it with current culture ie school Halloween parties, Halloween crafts in educational settings etc?

I am not actually in touch with anyone who doesn't celebrate Halloween and has children of that age. Going on how similar things are managed most people would compromise if the crafts are fairly innocuous (pumpkin faces for example) but withdraw children from anything more 'dark'. Some families wouldn't participate at all. Obviously it marks children out but usually they are well versed in the reasons and will accept it at primary age anyway.

I didn't celebrate Halloween with dc. If there was a dress up day they dressed as saints. I didn't mind them colouring in pumpkins, apple bobbing and so on. I'm not aware that schools did anything darker. They went to Catholic schools so I hope not.