Pull up a pew (or a fetching plastic chair) Religion Chat Thread No 6

[madhairday]

Helloooooooooo!

A shiny new thread :)

How are we all today?

DS seems to have the beginning of what may be chicken pox so is in bed feeling sorry for himself. My laptop is playing up - a picture fell on it yesterday and killed the b key - it takes ages to make it respond now grrrr - and cracked the screen, so not sure what to do :(

Fantastic, thanks Nickel

Oo can I have one?

How did it go this afternoon, thanks?

It went well Jayne thank you! They turned up (which I was worried about for a few minutes as they were late). They contributed to the discussion. It was good! They say they have some relatives who are interested in coming to church with us so we're going to a neighbouring village on Sunday with them and whoever else turns up. It feels like things are starting to happen

I've been up 3.5 hours as well so time of elevenses and I'm going to one of the local MacMillian coffee mornings later so that will be lunch. Yeah.

I've just started the reading for the MTh that I'm supposed to be doing inbetween working and being a mum and wife and allegedly having some time off for re-creation. It is very quiet at 5am with not many distractions but how much of what I read only time will tell.

That sounds great TAM :)

Tea and cake much appreciated. Possibly a couple of valium if they are going spare too... finding DS and his secondary school problems very stressful.

Hi y'all!

That sounds great TAM, you sound at a similar stage to us with getting stuff going, praying that it grows and you enjoy it!

Thanks for tea and cake, definitely need that, ds up half the night with ithces from chickenpox, it's progressed rather well thanks - very spotty boy, fine in himself now but covered and itchy. Looks like dd may have an ear infection now too, it all comes at once :( it's ds's bday on tuesday so would like him well enough for school that day but he may well not be scabbed over yet :(

what is it about today?
everyone's been up since before dawn

DD was wide awake this morning when DH got up (at 4). his bloody alarm on his phone has got the most annoying tone, and for some reason he puts it on the opposite side of the room (not to charge, as I had originally though - to charge would have been forgivable) so of course that woke her up. and the n she was scratchy and annoying and grouchy for 2 hours before we both eventually drifted off to sleep again.

DD1 has to leave the house to get the bus to school at 6.40 so I have to be up at 6am everyday and never go back to bed once she's out of the door, oh no Then DS has to leave at 7.30 so I get him up at 7, then I have to take DD2 to kindergarten at 7.50. By 8.15 when I get back I've taken to having a big cup of tea and toast .

nickel 4am is way way too early to be up. Does MrNickel go to bed really early?

no, he goes to bed at the same time as us, anywhere between 10 and 11.

although, now DD is getting tireder earlier, I'm making us all go to bed at 9ish and have tv time in bed

he doesn't always get up at 4. he does round cover, so it's different every day.
but usually 5 o'clock at the latest.

Hello everyone :)

I've had a mad week, culminating on Saturday, with the sad loss of my beloved granddad :(

However, today, I did it! I was going for a job interview, and passed the local baptist church for that area of town, and said, "If my interview finishes in time, I'll call in", as they had a service on this morning.

I was done in time, and it was lovely. A nice lady saw I was new, asked why I'd chosen to call in, and I ended up getting tearful when I explained. She just put her arms around me and said I was in a place where I would feel the love of God, and the love of everyone there.

The service was lovely, we prayed, sang, and had a lovely time. Then we had a cup of tea afterwards, and I went off to my first day at work since my loss, feeling very upbeat.

Oh Lollipop that is a brilliant story. I'm so pleased for you. Nothing will take away the sadness about the loss of your grandfather, but to find some understanding and a pointer to the love of God will make it all so much more bearable.

Praying for every blessing for you and your family.

lovely story lollipop. you needed God's love at a sad time.

/

oh FFS.
our church/parish is never going to get a bloody break!!!!!

we set up our facebook page because it put us one step ahead in the town, because it was a great way of making sure that the modern age was behind us, and would get us more publicity in the local area.
now HT (the other church/parish in the team) has gone and set up a facebook page.
I'm livid!
I don't care that it's a free market and they can do what they like to get bums on seats - this was our chance!
They don't need any more people! They've got hundreds as it is!
they don't need help!
This is not the way it is supposed to work - Really, does God just not want St Michael's to be a church?
Maybe he'd prefer it to be a block of flats or a wine bar?
:(

Nickel being new to this, I have no advice, but I hope some good luck finds its way to you soon.

Do you know what really, really helped yesterday? Singing. Just being able to sing my heart out, in unison with a group of people. Made me feel good.

Now, if only my work situation would resolve itself, I could really move on and make myself happy.

Singing is wonderful Lollipop

Nickel my dear, it surely is not a competition?

but it is a competition!

and i know it makes me sound like a mardy child, but we seem to spend a lot of time being inferior to them.
it annoys me that they get everything and we get nothing. we're supposed to be a team, but they still seem to be streets ahead and we're always playing catch up.
all i've felt from them is mocking and arrogance while we struggle week to week.
it's depressing.

sometimes feel like god's just telling us to give it up and lt the other churches get on with it./
or maybe it's just me, I'm a jinx and everything i do is doomed to failure anyway. maybe if i joined their church they'd suffer the same fate..'

