hideous hymns, vocal vicars and theatrical thuribles. Religious Chat Thread Number 6!

[nickelbabe]

Welcome to the Religion Chat thread.
We're mostly Christians, but all are welcome.
a lovely soace to talk about church life, spiritual journeys and stuff in general.
It's not about debate, it's about chat.
Come oldies and newbies!

this is the previous thread

Just back from filming for Songs of Praise. Taking dd2 with jet-lag was a baaaaaaaad idea. Her tolerance levels for eleventy-squillion takes of everything, plus rehearsals, plus 'let's just do it once more for the visuals' was very low indeed. I am 90% certain there will no shots of us, due to her variously pulling faces, leaning against the wall, refusing to sing, and whining. Ah well... you live and learn! We'll be broadcast in October...

Nice to be back. You've all been quiet while I've been away...

*tolerance levels ... were [must preview]

Hey Tuo! How was your holiday? Will definitely watch Songs of Praise when you're on. Sounds heroic that you got there with jet lag.

I've been on a bit of a break because the dcs' school is being threatened with being turned into an academy and I'm leading the governor working party fighting the bastards from the DfE researching the options. It's grim and depressing. Our lovely school, that has been so supportive of ds1 and where he's settled so well ... I hate to think what will happen if it has to be taken over by some snotty school in a leafy village, and when all the good teachers and the head leave. Yuck.

More positively I have a new pair of pink suede shoes that are very cheering, and ds2 and I went on an epic train trip around Sussex from Chichester to Rye. We stayed in a delightful b&b in Bognor (which was pretty nasty) and brought the average age of the occupants down by several decades. It's nice to feel young once in a while !

oh, you can guarantee there will be a shot of her pulling faces!

I'm so glad you're trying to fight academy status. one of the best ways of privatizing schools from the inside

okay, I asked NV the questions.
I told him about the thread and that the questions were very important indeed, he wouldn't be judged on them, and that I promised that no one in either church would ever see them. I told him he had to do gut feeling and not to try to answer how he thought he was expected to.
happy clappy or traditional?
he ummed and ahhed on that because he was tryibg to work out what it meant (I said modern instead of happy clappy but when I reworded it he started to interpret it himself) conclusion, traditional.
choir or singing group?
organ or keyboards/bands? organ
(both music qiestions were answered without hesitation)
hymn books or screens? hymnbooks. (then he blathered on a bit about freeing gands and concentrating and etc etc but hymnbooks was his gut answer)
and the important one: do you like Graham Kendrick? no. byt then he backtracked, ummed and ahhed, made lots of comments trying to work out "what I meant", trying to devide whether it was all bad or some of itwas good, some of it's awful and some quite nice etc. his gut instinct and immediate answer was no, so that's what I'm taking

so NV is on my team
soooo desperate to get NVW's answers, but too nervous in case she's on the other team
grin

sorry, I somehow deleted an answer.
choir or singing group? - choir

Go NV!

You're probably right, Nickel - err... I mean Unique&Amazing - about them filming DD pulling faces. Great ... so we're going to be plastered all over the BBC with her gurning and me looking fed up at her fed-upness.

They actually filmed two programmes yesterday. The first will be shown on 28th April, but the second (which we went to) won't be on till October. I thought of you, Nickel, as the person behind me was moaning loudly that they had chosen all 'old' hymns... even though one of ours was the Stuart Townsend version of 'The Lord's My Shepherd'. We also had 'O Worship the King', 'O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing', 'For the Beauty of the Earth', and 'The Day Thou Gavest Lord is Ended', so pretty trad, admittedly!

niminy... The holiday was fab. We were delayed by a day on the way out due to technical problems, but once we were there it was wonderful. We saw some nice new (and old) places, and got to catch up with some very special friends. DD2 wanted to stay. Again. (She didn't really want to come back the last time...) I wish it wasn't so expensive to get over there... and that there was no such thing as 'time zones'... the lack of sleep coming back is a killer!

