Tea Bowls

[Alexandra Thrift]

Dying to crack a joke about Midge's Rev's sermons ( taking into account the pronunciation of his name )...

Rev. Walker the Younger was well-meaning but terminally uninspiring....his sermons were recycled in a two-yearly rota so
after hearing the first few words you could safely nod-off knowing that you would not miss the deep spiritual insight you had been waiting for....they were probably a revised version of his father's.

[englishangel]

There were two that stick in my mind. One about the tower with windows looking in all directions (no idea waht that was all about) but my favourite was about the little jester who juggled and tumbled for God as those were his only talents.

I am sure they were recycled annually, because I am sure we had both more than 4 times.

[MKM]

I don't remember the content of any sermons (or rather I didn't, but while I typed that the phrase "look in your mental mirror" popped into my head - I think it was the theme of the Lenten talks one year). But didn't we play a game, where you had to wait for a word beginning with A, then B and so on? The result was that we gazed at the preacher with rapt attention, longing for a Q, or whatever we needed next.

[Katharine]

Not CH, but an Old Blue parson, when I was 7 we moved house and my father took a job as a school chaplain. His first Sunday he preached at the school service, afterwards the Headmaster's Wife deigned to greet my mother and myself as we waited for father. When she commented what a good sermon it was, I piped up that it was one of my favourites. I couldn't understand why the air went very cold around me!

[englishangel]

[Jo]

I don't remember the content of any sermons (or rather I didn't, but while I typed that the phrase "look in your mental mirror" popped into my head - I think it was the theme of the Lenten talks one year). But didn't we play a game, where you had to wait for a word beginning with A, then B and so on? The result was that we gazed at the preacher with rapt attention, longing for a Q, or whatever we needed next.

I remember the game of counting how many times Mr Walker put on and took off his glasses during his sermons. He was bald on top and just had hair round the sides and back of his head, and when he took his glasses off, the arms used to fluff up the hair on his temples. He didn't seem to be able to take them off neatly.

Actually, I think he was basically a good-hearted man - I remember the year I was confirmed he had all the candidates over to his house for tea one weekend and I suddenly saw him as a much more human family man. But he could be really obtuse and insensitive too - I remember in my final year, his Mothering Sunday sermon was all about how we should be with our mothers on Mothering Sunday (he presumably hadn't noticed that we were at a boarding school and it was term time) and he actually said that for children of divorced parents (much less common in the 70s) it would have been better if the non-resident parent had died because that was easier to get used to than the parents being divorced.

[Angela Woodford]

he actually said that for children of divorced parents (much less common in the 70s) it would have been better if the non-resident parent had died because that was easier to get used to than the parents being divorced.

I can hardly believe what I'm reading. That is truly appalling!

[Mid A 15]

he actually said that for children of divorced parents (much less common in the 70s) it would have been better if the non-resident parent had died because that was easier to get used to than the parents being divorced.

I can hardly believe what I'm reading. That is truly appalling!

Agreed it is appalling but by the standards of the time (particularly from a Church perspective) not an unusual view.

I don't seek to in anyway justify what was said but it is easy to judge historic actions unfairly by the attitudes of today rather than the time of those actions.

Corporal punishment is a good example. I've mentioned elsewhere the late BS Gregory, one of my housemasters, who was extremely "handy" with a gymshoe and would be lambasted and vilified today. Yet he had almost universal respect and affection from the boys in his charge because when you did get whacked (as I did often) it was invariably deserved.

[englishangel]

he actually said that for children of divorced parents (much less common in the 70s) it would have been better if the non-resident parent had died because that was easier to get used to than the parents being divorced.

I can hardly believe what I'm reading. That is truly appalling!

Actually more recent research has shown that this is true.

[vjwusa]

By the time I got to CH in 1975 there were 2 sizes of tea bowl and were always looking for the bigger ones! The urns were not electric, just filled with boiling water and they had giant teabags almost like pillow case sizes that they dunked into the water to make the tea.

[englishangel]

he actually said that for children of divorced parents (much less common in the 70s) it would have been better if the non-resident parent had died because that was easier to get used to than the parents being divorced.

I can hardly believe what I'm reading. That is truly appalling!

Actually more recent research has shown that this is true.

Sorry about my stark reply, I meant that it is true, but obviously not the way to put it to a bereaved child (or adult come to that).

I once read about the reaction of a child to the news that they were going to have a sibling, "Mummy and Daddy love you so much we thought it would be nice if you had a little brother/sister to play with."

Husband to wife (or vice versa) " I love you so much I thought it would be nice if I took a second wife/husband so you would have someone to have nice girlie/guy chats with." I DON'T THINK SO.