Dear Nickel, you sound very down, and as if the world has turned as blue as you feel.

It's easy for me to say that the other church aren't competing with you, and aren't looking down at you and mocking you, but I can see that this is how it feels like to you. It's so hard to be part of a church that is in decline and to see the other church in your team going from strength to strength -- especially as you are trying to hold on to what makes your church special and different.

In a team ministry you will inevitably have sharing of ideas -- that's partly what they are for. Must go - am off to midweek communion service, where I will pray for you.

you just made me cry with that first sentence

Oh nickel, I can see you feel so cross and so down, and have for a long time felt rubbish about how your church is not growing but the other one is. it must feel really hard sometimes. Like niminy, I am not in the situation, but in my experience every church sets up stuff like FB pages and twitter feeds etc - I guess it's just the timing of it that was hard for you - that they did it straight after you did, and almost felt to you like an initiative that they nicked? Perhaps try to take it as a compliment - they thought what a great idea, and thought it would be a good thing to do to reach out to the town more.

It's not a competition, it can't be. As a church universal we're all about trying to grow and bring new people to faith, and some churches will use one style, some another, and it's good that there are different styles that reach different people. people will always need a church like yours, somewhere they feel they can celebrate in a more traditional manner. That's your USP as it were, and you're not trying to be something you're not. But the other church needs to be reaching out too - grow the kingdom, by any means and all, and a FB page is merely another way to help. And it's a good practical thing too for churches - for their existing members, to say what's on when etc.

I hope you can see that it can be a good thing for both places. I am really sorry you feel mocked and looked down on. Can you think of any examples of this, because this ought to be discussed with NV if so, becuase it is wrong and shouldn't be how a church operates.

Either way, I think we all need to find it in ourselves to be happy when a church is reaching out, in whatever way, and bringing new people to faith. :)

I'm sending love and prayers with this.

i'm sure it's just me projecting my paranoia.
it's following on from HTC's comments about tithing, and little niggly bits here and there like when we did the easter eggs, and i offered them some of the funds (because they sold some at their church) and the vicar said "no, thanks, we don't need it".
it really rubs me.

anyway, don't know if you're following our facebook page, but i've just written a long post about how good we are.

Oh nickel it sounds like things are feeling tough.

I was thinking about your situation the other day and I was wondering how closely the churches are supposed to work together? I don't know how it works but if you're in a team together shouldn't you be exactly that? I'm not being critical of you but it sounds like perhaps everyone needs reminding of that.

Surely there could be some cross pollination from a more trad church and a more 'modern' one because there are people (like me!) who like to worship in a variety of styles. If there was more of a feeling of unity would people feel more free to move between the two?

If that is totally unhelpful feel free to ignore - obviously I don't know the situation or what has been tried so far

You've obviously got some great ideas or they wouldn't keep copying them

Oh nickel... I'm sorry things feel so tough. I'm thinking of you... Meanwhile have some of the and that you're so good at providing for others.

I've got a convoluted Church [of England] politics question. I don't want to draw too much attention to it, as it's hard to frame it in a hypothetical way (though I'll have a go at not making it personal), so I don't want to start a thread, but I thought someone on here would probably know the answer. So... say one were in an area with a Bishop and a Suffragan Bishop, where the Suffragan was also the Bishop with responsibility for those parishes that object to the ordination of women (err... I know there's a name for that role, but it escapes me at the moment). Does this imply that the Suffragan himself is anti ordination of women? Or has he just been told to take on that role because it has been decreed that there will be episcopal oversight for the non-women parishes? And if, say, the Bishop retired and the understanding was that his role (or something similar to it, if the diocese were undergoing a period of change and re-organisation) would pass to the Suffragan... that wouldn't mean that the whole (non-)diocese would necessarily become a women-free zone, would it? I'm not overly worried about this, but I'm curious as to what the implications are, and I suppose I'm a bit anxious we'll take a turn for the conservative...

Does any of that make any sense?

I need your help, I can't remember the correct words to the growing song: God made every little part of me, from my head to my fingers and toes, I praise God because I'm wonderfully made...

Tuo it's called a flying bishop.
I don't think the flying bishop is necessarily anti women priests.

Tuo, Blue, the correct term is Provincial Episcopal Visitor. The PEV must normally be a bishop who has never ordained a woman in order to have oversight of those parishes which have signed resolution C (ie they refuse to be overseen by a bishop who has ordained women).

There are some bishops who have never ordained women (such as the bishop of London) but who are happy to have oversight of women priests or to be PEVs. There are some who won't ordain women and don't recognise women's priesthood -- the bishops of Fulham and Ebbsfleet come into this category, as far as I recall.