Eddie Arthur links to an interview with Christian songwriter and worship leader Matt Redman. This is especially interesting for his second thoughts on writing words like “Jesus, I am so in love with you”.
Matt Redman interview
Reply
Category Archives: Church
Not St Patrick's Day
I won’t congratulate my Irish friends today, because apparently, on the authority of the BBC, this year 17th March is not St Patrick’s Day, at least for most of those who usually celebrate it. It is all because Easter is so early this year. This means that today, 17th March, is already the first day (or is it the second day?) of Holy Week, the special week leading up to Easter. And apparently, according to both Roman Catholic and Anglican reckoning, Holy Week takes precedence over regular saints’ days, which are simply cancelled for that year. Some Eastern Orthodox believers are still officially honouring St Patrick today (although others are not), because for them it is not yet Holy Week, but not many Irish are Eastern Orthodox.
Not surprisingly the Roman Catholic hierarchy in Ireland did not allow their patron saint’s day to go completely unmarked this year, so they celebrated in advance, on Saturday 15th. But given the rugby result that day their celebrations must have been rather muted.
Churches must either change or decay
Part of a slide from the presentation by Bob Jackson which I linked to a few days ago. I looked for this in response to a post by John Meunier which makes a similar point.
Usually, churches only grow when they change
• Surveys show that churches that don’t change are shrinking, churches that do change are not shrinking … usually the choice is change or decay
From his survey results, in the Church of England across theological boundaries, 17 churches which had made no changes shrank by an average 22% over 6 years, whereas 32 churches which had made at least one change, of any kind, on average grew by 4%.
Some hints for getting rid of congregations
About a year ago I went to a day conference on church growth, here in Chelmsford diocese, by Bob Jackson, Archdeacon of Lichfield. Now Andy Griffiths, my Rural Dean here in Chelmsford South deanery, has posted a link to an online copy (PDF) of Jackson’s notes from a similar talk. The first part of this is serious and excellent material on church growth. The latter part, the slides “some hints for getting rid of congregations” (pp. 17-21) and the spoof church noticeboards (pp. 22-26), are hilarious!
Sacred spaces?
Until recently, I was more or less ambivalent to the architecture and decoration of church buildings. … However, as I grow older, I realise that the surroundings can help me to develop a sense of awe and wonder.
In support of this, he quotes from ThinkChristian, who is in fact at this point quoting The Aesthetic Elevator:
We should build spaces crafted specially for a human-divine encounter with God.
Ah, but how should we design such spaces? Is our traditional church architecture, a pastiche of mediaeval cathedrals, necessarily the best design? Is this in fact a completely subjective matter? In support of this idea, I think Eddie should also have quoted this from the same ThinkChristian post:
The fact also remains that different people will always own different aesthetics, and attempting to satisfy all at the same time is unrealistic.
Eddie and ThinkChristian both omitted this part of the original post from The Aesthetic Elevator:
perhaps we shouldn’t build sacred spaces at all.
I tend to agree. We need functional spaces, buildings to meet in. But it is not for us humans to declare them sacred or presume to make them “crafted specially for a human-divine encounter with God”. If we are to “develop a sense of awe and wonder”, we should do this not through buildings which then become idols, but by beholding and reflecting the glory of God, 2 Corinthians 3:18.
Why is Easter so early this year?
I am writing this primarily as an article for Baddow Life newspaper, for which I am one of the editorial team; hence the local references. I thank Liturgee for a comment on Lingamish’s blog which led me to an informative post on this subject. I have also made use of this Wikipedia article, this one and this one. Also a Google search found me interesting comments on this blog post.
Easter Sunday this year is unusually early, 23rd March. This causes difficulties especially for schools, and in fact this year Essex children will be back at school for four days after Easter and before their main spring holiday. At least it may mean that this year there are daffodils still in bloom to decorate our churches.
In fact Easter has not been this early since 1913. The earliest possible date is 22nd March, but the last time it was on that day was in 1818. These dates are determined by complex calculations which go back to the 6th century: Easter is the Sunday after the first full moon on or after 21st March, supposed to be the day of the spring equinox. This year the moon is full exactly on 21st March, and so Easter is on the following Sunday.
