Here is the church and here is the steeple...

[Tapoopoo]

If you know the next lines, where did you grow up?

We did it all the time as children. It didnt make sense then. It doesnt make sense now.

It popped into my head and no one here knew what I was talking about with with the finger action. I grew up West Mids.

Open the doors, and here's the people <wiggles fingers>

W Yorks

Oh we used to say ‘look inside here’s all the people’

Scotland

Open the gates (thumbs) and out come all the people! West mids.

"here's the parson going up stairs, and here he is saying his prayers"

Cyprus and Devon

It didnt make sense then. It doesnt make sense now. It makes more sense than many childhood rhymes!

Open the doors, here's all the people.

Open the doors/look inside here are the people. North West (Liverpool)

Exactly this. Scotland and SE England.

Open the doors and see all the people (Berkshire)

It does make sense though, you make the church and steeple shape with your fingers, and then when you open it, all the fingers become little people .

Almost exactly that, but there’s the people.
W Yorks.

Yes, same but that was the 3rd and 4th line after seeing all the people

I've never heard the parson part, how does that work?

(Turn hands over)

... & insude are all the people.

Hampshire.

Cheshire and always known it. Also 'two little dickie birds ...' where you hid your fingers behind your back.

‘Open the doors and here’s all the people’. East Mids

Why doesn’t it make sense? The church, the steeple, the doors, the people. I like it 😂

Yes Peter and Paul!

"open the doors and here are the people". Devon, sixty years ago.

Thanks for this, I'd forgotten all about it.

The same. London

Open the doors, here are the people.

Then you put your hands back to back instead and:
here is the Parson going upstairs, and here is the Parson saying his prayers.

Cambridgeshire

You split your hands apart and kind of walk two fingers of your right hand up the fingers of your left hand. For the saying the prayers bit you waggle one of the “walking” fingers over your left hand index finger as though it’s leaning over it

‘Look inside and there’s the people’.
Grew up in Sussex. (Still here 😂)

I remember here’s the choirboys going upstairs and here’s the parson saying his prayers ( Surrey)