Viewing all items in Resource Category: St James The Least of All
The elderly Anglo-Catholic vicar, Eustace, continues his correspondence to Darren, his nephew, a low-church curate recently ordained…
- The Rectory St James the Least of All My dear Nephew Darren After all these years, I now understand why the non-conformist denominations sit down, rather than kneel, to say their prayers. That way, no decisions have to be taken over the number, size, shape, colour, material and design of kneelers in church. Our present...On the peril of choosing new kneelers
- The Rectory St James the Least of All My dear Nephew Darren You really should not worry about having reversed your car into the bishop’s gatepost, knocking it over and destroying his rose-beds. It gives him an opportunity to exercise Christian forgiveness. Your real mistake was scribbling a note of apology and pushing it through...There are more frightening things than bishops out there….
- The Rectory St James the Least of All My dear Nephew Darren It has all been excitement and activity here this last week, with a period drama being filmed using our church. It was remarkable how many people felt the need to drop in to church to collect magazines, check the reading rota or arrange...When the film makers come to church
- The Rectory St James the Least of All My dear Nephew Darren As with many of your ideas, your intentions are admirable; it is just that they don’t work. So it was with the recent wedding in your church, where you allowed the happy but quite mad young couple to try and imitate the marriage...On the perils of taking a wedding
- The Rectory St James the Least of All My dear Nephew Darren Now you have got your new telephone system in the parish, I shall not be calling you again. I refuse to wait for ten minutes every time I ring to have to listen to the cycle of ‘press 1 for the vicar, 2...Press one for vicar, two for curate…
- The Rectory St James the Least of All My dear Nephew Darren Thank you for the kind offer of your old computer, but I do not want it. I know you find it a fundamental basic of daily life, but I do not, and I intend to keep things that way. This is despite the...On why the clergy should avoid computers
- The Rectory St James the Least of All My dear Nephew Darren Since your parishioners mostly live in an area of half a square mile, where their only concern in getting to church is whether to take the underpass, or to risk a dash across the ring road, you may have little understanding of the...On getting to church at a social distance
- The Rectory St James the Least of All My dear Nephew Darren On reflection, inviting your parishioners to join in our annual Rose Queen celebrations may not have been entirely wise. It was cheering to see that your people arrived on carnival floats, although it was less happy that some of them should have chosen...On the perils of holding a Rose Queen celebration
- The Rectory St. James the Least of All My dear Nephew Darren Thank you for inviting me to speak at your church council yesterday. I began to suspect that my theme of why Eusebius’s dislike of Sabellianism led to his condemnation at the Council of Antioch in 324 was a little misjudged, when the only...On the best way to run a church council meeting
- The Rectory St James the Least of All My dear Nephew Darren So, your vicar has introduced staff appraisal for all the officers who work for your church, including yourself. It seems a very dangerous innovation; as far as I am concerned, ministry is only successful when parishioners have no idea what the clergy get...On how to deflect those staff appraisals
- The Rectory St James the Least of All My dear Nephew Darren I appreciated your recent concern when you heard one of our parishioners had slipped on a gravestone. Your desire to help was entirely commendable, and I do know that sending your own church’s health and safety officer to give us some advice...On why our church does not need health or safety…
- The Rectory St James the Least My dear Nephew Darren You may have had several years of intensive training on biblical interpretation, preaching and church history, but that doesn’t cover the really important matters in parish life: how to evade disgruntled parishioners, run a brisk Summer Fete and, in your case at present, deal with...On how to deal with your church’s correspondence