There have been many proposals to fix the date of Easter, which would certainly make things easier for schools. Parliament passed the Easter Act of 1928 to do just this, but it was never implemented. The Roman Catholic church has accepted in principle a fixed date if a consensus could be reached among churches, and the Church of England position seems similar. But at the moment no such consensus is likely.
One reason for this is because a fixed Easter would break the link with the Jewish feast of Passover or Pesach. The original events of the Easter season, the death and resurrection of Jesus, took place at this festival season. Passover is a celebration of the night when the Israelites fled from slavery in Egypt, which for obvious reasons was at full moon. Easter is similarly a celebration of how Jesus delivered us from slavery to sin and death, and it is important for some that the link to Passover is retained.
As the ancient Israelites used a lunar calendar, and modern Jews still do for religious purposes, Passover was always celebrated at full moon, the 14th day of the first lunar month Nisan. The Christian feast day is supposed to be on the nearest Sunday to this date. But in fact over the centuries the calculations have diverged, and so in some years, including this one, Passover is a whole month later than Easter.
Eastern Orthodox churches also often, including this year, celebrate Easter about a month later than western churches. This is mainly because they calculate the dates according to the old Julian calendar which is 13 days behind our Gregorian calendar.
This Easter, watch out for the full moon and remember how its light helped ancient slaves to escape from Egypt. Then remember that, as the psalmist wrote, God’s word to us in the Bible is “a lamp to my feet and a light for my path”. By this light we can follow the way which Jesus Christ has opened up, to escape from anything that enslaves us and find true freedom.
Why God doesn't go to church
A great non-cartoon from The Ongoing Adventures of ASBO Jesus.
To be honest, I get pretty bored. I love people. I love to see them interact, but I find more of that sort of thing at the park and on the football pitches these days … (Continued here)
Signing off
I will join several of my fellow bloggers and sign off now for a Christmas break. I don’t expect to be blogging, reading blogs, or using a computer at all to any significant extent until next Thursday evening or Friday.
Tomorrow I am busy at church and then out with friends. On Monday I am taking the train (trying to be environmentally friendly for once) to Taunton in south west England (200 miles west of here) to spend Christmas with my brother and his wife, in their interesting old house (partly 16th century) at which they offer bed and breakfast.
I wish all my readers a very Merry Christmas, filled with the love, joy and peace which Jesus brings. I expect to be back to wish you also a happy New Year.
Let me leave you with some thoughts from Pope Benedict XVI, quoted by Michael Barber:
I would like to mention an aspect that is strongly united to this mission and that I entrust to your prayer: peace among all Christ’s disciples, as a sign of the peace that Jesus came to establish in the world. We have heard the great news of the Christological hymn: it pleased God to “reconcile” the universe through the Cross of Christ (cf. Col 1: 20)! Well then, the Church is that portion of humanity in whom Christ’s royalty is already manifest, who has peace as its privileged manifestation. It is the new Jerusalem, still imperfect because it is yet a pilgrim in history, but able to anticipate in some way the heavenly Jerusalem.
Some are more equal than others
In George Orwell’s book Animal Farm, the animals who took over the farm from their human owner initially proclaimed
All animals are equal.
But later this was altered, by the pigs who emerged as the rulers, to this:
All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.
Orwell’s book was written as an allegory about Communism. But in many ways it can also be taken as an allegory about the church. Continue reading
Not brains on a stick
John Hobbins has made an interesting point, which many of you may not see because it is hidden underneath some Hebrew in a post on Psalm 100 which seems a bit heavy to digest on top of turkey and pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving day (not that I am eating them, but John is and no doubt most Americans are):
Verbal acclamation of יהוה [Yahweh, the LORD] was part of a kinesthetic act of worship. You shout. You whoop it up. You process into God’s presence. Hasidic Jews and charismatic Christians know this. Others approach worship as if they were brains on a stick.
Well, as I posted before I tend to be kinesthetic. That is surely why I don’t relate to worship which appeals to “brains on a stick”. And maybe that is part of why I love charismatic worship – but the other part is the presence of the Holy Spirit among the people of God.
Thanks, John, and enjoy your feast and the rest of your holiday!