Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

jhopgood wrote: My mother, who has just turned 90, but she doesn't know it, converted to the RC church in her 60's having been a strong Anglican all her life. She was in fact following in the steps of her brother, who did it at a much earlier age.
He lived in front of an Anglican church (St Peter's, Ropley), went to church there every day, and at his funeral (held at St Peter's), both RC and Anglican priests were present. He is buried there which, since he was RC, I found curious.
Unfortunately we didn't ask my mother about her funeral arrangements before she had her stroke, but I feel she would like something similar to her brother's. Now to see if we can arrange it when the time comes.

It seems not too controversial for priests /ministers of different churches to cooperate in a funeral service - I was at one recently involving an RC priest and a Methodist (?) minister held in an RC church. ISTR there was a funeral actively including priests/ministers of different denominations on TV not too long ago. My son's funeral was in the RC cathedral (he was RC) and interment at a C of E churchyard by a C of E canon.

I think the two Christian religions in this country are slowly getting closer and closer. There will always be a few 'die-hards', especially in the Catholic Church.

Henry VIII has a lot to answer for, and I say that as someone baptised and confirmed in the C of E !

I recently attended a funeral in Salisbury Cathedral, a particularly sad event as the deceased was only in her mid 40's and only a few weeks ago had been given a good five years to live. I have to say it was one of the strangest and the most camp thingsI have ever witnessed, anywhere. Although the singing was excellent, the rite was about the least inclusive I have ever come across with all the responses sung in plainsong which I have not come across since Compline in the late 1970's! As for the rest of the service the reformation might never have happened with a funeral Communion (aka mass), incense and holy water. It really made me feel quite uncomfortable although, of course, I do have enough humility to acknowledge that this was not about me and it is what she (the deceased) had planned. Nonetheless, it was a strange experience and not entirely how I would wish my favourite building normally to be used.

That book was written in the Victorian era. Is it an easy read? I am interested in the subject after spending the past 5 years photographing churches, abbeys, and cathedrals - up to almost 900 now!

Interesting. I think I will find it and read it. I have been going to a staunchly Anglo-Catholic church here in Battersea, but recently have lapsed a little. They tend to take the religious politics rather too seriously, though in some ways I do think things would have been better if Henry V111 hadn't dissolved the monasteries, if only because so much of the best architecture (and medieval art) was thus destroyed.

Just to be controversial -----who me ???

I see today, that the CofE have now got round the "Problem" of same-sex couples getting "Married in church"

Something to do with the "Licensing of the buildong "

Discuss ???

Celibate? No! No! I meant to write celebrate.

loringa wrote:I recently attended a funeral in Salisbury Cathedral, a particularly sad event as the deceased was only in her mid 40's and only a few weeks ago had been given a good five years to live. I have to say it was one of the strangest and the most camp thingsI have ever witnessed, anywhere. Although the singing was excellent, the rite was about the least inclusive I have ever come across with all the responses sung in plainsong which I have not come across since Compline in the late 1970's! As for the rest of the service the reformation might never have happened with a funeral Communion (aka mass), incense and holy water. It really made me feel quite uncomfortable although, of course, I do have enough humility to acknowledge that this was not about me and it is what she (the deceased) had planned. Nonetheless, it was a strange experience and not entirely how I would wish my favourite building normally to be used.

The C of E has, for my lifetime, had High and Low churches. The "High Churches" go far beyond our local RC cathedral; it looks like this is what you experienced and which I for one, dislike.
Low Church was straight out of the prayer book, spoken with, optionally, a few hymns. No incense but AFAIR Holy Water is sprinkled on the coffin during the commital. The Book of Common Prayer did not include Communion in the Funeral Rites though there is scope for the bereaved to apply some variation such as this.

Some ceremonies were not carried out in Low Church - Churching, for example has, I think, now been totally discontinued though, as a server, I did attend one which was held as part of the baptism..

CH under Rev. Pullen was about normal - not as low as some but not High Church.

I remember several years ago attending a High Church C of E wedding. All pomp, ceremony and incense.

Oddly, the marriage only lasted a year !

Alan P5age wrote:

J.R. wrote:I remember several years ago attending a High Church C of E wedding. All pomp, ceremony and incense.

Oddly, the marriage only lasted a year !

What? Even shorter than the service itself?

I know of one that did last less time than the time in the church! When the "happy couple" went to sign the register the bride said top her father "Take me home, I'm not marrying this man". Apparently as the register had not been signed, they were not legally married. When the same woman turned up at the Vicarage with a different young man a couple of years later, the Vicar said "Not in my church, in my eyes you are married before God" - he did not know where he stood legally!

What an astonishing story, Katharine! I wonder what happened?

A girl can change her mind!

sejintenej wrote:

loringa wrote:I recently attended a funeral in Salisbury Cathedral, a particularly sad event as the deceased was only in her mid 40's and only a few weeks ago had been given a good five years to live. I have to say it was one of the strangest and the most camp thingsI have ever witnessed, anywhere. Although the singing was excellent, the rite was about the least inclusive I have ever come across with all the responses sung in plainsong which I have not come across since Compline in the late 1970's! As for the rest of the service the reformation might never have happened with a funeral Communion (aka mass), incense and holy water. It really made me feel quite uncomfortable although, of course, I do have enough humility to acknowledge that this was not about me and it is what she (the deceased) had planned. Nonetheless, it was a strange experience and not entirely how I would wish my favourite building normally to be used.

The C of E has, for my lifetime, had High and Low churches. The "High Churches" go far beyond our local RC cathedral; it looks like this is what you experienced and which I for one, dislike.
Low Church was straight out of the prayer book, spoken with, optionally, a few hymns. No incense but AFAIR Holy Water is sprinkled on the coffin during the commital. The Book of Common Prayer did not include Communion in the Funeral Rites though there is scope for the bereaved to apply some variation such as this.

Some ceremonies were not carried out in Low Church - Churching, for example has, I think, now been totally discontinued though, as a server, I did attend one which was held as part of the baptism..

CH under Rev. Pullen was about normal - not as low as some but not High Church.

The High and Low church debate always interests me - yes there are Anglo-Catholics who are happy with 'bells and smells' and there are the 'Low' churches who are 'happy clappy'. As a member of a Religious Order that can, and does, swing from low to very high(!) I find that the 'low' helps me to challenge my religious thinking and the 'high' helps me to go where I am happiest - the contemplative side of my nature.

Neither are right nor wrong but what is important is that the person going to church finds somewhere where they are happy.

I'll not start the debate about High Church rituals being used in Cathedrals/churches and being like Roman Catholic churches when most cathedrals and the older churches started life within the Roman Church!!!

It is my fervent belief that God puts you in the Church, in which he wants you.--------
To serve, to change things, or to to change yourself !

NEILL THE NOTORIOUS wrote:It is my fervent belief that God puts you in the Church, in which he wants you.--------
To serve, to change things, or to to change yourself !

An interesting thought, Neill.

So where does that place the Muslim God, who promises 20 virgins in the after-life if his subjects strike down the 'infidel' ?

So, is this Muslim afterlife only for men? What incentive is there for Muslim women .......... do they have to be virgins to qualify? Spending eternity as a 'reward' for murderous Muslim men hardly seems much of a reward for living a virtuous life! If that's all they have to look forward to, why bother?! Surely, since after the first time they would no longer be virgins, then presumably demand would very quickly outstrip supply?