Cool Choirs, Clappy Choruses, Cringy Coffee: Religion Chat Thread No 5

[madhairday]

I thought seeing as our other thread has gone somewhere into the oblivion that is old MN pages, I would start us up again anew for a new term. This is a place for those who are Christians (and anyone who's not, we're not an exclusive little club) to chat about life, theology, church, any other stuff and of course Graham Kendrick, as nickel would not forgive me if I forgot to mention him

So all welcome, old and new, it would be fun to chat and chew over anything that comes to mind. Lurkers say hello!

Anyone got a nice juicy topic to get the ball rolling then? Or if not come say hi anyway and tell us how you are doing. :)

Ooh niminy that does sound a difficult one, you could talk lots about Henry VIII, the thirty nine articles etc etc but that may be more persuasive of not being an Anglican have fun! Hope you get it done ok. I kind of miss essay writing

I've always said that the Anglican tradition goes from Catholic to Pentecostal with everything in between, so there's a church group for everyone. My parents go to a very high church (everything sung) which was also the one linked to my junior school. So we got taught everything, the sung prayers, the lot.

When I was at uni, dithering about what I believed, I was taken to something I was sure I was going to hate - a charismatic, evangelical Anglican church with 2+h services (and that just the evening one!) and using the Pentecostal hymn book. I heard the gospel preached and that was that! Stayed there till I left and still miss the place.

Now at one somewhere in between (though I still don't like overenthusiastic drummers). So niminy I think there are a lot of strengths in the Anglican community. And so many potential divisions because of it. People just see those and take their eyes off God, which is sad but so very human.

V. happy Anglican here this morning!

(That doesn't help you at all, does it niminy? But... you know, just sayin'!)

Morning :)

Afternoon! I'm at home with a vile cold, and the dcs have a less vile version, so I (weakly) agreed that they could have the day off school, so we are all here disappearing under a pile of used tissues.

I'm still struggling with the essay on Anglicanism. But tonight it MUST be finished. And that's final.

Anyway, the 39 articles and the diversity of Anglican belief will be in thee somewhere, even if the six wives don't make it

good luck with the essay niminy

I can totally echo the slowlyness of the discernment process
I saw the DDO yesterday as he came to do our Eucharist, we had an informal chat. Said I will be seeing my vocations adviser again on 2nd November and see where it goes from there.

Hope you can get the essay done soon niminy.

Blue, exciting stuff. So you'll be seeing the vocations adviser before the baby is born - just? :)

Hope all is well with everyone.

I'm still not so well here, it's getting tedious really. Trying to use the downtime to get more writing done but come across a bit of a block, a bit of a 'what is this book about anyway?' Help...

Oh, MHD, that's tough. Being ill is horrible, and having writers block is horrible. Having them both together though - yeurgh. I'll be keeping you in my prayers. (what's the book about ?)

I've just about done the essay - and now have to get everything done that I've put off while I was writing it. Blue, great that you are seeing the Vocations Adviser. I have a link saved somewhere to a CofE document that explains all about the discernement process and why it is so long. PM me if you'd like me to send you the link.

niminy it's about disability and the church, health and healing, usefulness and uselessness. How the church reflects society in valuing people by what they are able to do for the church and how this can be destructive to people with illness and disability. etc etc. Getting there

MHD that sounds like a book that really needs to be written. (So no pressure, then

I know, I'm just sooo bad at motivation. It would help if the internet went down or something

Tell me about it! I've sent off my essay to the DDO though, so tht's one small achievement

ah, I missed your essay niminiminimini

MHD - what about church entrances?
we've only noticed this in our church since having a pram, but every bloomin week we have to unbolt the 2nd entrance door to make it wide enough for the pram (and i keep telling them!), and they're big heavy bolts.

It's enough to turn away pram users, but people in wheelchairs would stand no chance! (pram pushers can open the other door and go "cooo-eyyy" but wheelchair users cannot really jump out of their chair to fetch help!)

