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

Katy - maybe answering the newbie questons will help you work out what church is right for you?

Happy Clappy or traditional?
screens or hymnbooks?
choir or singing group?
organ or keyboards/band?
and most importantly, do you like Graham Kendrick?

Unique

I do like a good sing song but it has to be stuff that I know, I mean there are some lovely hymns out there, Be thou my vision, Lord of the dance but the person who chooses the hymns at our church seems set on choosing the most obscure Graham Kendrick ones that nobody ever knows. Happy Clappy is probably closest, I want something cheerful not misery lol.

Our churches are all much the same, it's one parish with four different churches. Apart from one early service which is very high church the others tend to be very similar, though one church (our old one) is the one that caters for families and does sunday school. I think whatever new church we find will not be CofE, unless we stick with the one that we used to go to.

We've got a, RC, Methodist, Baptist, Sally Army and some sort of community church thing that I know little about; they keep themselves to themselves and have nothing to do with the very active churches together that the RC, Methodist and Baptist go to. There is also a small non-conformist chapel, again they keep themselves to themselves.

I went to a church on a placement which only sang the very latest hymns which meant that I didn't know any of them. The plus side was that no one knew them very well. All songwriters write turkeys and once the novelty of the new wears off they sink to the bottom of the collective memory. The thought that somewhere there is is a church that preserves Mr Kendrick's less singable ditties is the stuff of nightmares
although to be fair Mr Redman and even the sainted Mr Wesley have had off days!

I'm back from a conference at the coldest retreat house in England and I pigged out on chocolate to keep warm which is not good for the diet. Now I have a week of assemblies (horray,) deanery synod (noooooooooo) sermon writing and a funeral so I might be on mumsnet a lot to keep my spirits up.

I once visited a United Reform church and i really liked it - it was quite casual, but very easy to follow the service, and the music was a bit HC without going too far.

Might be worth doing the rounds of the other denominations in your area - you'll probably find that yours was best anyway.
and there's nothing to stop you going outside of your own benefice to a cofe church you know

We had ODRP (old doddery retired priest- the one who does massive services and the baptisms) as our priest yesterday - he jumps around a lot and shouts randomly with excitement, which is hilarious.
(and annoying)
he was singing:

during his sermon, in a much more excited way (but it'sthe fastest youtube vid i can find). anyway, noone knew it at all so he started saying others that he really loved (it was all to do with pentecost being really wonderful and exciting) and he ended up making poor old congregation sing one more step along the world i go (cos it's in the hideous book and none of the others were) asst organist had to play it (he hates it, and he hates having to play stuff without practice because he's very anxious) it was fun though. afterwords, i found the steadfast hymn in one of the random hymnbooks in the organ cupboard and made DH play it for ODRP during coffee. he was really chuffed (DH not so - he had to sight-read it)

While we're sort of on the subject of meals with famous worship song writers, my sister had lunch with Stuart Townend (he of In Christ Alone fame) the other day -- he's the friend/neighbour of a work colleague of hers. Apparently he is absolutely lovely (and so was his wife). My sister, who's not a Christian, had never heard of him before she met him.

We had 'Send us the Fire' yesterday which made me wish for a proper sally army brass band.

And started with , and Come Down O Love Divine and More Love, More Power in the middle. That's an unusually tin-eared selection, even for us.

...which made me wish for a proper sally army brass band

You called? [Toooooooooooot] (Not Sally Army, but nearly as good!)

We were out and about yesterday: played 'Come Down O Love Divine', 'Breathe on me Breath of God', 'Love Divine' and 'To God be the Glory'. Not as - ahem - eclectic (?) as yours, Niminy.

It did mean I missed something that sounds even more fun/bonkers than Nickel's sermon experience. We had a visit from A Very Important Person In The CofE yesterday ('we' = the cathedral, though I missed it due to being out with the band, and had to catch up on our YouTube channel later!). It seems that the VIP thought that it would be a good idea to end his sermon by getting the congregation (of over 400 because of the Visitation of the VIP...) to blow up balloons and then release them around the place. Except that some balloons kept popping, and other people tied knots in them despite not being told to do so, and all the kids started yelling and running around, and people were getting over-excited, and at one point the VIP exclaimed in desperation: 'What is wrong with you people? Why won't you do as you're told?'. Hilarious!

I'm half sorry I missed it, half glad, as I'm a bit phobic about popping balloons. (Yes, I know most people grow out of that by the age of 7, but I'm weird sensitive!! )

Just had a read through and a at some of your stories of your Sunday services.

