Choirs, worship songs, after service coffee - the all new religion chat thread

[niminypiminy]

A new place for us to share the lovely, silly and annoying things that happen in church life and share our great love of Graham Kendrick.

We have, nickel. Basically she wants to be upfront and has fallen out with previous vicars over it. She is a lovely lady with many strengths but also a few weaknesses which mean leading and preaching are not for her. When she leads it is much harder for everyone else than doing it yourself. When she preaches we have to manage the fall out from the congregation. She isn't very self aware unfortunately, and training hasn't helped.

Anyway, I didn't mean to side track with that, I am a bit overwhelmed today and it all spilled out where it shouldn't have! I need to get on with my actual job now!

Bogger.
It's hard to handle that sort of thing.
What about letting but turning the microphone off? but let her think it's working?

We'll keep smiling and thanking her for her all she does, making sure she realises that all her other ministries are really important.

I'd be inclined to tell her outright.
But that might indicate why I'm not popular!

Crikey pickle that is a lot to handle and yes, shame this lady lacks self-awareness. Yes, lots of praise for her other ministries!

nickel your name is barely blocked at all there really, is it? 🙁

Yup, barely blocked.
tonight I posted it through the letterbox of the other church with an official "this is evidence of safeguarding breach" stating that I had photos of its position in.the church before i removed it.
This had better be dealt with properly now.
I have taken the pdf down from the website too....

That's just farcical, isn't it nickel, that 'blacking out'. like rubbing salt in the wound! Definitely contact re safeguarding breach. I'm just appalled.

Pickle that sounds tough - sounds like someone I've known in the past and it's so hard when they are enthusiastic but not aware it's not their gifting and can actually be destructive. I'm all for encouraging and including everyone but we also need to be wise about what it being said to the congregation which has such a mix of people including vulnerable people. Tough situation.

Just had fist gas&/electric bills for new vicarage rather worried. If diocese are going to put clergy in huge old houses their stipend should be enough to pay for heating.... and of course because of my illness and me working from home we do need to keep it warm. A bit concerned but know also to trust God as he called us here.

Eek! For the bills.
Are there any measures you can ttake? Thick curtains in rooms - doors as well as windows, (so you can have lights instead and keep warm, esp if no double glazing and/or draughty windows), draught excluders on doors, rugs on top of carpets,
What hearing have you got? Gch? Can you set rooms you use more often to be higher and reduce the heat in rooms you don't really use? What's your thermostat set at? 19 should be high enough, but you need to work out a set pattern for heating. In.our house, it gets really cold overnight and dh sets the heating to come on at about half 4, so when he gets up. And it's gone off before we get up at half 7, but the house is then 20-21, and it stays there all day without going on again (but we have a tiny terrace)
It also makes a difference where your thermostat is, as the temp it reads might not actually be the house temp.
Can you have your study upstairs or work out where the warmest place is?
Is there anywhere you can have a real fire? Wood is definitely cheaper than gas (esp if you get the word out and parishioners bring round limbs when they chop trees ) and you can have that going all day.

And make sure your loft is well insulated!!

What would the diocese say about paying for some solar panels? They would make your electricity much cheaper (if you paid the diocese back with the income you get from the electricity board for example)

MHD there's a thread about keeping an Edwardian house warm running at the moment. It's full of great ideas.
I had a lovely morning at church. We had a shared lunch which I was a bit unsure about but I had some lovely chats including one which really reassured me about some things which have been worrying me. The prayers were inspirational as well, and written by a congregation member who is terminally ill so even more remarkable.

Hi nickel. It does have double glazing which is pretty good, I could definitely get some draught excluders and thick curtains for the front door as hall is huge, have put that off as they'll be super expensive as have to be custom made - massively wide and long. We do have gch and do set radiator thermostats differently according to the room. No real fires, all fireplaces are blocked off with fake fires in some rooms we hardly use. My study is upstairs so that helps. I have a fan heater in there too and lots of blankets.

Temperature is odd - always had it at 18 in our old house which was a new build and very toasty on that. Here we've had to set it to 21 for any useful heat at all :( heating goes on 3 times a day only for a couple of hours or so.

Would be brilliant to get solar panels and rood ideal for them but dioceses won't do that, they just don't have enough money for initial outlay sadly.

Hey ho!

Just back from a lovely retreat with members of my prayer group. So so lovely. Learned so much.

Try Ikea - their standard length is 3m, and you could a really wide one to gather

Or a few pairs of really wide ones on the same pole

pickle that's lovely :)

building where did you go? (If you can say)

I will definitely try ikea Nickel - the longest ones I can find anywhere else are 90 inch. I'll measure but 3m sounds closer to what I need. Thanks :)

Plus with IKEA ones you could have 3 instead of 2 for width.

I led a retreat on Lectio Divina at an Augustinian Priory near me. Our (small) group was a mix of evangelicals and CofE and we enjoyed experiencing a Catholic community and mass. Very welcoming.

Wow. :)

I was thinking about a retreat but I can't be away from the child overnight (dh leaves for work too early)

We did it at a weekend so husbands could take over, basically. we were gone 48 peaceful hours.
This place also has day retreats, which would be more awkward for me but could be great for others.

Our vicarage is also very cold. We bought thick curtains when we moved in and I economised by buying several pairs of curtains rather than having one very wide set made to measure. Length is harder to deal with although there are second hand curtain shops that might have something this is time and effort.

The diocese won't put double glazing in and the insulation is poor. No fun in winter.

Pickle I think it's great that you've made clear that she has other ministries, that definitely needs to be emphasised and encouraged. We had a "parts of the body" sermon last week, and I hate them. It's all very well saying that not everyone is a hand or a foot, but the problem is that lots of churches use that as an excuse to make some people feel like the nail on the little toe- completely useless and no-one would even notice if it wasn't there- apart from if you accidentally bash it and then the whole body will happily chop it off to make their lives easier.

It's frustrating amamabear, she has so many important ministries. Loads. We'd be up the Swanny without a paddle if she left us.

We're a small church, we're not proud we don't turn people down... Actually we scare them off! Hey ho!

DH works 5 out of 6 saturdays

amammabear I think I'm treated like a grumbling appendix