New pink shoes sound just the ticket, and the trip with DS2 sounds great too. Good luck with fighting off the bastards from the DfE.

I'm stillnickel :)

that Stuart Townend is old

Depends where your definition of 'modern' begins! (e.g. I think that I am quite 'modern'; my children would define me as 'ancient'!)

exactly. nv said somewhere people were defining modern as 1980s, when the "traditional" service was put together in 2000, so modern was older than traditional.

I love that you asked NV the questions nickel

Am at new pink suede shoes. I'm wearing wellies mostly at the moment and never get to wear nice shoes anymore

We had our team of six here and it all worked out ok. I cooked for between 11 and 15 each evening but they washed/cleared up and helped out generally so it wasn't too bad. They also made lots of progress in renovating the building and fencing in the park. They also raised lots of money so we've been able to buy the park equipment etc that we wanted The house feels really empty now. In fact I feel like the old lady in A Squash and a Squeeze.

That sounds great milly, you must be worn out!

well nickel, it would seem that NV is on teamnickel, holding out for NVW answers...

niminy, sounds a lovely break, and jealous at the shoes also.

Tuo, so glad you had a good time, and I also will watch SOP, those songs are all good except The Day Thou Gavest which depresses me a little.

Yes, modern can be defined as 70s/80s and postmodern as noughties plus I think.

Had a nice holiday, but looking back to getting back to normal. Not well again, another infection which is being told to leave the building before I take dd to see 1d on weds...

It's so funny because I had never seen A Squash and a Squeeze and then my ddil mentioned it yesterday and recited almost the whole book from memory. Apparently it is one of dgdaughter's favourites.

'...and she said wise old man, won't you help me please? My house is a Squash and a Squeeeeeeeeze!'

we have the gruffalo song book at the shop so that's played quite often

Ooh, can't bear The Gruffalo! It's such doggerel, such tin-eared, unmusical verse. It's not funny, and it goes on too long, and it's just dull, dull, dull.

Sorry. I feel about the works of Julia Donaldson the way some people feel about Graham Kendrick

Milly that sounds exhausting for you, even if you did get lots accomplished. However, I am sending you a special pair of virtual ruby slippers through the ether, for you to wear when you need a pair of glamorous shoes. I think you will find that if you click your heels together three times they will grant a wish.

Thank you niminy

Actually what did happen yesterday which was good, was that a couple from the village asked to come to church with us! We took them along (the nearest is in the next village about 7km away) and I think they enjoyed it. It's a bit step for people here so we're quite excited.

My parents are coming out to visit next week which I'm looking forward to, but I've just acquired another house guest for probably the rest of this week I feel like we need a bigger house!

NVW is poorly at the moment.
She's got a cold and horrible swollen ankles.
:(

they've been given pages of lists of things to be careful about and she's resting. I think she feels miserable.

hello
Great being in church after Easter. I love the weirdness of the post-resurrection gospels. Yesterday was just me and dd1, which meant just me for a lot of it while she was in sunday school. It was very soothing while all my work and home life is completely crazy and pressuring. So so so lucky to have this in my life.

I have made a very odd connection. When I was younger someone very close to me died. For a long time I had dreams that they were back (still do, though very infrequently) and I would always ask how it could possibly have been managed, without ever getting a very good answer ... and there is a strange intangible quality to the person, and a difference in the relationship. And a sense that no matter how many times I reach out and touch, it is all strange, rich, but strange... I think this is the feeling that I get from the post-resurrection gospels. None of the disciples seem to know quite what to do and it is all so strange and dreamlike

Poor NVW, I would be miserable too if that was me. Maybe she needs a questionnaire to distract her

curry - that sounds lovely, and just what you needed :)

and to your dreams!

niminy

she might not be very happy about that.
NV was at Busy Bees today, and he'd bought her some flowers. which I thought was very sweet considering how long they've been married.

(plus I'm now slightly paranoid that she'll be looking for this thread...)

Curryeater you are so right about the dreamlike quality of the post-resurrection gospels. Really glad church is giving you some time to rest and just be with God.