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.

prams we live to criticize each others' choices so you can't come if you won't join in the banter
I was looking through the old thrrads yesterday and we really did just tease each other constantly!

We've got choir meal tonight.
As mentioned above.
At least we know who's coming (unless CWs turn up...)

three seats to be reserved at the back please. (reasonable adjustments don't you know. ) I shall be in and out the thread with the smallest one who will be making paper aeroplanes in the foyer/lobby and sprinkle the service with utterances such as..

this is boring.
will the wine explode if the candle catches it on fire...
they have missed out the comma

In the preview i thought it said "seats to be reversed" as in back pews to the front

The late shall inherit the front seats.

Heehee

I haven't been on any of the churchy threads before. I love very traditional stuff - my current church is quite modern with a bit of -not very good-- music (sorry I'm a bit of a pedant), no resident preacher so we make do with stand-ins oh I could go on and on...................

When I visit London I go to the most amazing church - organ, choir, incense, the full shebang. I just LOVE it and then am so disappointed when I come home to the shambles we have here

You can sit in mmy pew then and we can be traditional together

Proud to say we abandoned our green, standard issue cups and saucers about 25 years ago and bought 100 plain white mugs.
It was one of the best decisions the Church has ever made

Dutchoma just the one? We've got loads.
*
Backforgood* amen to that!!!

Mammabear we had a concert on the 27th November, two practices for the carol concert and t he concert itself next week. Then after Christmas we will start rehearsing for St John's passion. I have never been in a choir like this and really love it although it leaves me quite breathless sometimes.
Danyella fortunately the two churches I veer between (the 'shambles' one is my home church I have been attending for more than 20 years and the 'whole shebang bells and smells' one) are within walking distance of each other. and my home. Sometimes I can't be bothered with either and just stay at home.

Ohmygosh how have I missed this?

Going to read

So glad this lovely thread is back :)

So. Mugs. My new church has Mugs but they're those glass ones which are not quite as big as normal mugs. However, they are still mugs so I can't really complain...

Thought of you lot when we moved into the vicarage because they'd left us a lovely random present in a cupboard. Yep, you guessed it. An OHP, all retro style, complete with stand. Looking very sorry for itself in its defunct-ness. Bless. It's still there under a pile of boxes.

Hey Caulkhead! What's THs church like? It looks good and I won't admit to being jealous of his church planting at all, taking a team of 70 from htb slightly different to a team of 2 from nowhere... but great that it's there and doing so well :-)

Y'all know my worship preferences (sorry nickel, nothings changed) I do like Light of the World though it's getting a bit...old now
Our new church has an awesome worship band with drums and sometimes the organ is played for one of the hymns.
Carols - love em all. On Christmas morning I'd definitely do o come all ye faithful, and also love come and join the celebration and other little town. And hark the herald. And once in royal. And...well, all of them, really.

I like O what a mystery for a nice GK touch.

Nickel I'm so sorry for all that's going on.it sounds rubbish

THs church is amazing. They give you hot drinks when you go in, as well as cookies and crisps. It's like being at soul survivor, but with chairs. Excellent teaching, not quite liberal enough for me, but still v v good. Worth a visit if you're in Birmingham

Can I join? I was on the old threads years ago but have been through several name changes.

Hot drinks when you go in - I like the sound of that. But it could be a bit tricky trying to manage coffee and small kids in a small space.

We have mugs for after service tea and coffee. Nothing fancy, but they are a decent size. Much better than a teacup and saucer and less washing up too.

I don't think I've ever been to a church with incense - we don't really go in for that in Scotland. The music at our church is a bit of a mixture and I suspect they try to have something that appeals to everyone so there are always some old hymns and newer worship songs. People still moan - but not about everything!

I have found my MN tribe! Hi .

I like happy clappy (even arms in the air ), screens, band with drums, singing group (though I do love a good choir too), and GK is a great song-writer but not so great a singer .

And we have mugs!

Best Christmas carol? It's got to be Oh Holy Night, preferably with Josh Groban as guest soloist!

Here's our current mugs (see previous photo for old ones)

nice mugs Caulk :)

Hi Bless! Yay another one on my side

Ooh apples I think I know who you are as you mentioned Scotland :-) Great to see you! I can't do incense in any form as it makes my breathing sieze up, has a really horrible effect. Once went to a 'healing service' as I thought I might like some prayer as I'd had infection after infection, but the incense was so thick it made me worse Still, I know it works for some in terms of worship so I'm not against it per se - just have to avoid it. I like the imagery of prayers going up as incense...

You are definitely excused incense MHD. Do you find candles difficult? Bob did, he said they sucked oxygen out of the room, so we had one carol service, probably four years ago when the church had no candles so he could come.

I love a bit of incense, though we never have it at my current church (or indeed at any church I've ever worshipped at regularly ). I'm higher up the candle than I used to be, but the church I'm doing my curacy at isn't really. But I love some worship songs and have had shared some wonderful worship in more evangelical settings.

Tuo I'd love to have While shepherds watch to Lyngham - after reading that post I went around singing Oh for a thousand tongues most of the morning - or even to Ilkley Moor, which would make people smile. But it Will Not Do.

So, the running order of carols for Christmas Day is as follows:
O come all ye faithful
Infant holy infant lowly
See amid the winters snow
In the bleak midwinter (any choir who turn up will sing this)
Hark the herald

I loved all your suggestions but was stymied because apparently they all have to be on the Bethlehem Carol Sheet (why? who knows, it is a mystery wrapped in an enigma).

I just put all our Christmas services onto A Christmas Near You and was flummoxed by having 'mulled wine and mince pies' as an option for after the service. If only!

I'm glad Graham Kendrick kicked this lovely thread off

We don't have mugs because there are hundreds of us and no one wants to wash that many mugs. We also have a band rather than a choir. Guess the denomination...

We too replaced the green cups with plain white mugs a few years ago.

At least, I thought we did.

We kept one or two for Iris and Evadne (names may have been changed), as they couldn't lift a full mug, and they needed the saucer to store their biscuits.

And then I had cause to explore the cupboards in the other church hall. Reader; we still have the full complement of greenware. Just sitting there, taking up space (which could otherwise be used to squeeze in another three toy tractors for the toddler group).

Now have Come and Join the Celebration as an ear worm. Thanks. To counter it, may I offer

Glad tidings we bring/of Jesus our King/we wish you a merry Christmas/and a Happy New Year.

I'd like the pram to be noisy too, but I'm a foster carer and currently between placements. NoisyPram for Christmas would be perfect.

Or try this:

While shepherds watched their flocks by night (flocks by night)
All seated on the ground
The angel of the Lord came down (the angel of the Lord came down)
The angel of the Lord came down (the angel of the Lord came down)
And glory shone around
And glory shone around
And glory shone around