Andrew Lightbown Theore0 Speaking of faith in the public square
Rosie Harper ViaMedia.News Is “Sorry” Too Easy a Word?
Archdruid Eileen The Beaker Folk of Husborne Crawley Troubles with Trebles
Colin Coward Unadulterated Love The unconditional and the insistence of God
A little world made cunningly: in defence of the parish
St Mellitus will host a debate asking whether the parish has had its day. Priests from across the country told Church Times their answers.
The parish offers a religious presence in, and backdrop to, ‘community’. In that sense, it reverberates with God’s nature in the Holy Trinity… community, sharing, and relationship. It also offers ‘continuity’. A continuity of presence and Christian expression over the generations. That is something fantastic and trembling with grace: the material and servant presence of the church over the centuries, set in the natural environment of the place, and reflecting the eternal and not just transient nature of God. It also offers a place which people, including non-Christians, can turn to when they hurt (which we frequently do), when we’re… Read more »
Pray forgive my upstartedness, Archdruid, but might I dare to suggest you have overlooked one of the most dire phenomena in church music: namely, the choir master/mistress or music leader who decides it would be a great idea to repeat the final verse and chorus, when the song has already been faltering, nay has died a death… and the great strain placed on weary vocal chords when the congregation tries to drawl out the last verse one more time, gradually petering out into a despondent groan. And the one occasion burnt, nay fused, into my brain, when the cheerful music… Read more »
The Church Times article is flawed in that every single respondent was a Church of England clergy person working in the ‘parish’ system. In order to provide balance, it should also have included interviews with clergy of other denominations, asking them about the goals of the parish system, whether they shared them (whether they felt it would be appropriate for them to share them), and if they did, how those goals were lived out in their own congregations. In the Anglican Church of Canada we speak about our ‘parishes’ but of course we don’t see them in quite the same… Read more »