Christian chat thread continued

[Dutchoma]

A place to share and chat about our funny (and not so funny experiences) in and out of church.
Did anyone say coffee? That would be good

You made me cry broomstick. I'm really struggling to put my churchy teenage self and my middle aged churchy self into some coherent whole when they are separated by 25+ years of atheism. That hymn (to that tune) is, for some fucking weird reason, one of those that splits and splices me every time.

I was really impressed by your contributions MHD. mine on the other hand...

Aww Edd 💛 that's the tune I was talking about :) kind of see what you mean about St trinians now!

Enjoy the SH thing Dragon - love Lou Fellingham.

BES 🙄 thank you. You should come and join some more! It sometimes feels like being the Only Christian In the Village. Very thankful that Greenheart is also around and a couple of others. It's hard!

I've been to church this morning. For the first time in around two months. It was just beautiful, the worship touched me very deeply (we did the breathy one! ) and so did the communion. Very profound. But it was also overwhelming, with everyone saying how are you, are you better, so lovely to have you back. They care so much and it's lovely. But I got all emotional and feel very very tired now.

Really good service today even though two of the hymns were from the 1860s. My reader preached an excellent sermon and is growing in confidence. During the post communion hymn one of our learning disabled starting dancing and so I joined in. I've not been here long but the spirit is moving.

MHD and greenheart glad you had good services today. Our sermon reached me.
I have a thousand things going on in my head today.

That's a much better tune than the one we sing Broomstick.

Yesterday I went back to the church where I was for three years while training, and now feel very melancholy. I was so happy there and felt really appreciated.

Good to hear you could get to church mhd, and that you were welcomed back so lovingly. And fab about the dancing greenheart and the sermon dragon.

Love that about the dancing, greenheart ♥️

Never heard of Lou Fellingham
I hope that's a lesser confession than my GK one at the top of the thread?

that sounds lovely greenheart

mhd you are a marvel. sending love and prayers for strength (health-wise and in online debates!)

I have been wondering how things are going niminy. The obvious implication is that you are not feeling valued where you are now... I know life is always hectic, but do text or email if you want a rant out of the public gaze (or even better come to London!)

EDD

This is Lou

That's lovely dragon, thanks :)

That Hillsong Beautiful Name song - I have definitely heard in not breathy.
It's definitely the person singing that causes the issues.

niminy
imo and ime, it's definitely not the choral music that puts people off churches.
it's the general attitude of the people there.
it's what jargonists call a "can do attitude" - if you don't have one, then you're juat going to make your church unwelcoming.
If you're constantly saying " nope, that can't be done" or "we don't have enough people" or "that person is ruining it for everyone" or "we'll never improve unless xyz (that doesn'tinclude actual pisitive change in attitude)" , then the xhurch becomes unwelcoming and unfriendly. And people just don't want to be part of something that is so negative.
Beautiful choral musjc, traditional hymns, organs, all make a beautiful service, and are very inspiring for worship, but if that worship stops when the music stops, then there's no point even being open at all.

I believe to truly be a christian, we have to worship all day, every day, because every single person we interact with is Jesus, and every single part of our world is creation.
All that bit in Matthew 25.

niminy - sing it to the tune Hatherop Castle by geoffrey Beaumont.
I promise you you won'd find it dreary then.
unless it's the tune you're celebrating (william harold ferguson with Wolvercote) in which case my idea doesn't work

my thoughts exactly nickel on the worship - all day every day

my thoughts exactly nickel on the worship - all day every day

Okay, I'm caught up now

There was a licensing service last night for the rector at St Paul's. We were invited ti join the choir, and it went really well.
We did an anthem.especially composed for it by Christopher Gower, who turns out to be a CW at St Martin's (the sister church)!
It was a very cliched style of anthem and the middle "different" bit was too difficult.
But it did go well.
Afterwards at the drinky bit, DH got talking to the Bishop, who advised us not to take too long about choosing a new church.
I fully understand why - it's so hard not to have a pot in which to plant one's roots, but I'm so wary of committing to somewhere after the last one, and whenever we find a nice church, I worry that if we say "yes, we'll join you" that all the cracks will be shown to be completely broken. The hardest stage is the bit where I'm no longer a newbie and people start to see the real me and might not want me after knowing I'm really like this.

Nickel said perfectly, when the music stops the worship needs to continue 😀

Oh nickel I love your post about worship so much. Spot on!

I'm so glad the service went well, and you enjoyed singing with the choir. I pray you'll know whether to settle here. And remember that the last situation was not because of you, but because of them being intolerant idiots who couldn't see beyond their own noses and who treated you like dirt

You're a lovely person and a new church would be lucky to have you. You know my friend who met you that day we were in the caravan? She said after how lovely she thought you were and loved that you were honest about stuff (the one who works with SN kids). The 'real you' is a fabulous precious daughter of the King.

We have a parish priest, and he seems very nice. And the licensing was lovely, and the church was packed and the archbishop gave a lovely sermon and the choir carried on beautifully when one of the sopranos fainted during the anthem and the altar was all pretty with the nice silver and there was just the right amount of incense.

we had our photo take for the parish profile.

poor sods will be put off.

i hate having photo taken

Broomstick what an eventful service.

I start Alpha tonight 😀

Yay broomstick sounds fab. Now your plans for the church's future can begin in earnest.. ?

I hope it's good dragon

We had Theology Night yesterday. Was brilliant. I have had to make a strict rule to maintain family harmony: church + 2 things each week, no more! This week as well as that I've got intercessions training on saturday. Oh, and PCC, oops. Next week Bible study and my new course... lovin it. Not just because it's all fun, obvs, but I feel so, I dunno, close to God, these days.

That sounds so lovely, Edd. Is family harmony happening?

Hm. Yeah, kinda.