I've started taking DS out to children's liturgy and actually not missing being in the main service as much as I thought I would. Week 1, DS said he didn't want to go again, week 2 he said he would go again and this week he started joining in. They were asked "What does Jesus do for us?" Older children gave some very good correct answers like "he lives us", "he died on the cross". DS said "he had tea with some people". I know it sounds silly but it made my heart melt.

Oh and God intervened with Daniel. I couldn't work out how to say no to meeting up Sunday afternoon. In the end Daniel texted me to say his boys were wanting an afternoon at home so there was no meet up!

at the balloons.
SES, what your DS says sounds lovely - my youngest said things like that but my oldest seemed to specialise in wholesale embarrassment in church. I can't share the story without risking outing myself big time but she once did something that was nearly, very, very, very mortifying but luckily I intervened before anybody else got to witness her faux pas.

at sesds. awww
glad daniel was sorted for now

and double at the balloons!

ooh, nearly lost the thread!

New to this thread, but DS3, sang "penis" instead of "heart" during Sunday School's rendition of " I've got joy, joy, joy, joy down in my ..." which was a tad embarrassing. Fortunately the audience found it funny, rather than shocking.

Reminds me of the story of the vicar mummy who came to pick up ds from school with her dog collar on.
Ds in a loud voice:"I want to play with my penis".

Hello everyone I'm feeling very a bit fed up. Would you mind if I just ran something by you all?

Ds2 is having his first communion classes and is taking his first communion next month. He has had a bad year with his teacher (year 3) though and I'm feeling so angry and bad about it. She pretty much picks on him with endless criticism and is negative and just horrible. I hate going up to the school now and I hate seeing her rotten face. All the joy of the run up to first communion has gone and I just don't see the point anymore

We spoke to the HT several weeks ago and I thought things had gotten straightened out, but she persists with her awfulness and I don't think she likes ds at all. He is polite, bright and well behaved and I feel really hurt.

I know he finishes this year very soon and, hopefully, never has to have her again, but I keep worrying about it. I haven't been to church lately and my heart just isn't in anything anymore.

Also, ds1 (14) has announced that he's now an atheist and has been picking arguments with us about our beliefs and loudly announcing that it's all a load of crap He's not going for confirmation now either.

Sorry, not enough knowledge about things here: is the class teacher doing the preparation for his first holy communion?
Or are they separate, but somehow connected in your mind?

She's involved because it's her class.

Hiddenhome: I know how awful it can be feeling that a teacher hasn't 'got' your child, or worse, that they are being nasty to him. I'm sure that you did the right thing by going to see the head perhaps you should try again, or even write to the chair of governors if you don't feel the Head has resolved things. And try not to get your feelings about the teacher mixed up with your DS's first communion, which is more important in the scheme of things and hold on to the fact that there are only a few more weeks now until the end of the year.

I wonder if there is more going on here though than just the teacher. You sound a bit down could this be the case? Your DS1 sounds like he is going through a normal teenage rebellion it's normal for kids at this age to reject everything their parents stand for little brats but try not to take it personally (easy to say, very very hard to do). Hopefully he will return to his faith later. But one of the things that is so hard about our children going up is that they will choose their own path even though we know better. Even though I've been grown up for mumble-mumble years, my mother still struggles with me being a Christian!

I will pray that you feel better about the first communion, and that you can find a way forward about the teacher, and that you will be at peace with DS1 about his faith or lack of it.

.... And the news from here is, I've got a date for a BAP!!!! June 10th-12th. I've had the letter confirming it so it will definitely happen this time. It's those mysterious ways again

Mysterious ways or not Niminy, I'm glad you've had a letter of confirmation. Looks to me like the admin for this sort of thing is moving in mysterious ways (and with less excuse) more than our heavenly Fahter

niminy yay
that's not long away! will definitely be praying for you!
I have a meeting with current DDO on Thursday and new DDO on Saturday next week! Exciting times! :)

DO you are so right about the admin's mysterious ways

Not been around a while, thrilled to see you have a BAP niminy!

hidden, do hope things are better soon...also know the horrible feeling of a teacher not 'getting' your child.

nickel, congratulations to nv and nvb! :)

welcome to katy, cheapskate and any other newbies.

off on holiday tomorrow, so thought I'd pop in to say thinking of you all. Just amidst the mayhem of camping packing...urghh. Only had one argument with dh so far, going well!

that should say nvw not nvb - we could congratulate the baby I suppose....congratulations to nv, nvw and nv&nvwb

Enjoy your holiday mhd
We definitely need a catch up before we move!