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. :)

I'm not sure what stage he was at - he'd been eating like a horse for a while.
Jo had been ill for a few weeks, and he wasn't eating much, and it seemed like Seb was eating his share as well as his own, and then still begging for more.
maybe 6 weeks or so before he was given medication.
the Vet sent his blood off and gave him something (not sure what), then when the hyperthyroid was confirmed he gave him something to slow it down.

I really don't think that it was the hyperthyroid that was the problem, I think it was the broken heart.

you have to open our porch door to ring our bell.
and there's a knocker too.

Oh Nickel, so sorry about your cats. It's heartbreaking when they go. I still grieve for Jim, who was the sweetest cat ever. It's five years ago tomorrow that he was put to sleep...

:(

DH is feeling it a lot harder - he lived on his own for about 15 years before i came along, and he got them almost as soon as he moved in.
they were his replacement children, having had them for nearly 18 years from kittens.

:( I recall losing quite a few cats over the years and it never gets any easier.

:( nickel and greenheart - so sorry about your cats. Losing a loved pet is so very hard.

Yay Blue re ddo! And yay Tuo at ironed alb!

Love love love the how to write a worship song, it made me laugh out loud at the chords, words and powerpoint fail. All so very true dh loved it too.

Oh no... sorry to hear about the cats, Nickel and Greenheart. I'm more of - whisper it - a dog person, but I know how heartbreaking it is when the time comes for them to leave us.

Thanks for the sleeve warnings. I did discover a coffee stain on one sleeve - not my fault, as I wouldn't dare go near coffee in it knowing what a klutz I am - but luckily the sleeves are a bit short on me, so they weren't dangling anywhere near anything that was burning...! (Mary - that wasn't the same time that you got a bit enthusiastic with the incense and someone thought the church was burning down was it? )

I'm more of a chicken person

Oh, chickens, chickens. First we had the chicken that we thought was dead and then came back to life. That was one of the first lot, who all had names like Henny Penny, and Rosie the Hen. Then there the hapless chickens that got picked off one by one by a very efficient fox. Those were all named by ds1, so they were called things like Storm, Mountain and Tree. By the third lot we had stopped naming them. One by one they died off, and we were left with one. Oh no! Chickens are social birds, we said. She will pine and die. Luckily a friend had also been left with one, so it seemed a kindness to put them together. After three days of constant bullying (when we discovered the origin of the word 'crestfallen', the other chicken went back. So now we have one lonely chicken, no longer laying, stubbornly living on and evading the fox (she's even stayed out at night a couple of times when the door to her enclosure blows open).

Re the resurrected chicken. It really was supremely embarrassing, having gently broken it to the children that Rosie the Hen was dead that a couple of hours later she waddled up to the back door, large as life.

Thanks Niminy, I needed a good laugh!

No, that was a different occasion TUO :o, I have a shedload of occasions for wheeling out at appropriate times :o

Sorry for all those who are losing/have lost pets. :(

niminy
brilliant.

my first lot of hens (with my ex) were named after girls in Mambo number 5, we started with 3 and lost/gained along the way, so were able to use all the names (except Angela because it's too close to my name).
the last one to be named from Mambo number 5 was Mary, so we could seque into the Beautiful South's Song for Whoever if we needed to...
so we had:
Monica, jessica, erica
then sandra and rita
then pamela, tina and Mary

my chickens with DH we named after virtues- again so we could have a long list to pick from without ruining the theme.
so we've got (with reasons)
Hope (All my hope on god is founded)
Mercy (god's abundant Mercy)
and
Faith (because you' gotta have Faith)

(not faith hope and charity as people assume it will be)

thank you Mary

Love the chicken's names, nickel!

How's everyone's sunday going? I enjoyed church this morning. We had the passage from Ephesians 5 about husbands loving their wives as Christ loves the church - refreshing to just hear teaching on that part rather than the rest, and it concentrating on the Church as bride of Christ etc - very interesting sermon about the traditions of Jewish weddings in Jesus' day and how it all relates together for us as a church and how we act in the world etc.

