Church

[crystaltips]

How many of you are avid church-goers?
How many of you want to go to church but never seem to have enough hours in the day?
I feel a great draw to our church - but with a young family it's a toss-up between making an appearance and a couple of extra hours in bed

Whenever I DO go I always get a kind welcome - and a few "welcome back" comments.

Is it enough to think kind, spiritual and "christian" thoughts ?

I really hate Give me oil in my lamp! Loads of favoutites, changes all the time, I pick my funeral hymns regularly and the only constant is me being carried out to 'You will go out with Joy and be led forth with peace'!!

I like lots of modern songs but my favourites are old hymns, esp And Can It Be and Crown Him With Many Crowns.

For dd's baptism I chose Be Still, The Summons and Dear Lord and Father of Mankind (I'm not one for inclusive language! ) The priest chose Morning Has Broken and God is Love, Let Heaven Adore Him. It was a terrific service.

For DS's christening we had to have rugby songs - chosen by DH of course! I vow to thee my country, Guide me o thou great redeemer & Jerusalem!! Glad I am not the only one who regularly thinks about my funeral hymns as well!!

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Robin, hope you get some good and philosophical advice from the dedicated christians here - I wonder if bloss is around?

It must be so difficult to celebrate christmas while thinking of your mother. Hope she is comfortable at least.
tigermoth

robinw, I've often pondered this myself. I'm sure there's a difference between suicide and accepting that it's time to die and allowing yourself to do so. When life is only prolonged because of medical intervention then, in many cases, I believe that that life is over. Euthanasia worries me but would support any individuals right to stop clinging to life and let go. It can be a blessed relief for the patient and their family. So, to get to the point, I'm sure such a decision would not be a sin.

robinw - as I practising Christian I do NOT consider it a sin to have a living will, I know others will not share my view, but having seen several relatives & friends die very stressfully and painfully - I fully endorse the idea of a living will. HOWEVER, it is one thing saying it & one thing doing it, my grandmother was very keen on the idea and made us promise 'not to let her live if she went senile' of course, that's exactly what happened and by the time she was completely 'dotty' (no offence to anyone intended) she was living very 'happily' in a wonderful home - she didn't know the state she was in, was always happy & smiling when we visited & a great favourite of the staff; in the end she did become physically ill & her morphine doses were slowly upped (no questions were asked, it was just done) & eventually she died very peacefully with my mother & I at her side.

My other point of view is that why do those of us who believe in the afterlife fear death so much? Of course I am not keen to die quite yet, & don't want to die painfully, but I believe that our life on earth is just the beginning and I am very positive about what will happen when we die, in the purely religious sense, I am not into ghosts etc. Sorry to get philosophical but it is a question that really interests me.

Good luck Robinw, I do appreciate the difficult situation you are in, having been through it so many times myself.

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robinw - would book tapes be helpful? Either using a walkman or a tape recorder in the room?

Our local library seems to have a large range of book tapes available and I assume others do too.

My mum had a bad car accident several years ago and spent a lot of time with the only view being the ceiling, and the book tapes really helped.

robinw, sympathy. I would so hate to be like that too but I have no helpful suggestions. Georgina's idea about book tapes sounds good, if she can manage a buzzer to get someone to come and change the tapes round for her or adjust the headset if it slips.

Can't think of anything worse really than to be stuck in bed with almost no faculties. I am atheist so not who you were asking to hear from but it makes me think that I should spell out to my children way before it becomes essential that I would not want to hang around any longer than necessary and would they please make sure that I don't have to.

On the other hand, I get the impression that people who want to go just go, ASAP, so if a person who is pretty much at the end of their rope hangs on, who are we to make the choice for them? I thought the Diane Pretty situation was very interesting - it had sounded as if she was going to hang around for months getting weaker and weaker but in the end she popped off quite neatly as if she was fed up with the whole thing.

My dad died in February. He was 81 and had not been in particularly good health for years but again, in the end, went off (apparently) more or less painlessly and I tend to think, well, he was lucky.

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