What does your Church do, that you really wish they didn't?

[Sausagenbacon]

I'm obviously not going to do a flounce on the basis of this, but..
We used to have hymn numbers in the service sheet (there's no boards). But they've stopped doing that, in the aim of inclusion. Instead, the hymn numbers are announced during the service.
Which is ok, except when we stand to offer one another a sign of peace.
So the clergy say 'you may now offer each other a sign of peace, and the next hymn is xx'
Written down, it doesn't sound that bad, but it actually feels like an interruption in a lovely part of the service.

Happy clappy style of worship.
Offering the sign of peace - J just sit with my head down.
We've had 45 minute sermons in the past but that minister has left thankfully.

Dipping the bread in the wine at communion. They started doing it during covid and have continued. I can't stand bread dipped in any liquid; it totally turns my stomach. So I haven't taken wine at church since they started that.
Intincting
We are specifically told not to do it.

Never heard of the dipping bread thing but I think I would struggle with that too. Soggy bread really isn't my thing.

Not allowed at my church

I’ve stopped going to my church. I’m looking for another though.
my issues were lack of pastoral care, I was in hospital twice last year. One was for an admission of three months and the other for a month. I was critically ill. I heard not a dicky bird from anyone but when I did go back was asked when I could resume driving Nora to church (I wasn’t driving). My husband would drive me to church and then go for a coffee
The hymns are dire - nothing from certainly the last century.

I wish they would stop using regular bread and switch to gluten free fir communion. That way my DD and I could take communion without fuss and stress at the beginning of the service (or sometimes not being able to take communion at all).
We have Coeliac disease and the smallest crumb from cross contamination with the bread or wine would make us both very ill and in a lot of pain for days.

I know it's not the same as taking communion together but our church uses these (another bugbear of mine)

www.eden.co.uk/church-supplies/communion-wine/pre-filled-communion-cups/100-gluten-free-pre-filled-communion-cups-with-wafer-juice-miracle-meal/

@FloralGums not sure which branch of Christianity you’re from but I’m catholic and at my school I had a coeliac schoolmate who had special communian wafers. Hers was kept in a little pouch and blessed separately, and then given at communion. This was mid-1980s so not a new thing either.

used to go to churches of England. Totall bull s
the ones still going there must be blind, perv or supporting abusers.

I'm Catholic and our church has gluten-free wafers available. I used to work in a Christian bookshop which sold church supplies and we sold them.

In most churches in was stopped during the pandemic, as being utterly unhygienic (as well as disgusting). People's fingers carry more germs than their lips.

@FloralGums have you explained your situation and asked for a swap?

Have you to talked to the vicar and church warden?
At our church it's sorted well. I am coeliac too.

@Zippea
Im not a church goer, although I do believe.
Im sorry you had that experience although im not surprised. I’m my experience many people go to church to be seen to be going and doing good…..

We might disagree on what "the wrong tune" is of course!

When I was a child at primary school in the 1960s we used to sing "All Things Bright and Beautiful" to three different tunes. I rarely hear one these days, but I'd say the other two are equally common.

Similarly, I'd say there are two equally common tunes used for "O Jesus I Have Promised".

Yes, and Christmas services have narrowly missed descending into riots over which setting of ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’ is being used. I was once at one in Leicestershire where the organist played the intro to the other one (is it Harold Darke?) and the choir started to sing it, but the congregation started singing the Holst version louder until the choir gave up and joined in.

They’ve gone gluten free at our church for exactly this reason. Hopefully your church will do it too

worrisomeasset · 24/12/2024 09:40

When I was a child, the vicar’s wife used to mentally add up the hymn numbers on the board at the front. It was more interesting for her than listening to her husband’s sermons

You’ve reminded me of Keeping Mum. Think we’ll watch it later 😁

Who are they including by not having the numbers on the board?

@HotBath: that happened at our church once too!

I love both settings but at our carol services (which I help organise) we only use the Darke version when it's the choir only singing. If the congregation is joining in it has to be Holst.

Same with several other carols. I love the traditional French tune for Away in a Manger.- and the Walford Davies setting of O Little Town of Bethlehem (as well as the better known versions) but only use them when it's just the choir singing.

I'm in Scotland and I hate having hymns sung to Scottish folk song tunes etc. We had a minister whose wife had too much say in what went on and every week there would be one or two hymns like this.

I don't get the stuff about bread dipped in wine. I've never heard of this before and it sounds awful.

It's a cathedral, so it never has had number boards

We have hymn boards as a number of my congregations are hearing impaired so might not catch what I'm saying. Sometimes the dirge like speed of hymns is because the organist is having an off day. Mostly mine play at a good speed and I manage to head most of the really obscure stuff off when we do the monthly hymn choices.

What I really dislike is the way that conservative churches don't tell people they are conservative on their websites. Not one says that they do not agree with women in ministry. You have to decode 'bible believing' or something similar. If I'm in a church that doesn't agree with the ordination of women, because the priests are longing for the Cof E to rejoin Rome, I make sure I give the altar a good tainting by patting it.

Oh and an independent safeguarding organisation is essential.

What are these?!

So do I. I left our local church when we were doing an action sing and I realised the kids were all at Sunday school and it was just adults being infantilised to wave our arms around. I used to mentally apologise to Jesus. Sorry, you used to get Hallelujah choruses written for you but now you get jump around praise songs.