Forum Topic

Robins take top spot

I've been arranging my Christmas Cards - there is a proliferation of robins this year, a few of Santa, a couple of pheasants,  but the main event and sole reason for Christ-mas, the Birth of the Son of God, has been almost ignored.   I've only two nativity scenes and one of the Three Kings!      We have lost our way, consumerism is paramount, belief in the Glory of God has all but vanished!     Yet the kindness and sacrifices of hundreds exists - we need to find our way back to worshiping a being higher than money.   This from a lapsed churchgoer who still marvels at the beauty of prayers, hymns and soaring spiritual music - a feeling of enveloping peace and awe as you step into one of our glorious cathedrals.   We have Christmas because of the Birth of Christ - not because of the twinkling fairy lights and lavish displays of plastic in Harrods and Hamleys!  

Jennifer Selig ● 2137d12 Comments

We have always enjoyed going to Midnight Communion, because this is above all, a Christian festival, and clearly there are problems in this year of all years. But most local churches have become evangelical which frankly - I cannot abide. So for the last two years we've given up trying to find a traditional communion service with carols. It is an hour of peace and quiet reflection at a very busy time, how we miss it.

Vanessa Smith ● 2137d

Vanessa - thank you what a lovely response.  I too dislike happy clappy services.  I loved the old traditional Christian communion services with carols.  I'm ashamed to admit, through laziness I think, I've seldom visited our local W4 churches.  Of course now it's more difficult but my New Year resolution will be to try and find a W4 CofE high church, with parking, close by.  I tune into services on both radio and TV but it's not the same.

Jennifer Selig ● 2137d

It's not illegal to start up your own church. Many in history have done so to varying degrees of success or total disaster. If you're in a hurry your could with your acolytes storm and takeover by way of protest any local church and refurbish it with glitter, pungent incense and doleful esoteric charts to your heart's content. That is until the local priest with assistance from HM's constabulary arrived to take back their dingy place of pretentious religious tedium. Am not suggesting you break down a church door when it may already be unlocked. Didn't some German chap in the past nail an heretic reformatory message on a church door which upset a Pope of the time - and which has given us today the very Church you are complaining about? As for your Robins their livery could inspire you to design your new church's priestly vestments to have blood-red symbolic chest weavings and sewings that also reference 'the bleeding heart of Jesus'. Isn’t there some mythology extant that says a robin redbreast, along with the other animals visiting the Christmas manger, perched momentarily on the breast of The Baby Jesus in His cradle and delivered a blackberry upon the child’s heart staining bright red the swaddling clothes? Isn’t that a lovely Christmas image?

Bobbie Carnegie ● 2137d

Sorry, but I don't understand why everyone is in lockdown, those wanting to attend relicious services aren't.  Does God confer immunity on Chiswick church attendees?

Claire Moran ● 2137d

Relgious, sorry, spellcheck only changes stuff it shouldn't!

Claire Moran ● 2137d

The happy-clappy evangelical Alpha sect has taken over many local churches by their practice of 'planting' volunteer worshippers in previously dormant churches and quickly taking them over by force of numbers. Turnham Green went first and then South Acton. At least they fixed the roof and installed solar panels at South Action, which had been abandoned, but usually the pews get thrown out and the electronic keyboard moves in.

Peter Evans ● 2137d

"... the pews get thrown out and the electronic keyboard moves in."I suppose some? many? like that modernisation - trying to appeal to the young maybe??  Has it worked?  I don't think so but anyway it's not for me, old fashioned biddy that I am.  I want beautiful old churches, pews, cloisters, stained glass windows, candles, majestic organ music, choirs, robes, mystery and the worship of God in all his glory.      Forum Home

Jennifer Selig ● 2137d

Where’s Laurence Truett when you need him?

Alastair Banton ● 2136d

I am no Laurence Truett, but I do have a PhD in theology and a PhD in history. I can see why some would not be into the Alpha course. The Church of England produces something more to my liking in Christianity Explored. A bit more bland, perhaps, but more on point.The term 'evangelical' is a bit of a Pandora's Box as it has different meanings for different people and is often equated with conservative politics and anti-intellectualism, though those who call themselves evangelicals have a wide range of views.Whether one claps or contemplates -- and there is beauty in both -- the mysteries of God becoming man, the whole point of Christians celebrating Christmas is to cherish the birth of Jesus Christ, though Christmas seems to have become more commercial even within the faith, and that is unfortunate.  Whether one attends a Christmas service during lockdown or not, Philippians 2.3-4 come to mind.

Phil Hopkins ● 2136d

I really enjoy carols at Christmas and a lot of the other religious music associated with it and I will quite happily attend a carol concert. I think it’s the association with childhood and I remember the words without having  to think about them.  And we have a crèche as part of the Christmas decorations . Personally, I don’t believe in Jesus being the son of a god but so could not possibly count myself as a Christian but Christmas  is a very  special time of me not because of any religious reason but because it’s time spent with family and friends (although not this year for many of us) and each family or friendship group builds up its own traditions and in-jokes. It can be, as well,  a hugely difficult time for some people as the expectation is that we all have to be having a marvellous time and not everyone does.  So amidst all the tinsel and lights, food and more food, it can be a time for reflection even if one doesn’t hold any particular religious belief.

Stewart Jones ● 2136d

Christmas carols are the thing I like most about Christmas.  Always have.  I can still sing, note perfect, a descant I learned to the last verse of While Shepherds Watched at the age of nine.  As an adult I have often been a member of carol choirs and these occasions have been an absolute joy.  Christmas celebration is for all people no matter what their faith or lack of one.

Alastair Banton ● 2136d

If you like Carol Services folks have a dekko and an ear-full of this years Magdalen College Oxford's Carol Service at link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=512XjsVZgbc

Bobbie Carnegie ● 2135d