There was, & still is a Service like that at Mr C’s Church every week - it drove us mad when we had to do joint services . We did at least get the chance to hide in the choir stalls though…
My lot have 5 Masses each Sunday, & you go to the one which suits you :
8am 30minutes, no music
9-30am Family Mass,45-50 minutes, mixed music - Hymns & ‘Hymn-like Songs’ . Busy & noisier, but no running around . Coffee/Tea available after.
1pm Mass in Polish with a visiting Priest - this is interesting, reflecting the current local population. We used to have Mass in Italian once a month with a visiting Priest, but that hasn’t happened for years
Our current Priest could manage a Mass in Italian if necessary
7pm 40- 45minutes. 3 Hymns
We are in the fortunate position of having Priests wot can Sing
I can remember Father Ryan, who couldn’t hold a tune inna bucket, not even when he became a Canon…
It is very difficult to sing responses when the man at the front can’t lead
Even worse if there were 2 of them…
I suppose it is reasonable to think that families getting a sprog baptised will probably be more or less inured to sproggery (or at least about to learn to be). Slightly tough on the rellies, though. No idea whether they have other services of a Sunday; I assume so.
One could work the symbolism well enough by saying “we are the part of the church that’s here now, so we welcome you”. I don’t have a problem with that. It’s the “oh, this is an entirely mundane and normal thing that we’re doing here” attitude: no, by your own rules this is an entirely special thing that you’re doing, indeed a once in a lifetime thing for the sprog.
Early Birds
Designed for young children and their families, this is short (25 minutes), lively and fun, with songs, Bible stories, drama-and something to take home!. Better still, the service now includes breakfast. Come along and enjoy your tea and toast!
This is, I presume a church of “the one true faith” & none of those “pagan Christians”. You’ll be singing 'Faith of our Fathers" next … as scary a hymn as ever there was.
Though, this month “Queen of the May” is appropriate. If you can a transpose yourself to a 1960’s RC junior school singing, in its best & broadest Bolton accent -
"Bring flowers o’t rurist (rareist)
Bring blossoms the furist, (fairest)
From garden an’ woodland an’ ‘illside an’ dayul (dale);
Our full ‘earts ar’ swellin’,
Our glad voices tellin’
The praise of the loveliest flower of the vayul (vale!)
Chorus:
O Mury we crown thee with blossoms today!
Queen of the Angels an’ Queen of the May.
O Mury we crown thee with blossoms today,
Queen of the Anguls an’ Queen of the May.
Quite an event and we all KNEW we were going to heaven coz Fr. Murphy had told us. Not like those Proddies who stole our churches off us.
Well, I think that those congregating should get on wivvit, as this is part of the much vaunted ‘outreach’. I love the crashes and bangs of younguns in Church (as long as they are held in check for others).
Well I most certainly do not; and it seems that the idea of holding the little dears in check seems to have gone fairly comprehensively out of fashion.
(not that this is an actual problem, mind, as I very rarely enter a church these days; the rumour that I sizzle when crossing consecrated ground is, however, unfounded)
M’yes. We took ours to church with us; they had a section of the building, in sight of the pulpit, where they sat together with three or four adults supervising and played with toys provided. They did not play hide and seek under the altar, nor bash into people as they crawled about under the pews.
And when I wanted to tell them quickly that they were entering a place where it was appropriate to be seen and not heard, what I said was, “Church rules.” That meant that they were supposed to show consideration for the people there and not run riot. I would say it, for instance, if we went to the Garden at Glastonbury, or into a library – places where I would not have run around screaming and saw no reason for them to get the idea that they could either.
