Hey, what?! – perfection! Did the second chalice this Sunday without tripping and without spilling! Had my lessons in Genuflecting. Crossed myself for the first time ever. Did the reading at the right time form the version requested.
At evening prayers, lead the liturgy with only two, unimportant, mistakes.
I might be beginning to look like an Anglo-Catholic. Except for the theology of course.
After the very formal, quiet and solemn morning communion I went back to my own church to collect the kids. The service hadn’t finished so I waited in the foyer. It was a packed family service. The whole congregation was dancing and singing. Flags were waving, and balloons were going up to the ceiling. As a continuation of the Light Party held to provide an alternative to Halloween trick or treating on 31st October, there had been an election to decide whether the Vicar or the Children’s Church leader should get gunged (for those of you who are sane/not British, gunging is when you pour brightly coloured [if you’re lucky] or smelly and slimy fluids over your victim). The Vicar was chosen, but at the very last minute someone else, dressed up as ‘Jesus’ came and took his place in the gunging booth.
Formal Liturgical Ceremony v Wild Party.
Which was the true reflection of God’s Glory? Which was true worship?
The party bunch look down on the ‘dead’ ceremony.
The ceremonialists look down on the irreverent antics of the party.
I am convinced that BOTH are essential.
God is so magnificent and infinite that unity cannot hold him. He expresses himself as trinity. When he makes man in his own image, he makes THEM, male AND female (and kids). When he made dogs, he did Alsatians, Chihuahuas, Beagles, Rottweilers, and everything in between. Can solemnity on its own communicate what He is? Can a party on its own express what He is?
“Sanctify a fast – call a solemn assembly” say the same scriptures that record how David danced before the Lord and how a wide variety of musical instruments were used in the temple.
At evening prayers, lead the liturgy with only two, unimportant, mistakes.
I might be beginning to look like an Anglo-Catholic. Except for the theology of course.
After the very formal, quiet and solemn morning communion I went back to my own church to collect the kids. The service hadn’t finished so I waited in the foyer. It was a packed family service. The whole congregation was dancing and singing. Flags were waving, and balloons were going up to the ceiling. As a continuation of the Light Party held to provide an alternative to Halloween trick or treating on 31st October, there had been an election to decide whether the Vicar or the Children’s Church leader should get gunged (for those of you who are sane/not British, gunging is when you pour brightly coloured [if you’re lucky] or smelly and slimy fluids over your victim). The Vicar was chosen, but at the very last minute someone else, dressed up as ‘Jesus’ came and took his place in the gunging booth.
Formal Liturgical Ceremony v Wild Party.
Which was the true reflection of God’s Glory? Which was true worship?
The party bunch look down on the ‘dead’ ceremony.
The ceremonialists look down on the irreverent antics of the party.
I am convinced that BOTH are essential.
God is so magnificent and infinite that unity cannot hold him. He expresses himself as trinity. When he makes man in his own image, he makes THEM, male AND female (and kids). When he made dogs, he did Alsatians, Chihuahuas, Beagles, Rottweilers, and everything in between. Can solemnity on its own communicate what He is? Can a party on its own express what He is?
“Sanctify a fast – call a solemn assembly” say the same scriptures that record how David danced before the Lord and how a wide variety of musical instruments were used in the temple.
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