Very lovely service here too, even if it did feature SJS (in a particularly unforgiving key for those of us who are tunefully challenged). There was some hilarity down where I was sitting as the Deputy Musical Director kept striking his lighter at ' Blaze, Spirit, blaze...' (and holding it up, ballad-at-a-rock-concert stylee) and setting the girls of the choir (and half the congregation) off in fits of giggles.

DD2 stepped in as a last-minute acolyte as there was some kind of crisis featuring an acolyte who was about 5 foot 2 and a collection of albs suitable only for people of 6 foot and over! She told me that she wanted to clap during SJS but couldn't because she was holding a candle at the time!

Freezing again this week. My feet are still cold! The heating is apparently being turned up by 5 degrees every two days. Trouble is, it must have started from about minus 3, so it's going to take a while... Still, the nave reopens in just over a month, which will be very exciting indeed.

What are people doing for Lent? I am going to try to give up (or massively reduce - I update a work FB page, which I probably can't just shut down!) my social media habit and read something improving instead. Recommendations welcome...

hmm
we had the transfiguration today.
and some people going up a mountain to talk to god.

efinitely peter and john, but can't remember who the other one was. jogn said "lovely to be here" and the others something equally lovely.

have to say, new vicar has impressed me a lot so far.

after last week when he said "let us pray" so the choirsat and then we realized it was the collect - I told him that after the service (let us pray translates to sit down!) and this week he said "the collect for , let us stand as we pray". good boy!
I say boy because he's only 34. surely I am far too young to have a vicar that's younger than me??? (by a whole 2 years)
he just seems like a nice bloke - the last one was a right knobhead and I hated him from the first moment.

sorry, my point there was that he told a nice sermon - the crux of it was the "church" being somewhere that we like to be

oh tuo that is hilarious!

And no SJS, Nickel?

(Sorry, cross-posted... Best thing to do with SJS is clearly to take the mickey out of it ever so slightly!)

Oh and we're going to be on Songs of Praise too, sometime (filming in April) as well as on a BBC4 documentary about cathedrals. [Fame!]

and damn right with holding a candle and not clapping.
sounds like she needs to hold that candle every time until she gets that idea out of her head!

we didn't have because we had it in advent and sodding GK kast week in restore oh dirge

we had lord enthroned in heavenly splendour, then Be Still (while the choir moved around a lot ), immortal invisble and praise to the lord the almighty.

oooh.
I might have to come and visit you in april then....

We had 'Immortal, invisible' too. And 'Alleluia, sing to Jesus'. And something else that I've forgotten. And a nice 'Panis angelicus' (Charpentier?) as communion anthem.

(At least DD didn't try to wave her candle along with the Deputy Musical Director's lighter! )

Not sure if we'll be there for SoP, as we're due back from the US the day before. Hopefully we'll be upright enough to get there, but I can just see DD2 dozing off and being filmed by the Beeb asleep on my shoulder! (She fell asleep during a performance of The Messiah once, which was OK till she started snoring and the chap sitting next to her - complete stranger - couldn't stop laughing. )

We had a bunch of hymns from Ancient and even more Ancient yesterday so I can't remember any of them.

I went to a service during the week for ordained and licenced women and the worship was brilliant. The music was well chosen, the prayers were well thought out, the sermon would have had a round of appaluse if we did that sort of thing and the reponses from the congo were said with conviction. The bishop had the toughest job as he had just chaired a debate on the legislation on women bishops and had to change gear (mentally as well as sartorially) in order to preside.

We started off yesterday with 'Great, great, brill brill, wicked wicked, skil skill, To have a friend like Jesus', which has actions that it's impossible for anyone over 14 to master. I missed most of the rest because I was doing Sunday School, and then when we did get back in I spent most of the time policing- helping some of our unaccompanied children to behave appropriately. But we finished with 'In Christ Alone' -- I think it's turgid and reminds me of 80s stadium rock but I know loads of people like it.

Your women's service sounds fantastic, greenheart. It's impossible for worship to be that good all the time but when it is it's a real high point, isn't it.

nickel glad your new vicar seems to have started off well. It's hard for everyone to negotiate those first few months when expectations are high and memories of the last incumbent are still fresh (ish, anyway).

I think I am going to try and do again what I did last year, which is not eat sugar in Lent. It was really hard, especially at first. I have a very sweet tooth! I'm also going to do Christian Aid's Count Your Blessings with the DCs.