Yasmine Hafiz Huffington Post ‘Bibliotheca’ Bible Project Blows Up On Kickstarter With Chapterless Bible
Jonathan Aigner 15 Reasons Why We Should Still Be Using Hymnals
[Many of these reasons do not apply in the Church of England, where hymnbooks are normally words-only.]
Linda Woodhead OUP blog The vote for women bishops
J John has been interviewing Justin Welby for God & Politics in the UK “I just knew that Jesus was there and I had met him” – interviewing Justin Welby.
On Religion has been speaking to Professor Linda Woodhead about the challenges and opportunities facing religious studies in Higher Education: Expert Interview: Professor Linda Woodhead.
A recent chapterless edition of the New Testament and of Genesis-Kings already exists: http://www.biblicaeurope.com/community-bible-experience
It does not look as splendid as the “Bibliotheca” edition but is a lot cheaper. Those of my parishoners who used this NT during Lent 2013 loved it.
With regard to the article about hymnals – it’s not just hymns. Many congregations use a particular mass setting, like Addington or New English, and music is never provided. What does this say to new members or visitors? I think we rather expect them to just “deal with it” while we sing our version of the Gloria… It doesn’t make for a very good ministry of hospitality, does it?
In our parish, the “bulletin” as we call it contains the entire text of the service with the full music of the hymns to be sung by the congregation, including the Gloria, “Holy Holy Holy,” and any other parts of the service to be sung.
(It’s a “bulletin” because the front matter is always announcements and advisories of parish events and services.)
Thanks to Linda Woodhead for speaking sensibly about the significance of the vote for women bishops. So many people today lose track of the distinction between a religion and a sect. Religions proclaim the love of God for God’s creatures. Sects claim that God’s love extends only to a few, and that they uniquely know whom God favors. Nonsense!
From the interview with J John… “we have to be rather cautious about people laying down the law from on high.” Justin Welby Yeah, right. Am I alone in thinking all this ‘we’re just a lovely big family and I have no authority over anyone, and the Bishops all ignore me, honest they do’ to be complete hooey in the light of the recent Pastoral Statement and the Anglican Covenant? (which isn’t dead yet, despite its defeat in the Church of England). “it [the Church] sets an example of love in diversity and in the community” Justin Welby My initial… Read more »
Do look in on the Canon J.John interviews. I have just spent time looking at his interview with The Vicar of Baghdad, Canon Andrew White. Now here is a Christian who believes in his calling to Love people with an outrageous indiscriminate Love – the Love of God. His love of all people – including his Muslim neighbours is radiant testimony to the Imago Dei.
Linda says that we have discussed women Bishops for 20 years.Professor Lampe raised the matter in 1967 in a motion in Church Assembly, which I supported.Later the concept of women bishops was put on one side as we concentrated on securing women priests. Then it was brought to the fore again for 20 years hard argument but the idea was on the table for for 47 years to my knowledge.
[Many of these reasons do not apply in the Church of England, where hymnbooks are normally words-only.] Well, from the point of view of an American (where everybody’s hymnals include the music), that explains a lot about the Church of England.
“[When there is]… a particular mass setting… [for which]music is never provided. What does this say to new members or visitors? I think we rather expect them to just ‘deal with it’… It doesn’t make for a very good ministry of hospitality, does it?” (Nick Nawrockyi) “… ‘in the Church of England… hymnbooks are normally words-only’… that explains a lot about the Church of England.” (William Moorhead) Nick’s additional reflection is interesting (as is William’s sneer for very different reasons). But isn’t there another side to this coin? Giving a stranger printed material which includes a significant amount of musical… Read more »
Words or words and music, ‘mass settings’ … this discussion is missing the most obvious fact that most of visitors coming into our churches (in the UK) in my experience don’t know the songs or hymns we are singing, full stop. This is a real dilemma. How does a church worship and welcome at the same time in the present context?
“Words or words and music, ‘mass settings’ … this discussion is missing the most obvious fact that most of visitors coming into our churches (in the UK) in my experience don’t know the songs or hymns we are singing, full stop. This is a real dilemma. How does a church worship and welcome at the same time in the present context? “ I think there are several ways: 1. On the days when you are most likely to have visitors (Christmas, Easter), use the hymns most likely to be known to outsiders and/or the ones your own congregation knows best.… Read more »
“this discussion is missing the most obvious fact that most of visitors coming into our churches (in the UK) in my experience don’t know the songs or hymns we are singing, full stop.” I come from a country where every hymn book comes with the music of all the hymns and every pew sheet introducing a new song has at least the voice written in music. It’s not necessary to be able to read music fluently, you can tell from whether the notes move up or down how the tune develops, and by the third chorus that aid is usually… Read more »
Just got round to reading the transcript of Professor Linda Woodhead’s interview. Fascinating! I once had the privilege of teaching an introductory course on world religions . It was an interesting experience. The college was wrestling with the transition from a department of Christian theology to a department of religious studies. Woodhead’s comments on departments are most interesting. The explosion of disciplines studying religious issues is astounding. It’s a bit of a leap, but what is happening in academia has some touch stones with parish ministry where the pastor is something of a teacher of religion. I’m just a humble… Read more »
Erika is absolutely right that, even with minimal knowledge of music, people can see when the tune goes up and when it goes down if basic melody is provided, and that is surely helpful.