Viewing all items in Resource Category: St James The Least of All

 The Rectory St James the Least My dear Nephew Darren So, you are excited about being invited to plan your first Carol Service. The dangers involved are only slightly less than being invited to judge the best cake made by the Ladies’ Group. You seem to have no idea of the lifelong offence you will...

 The Rectory St James the Least My dear Nephew Darren I suppose it had to come, but combining parishes is now firmly on the agenda for our villages. I had always wondered what the first Earl of Stowe was trying to prove, building a church here in 1347 to accommodate 800 people when the total...

The Rectory St James the Least My dear Nephew Darren I was interested to hear that from this academic year, your vicar has asked you to take his place as a school governor. A whole new world of exciting meetings is about to open up to you. Naturally, you will have been told that the...

The Rectory St James the Least My dear Nephew Darren I am surprised you are considering buying a new set of hymn books for your church. I had assumed everything you sang would be projected on to one of those screens which are invariably placed to obscure the altar. In my – fortunately limited –...

The Rectory, St James the Least of All My dear Nephew Darren Well, at least you tried. Filling in for another colleague who was away on holiday was kind of you; that it was somewhere with a high church tradition was adventurous of you. But just because something is worth doing, must you do it...

The Rectory St James the Least My dear Nephew Darren You should not complain about doing duty in other churches when their clergy are on holiday. It is only in other churches that you will be appreciated. Beatification only comes from your own church on the day you leave – which is a way of...

The Rectory St James the Least My dear Nephew Darren Your remark that you rather liked the silence we keep before starting Services gave me pause for thought. I suppose all things are relative. I know that the noise your congregation makes before worship resembles a packed stand on the football terraces any Saturday afternoon,...

The Rectory St James the Least My dear Nephew Darren It never fails to amaze me how, in church life, an issue can suddenly become an Issue. In the last month, we have acquired an Issue: a proposal to convert a space at the back of church into a kitchen. Inevitably, battle lines have been...

The Rectory St James the Least My dear Nephew Darren I am not the least surprised you have got yourself into trouble; innovation is never to be encouraged. New ideas tend to cause revolutions. The move from incandescent lightbulbs to energy saving ones may ultimately change the Church of England. Change is something everyone claims...

The Rectory St James the Least My dear Nephew Darren  Visits from your parishioners to our church are always welcome. But I did not expect them to return to you complaining because our pews are uncomfortable. Pews are meant to be uncomfortable. The unshakeable belief of our congregation is that the more uncomfortable the pew,...

The Rectory St James the Least My dear Nephew Darren Winter certainly exposes the difference between those of you who live in cities and us rural folk. While you bask in your centrally heated flat, and complain about the half an inch of slush outside, we country folk wear overcoats in our houses, open all...

The Rectory St James the Least My dear Nephew Darren So, you have just attended a course on ‘Diary Management’, to get you prepared for another year. If you had visited me, I could have told you all you need to know in half the time. Allow me to provide you with useful information which...