News1 min ago
Has The Church Of England Changed Its Performances In Recent Years?
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This question emanates from the one below ‘On being raised with religion’. I’m occasionally invited to attend Church of England services – among them most recently a ‘Christingle’ service at Christmas and a Maundy Thursday service at Easter. The ‘Christingle’ service - in which oranges tied with a red ribbon representing the blood of Christ encircling the earth are given to children - I know is relatively new to these shores, having originated in Eastern Europe and subsequently adopted and adapted by some churches in the USA before being imported to the UK. However, I can’t recall ever being required on Ash Wednesday to write an apology for any perceived misdemeanour, which was subsequently burnt to ashes, or attending a Maundy Thursday service where the Last Supper, starring a miniature version of ‘Jesus’ washing his disciples’ feet, was re-enacted by children – apparently in an effort to teach them humility. Added to that, at that service, a man-size cross complete with wrist straps had been erected adjacent to the altar in preparation for adult occupancy at the Good Friday service. Unlike the gentle Christianity of my childhood, when I sang ‘All Things Bright and Beautiful’ and learnt all about ‘gentle Jesus meek and mild’, little donkeys, stables, and animals going two by two into Noah’s Ark, the whole thing, quite disgracefully in my opinion, now appears to be designed to instil guilt and fear into the young, and to instruct them in the gory details of the torture and the horrendous death of the central character in this story. I remember none of this from my childhood – none at all. Can any church-goer, or former church-goer, remember any of this happening in their youth?
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nope and to my knowledge, none of the churches round here do it apart from Christingle. On Easter Sunday around here, flower decked crosses suddenly appear outside many of the churches. As a child, on palm sunday we were all given blessed crosses made from palm leaves, and the children all received posies of spring flowers on mothering sunday...but nothing so bizarre as you mention....Sounds like the vicar in question might be a contender for weird vic of the year....
The Church of England is far too big and varied for any one Church's practices to reflect the whole. There's a very wide spectrum. By contrast one of the complaints about the church I used to go to is that it's become a bit "happy clappy", where some people I know would prefer a bit more tradition, songs that aren't so repetitive and so on.
Yes, I remember the palm crosses which are still given - as are the posies on Mothering Sunday - but I know of two churches in England that do the 'man on the cross' thing on Good Friday, so the one I'm talking about is definitely not alone. Having said that, this is the first time I've come across the Ash Wednesday and Maundy Thursday nonsense - at least where the rituals are specifically designed to involve children.
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