Don't get me started on such things, nickel....

Hi ladies - hope you don't mind if I join you for a bit. I haven't read the whole thread. I just wanted to come where to garner some opinions about how to deal with the whole Halloween thing. I don't like the thing at all. Our church (middle of the road evangelical Anglican) is doing "The Treat" on the evening for older kids but my kids are toddlers. Our street, which is a great street in every respect with lovely neighbours want to do a dressing-up street party with hot-dogs etc. I've said we don't really "do" Halloween but can you give me some opinions about how to avoid this (other than just being out!). The kids will be really sad to miss all the festivities but I hate the idea of exposing them to all the nonsense of halloween before I really have to.

All the best for all the essays by the way, I have to say I don't miss the studying days!

We're managing to avoid Halloween for now as it is DD1's birthday. Not sure what will happen when she's older though... she's only 4 this year.

In the past we've been known to turn the lights off and go to bed early on halloween... We don't tend to get many knocking round here though and most of the neighbours would ask first - there seems to be a convention that you don't knock unless there is a pumpkin or similar by the door.

However, there was a recent post on the good book company blog suggesting handing out sweets with a little leaflet (not keen on the word tract!) like these here - not sure if I'm brave enough...

With the dcs I just say that we don't celebrate Halloween as it isn't a Christian festival and talk about the Christian festivals that we do celebrate and that we can look forward to those.

DD is asking again this year if she can go trick or treating. She's now 13, and we don't do it. I've explained to her that many of the old folks get scared and intimidated by it, and have given her examples of things that have happened in the past. Whilst my feelings are ambivalent about it all, that is a good practical reason, although she does feel left out.

We went to a light party once, as I think I've mentioned before, and DS got terrified by the pastor and wet himself :(. Much younger than he is now, but it stopped us ever going again, it wasn't handled very well.

Is TUO about? I'm filling up our Link Romania shoebox tomorrow for it to be handed in at church on Sunday. Despite the name of the charity it also dispenses shoe boxes to other countries in that region. I just wondered what is appreciated particularly by the recipients?

On the prayer thread, it says she's gone away for the weekend, cloutie.

I had a theological debate with a Cambridge professor of divinity this morning! About the unforgiveable sin against the Holy Spirit!

Cloutie, is it TUO or thanks a million you want? She is in Romania. Not sure that I have seen her on line just recently.

Ooer Mary, what happened? What did (s)he say?

Oops, yes, I meant thanksamillion. Sorry. Does anyone have any ideas? I'm going shopping this afternoon but so far I have small bottles of shampoo and shower gel, toothpaste, toothbrushes, colouring in pad and pencils, toy cars, novelty pencil and sharpener, small toilet bag, sweets and a candle. There is still a bit of space though. Most of these things are listed in the leaflet that I received but there doesn't seem to be anything there for a man.

I was thinking about your book MHD. In a church that I used to go to there is an aging population. This has meant that they have a large percentage of retired people and they rely on the retired people to keep everything running smoothly. I suppose this is the case in many churches. My Dad tells me that many retired people, especially men, feel they have lost their purpose a bit. I'm rambling, but just thought it was a good example of the church being inclusive of a group who can feel marginalised in society.

I don't particularly like halloween. The kids love it though and I enjoyed going guising when I was a kid (I refuse to say trick or treating). I'm trying to reach a compromise with the DSs - they can dress up as pretty much anything they want provided it isn't the devil. It just feels wrong to me to encourage your kids to dress up in a devil costume.

I'm in a minority here, I think.

although I won't allow DD to do trick-or-treating, I don't mind if other kids do (we have a bowl of sweets and things that we then eat the leftovers of!)

I will teach DD the proper origins of All Hallows' Eve and how it relates to All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day.

St Mary's has a party thing called "The Alternative" every year on Hallowe'en and loads of kids go to that - it's great fun and loads of activities, but no scary costumes allowed.