Lent 2
We are well into the penitential season of Lent, the run up to Holy Week and Easter. The church takes on a sombre aspect – vestments are purple and the liturgy omits the gloria. Flowers are prohibited in church for all but Mothering Sunday.
I was serving again on Lent 2. As it was the first Sunday in the month, the junior choir were in attendance, the church full and much chaos as usual. For once, nothing went wrong in the serving dept aside from confusion at the beginning of the service on who was administering communion and from where. Cock ups were left to those in charge of the sound system who forgot to put out the microphones. We all forget sometimes.
The sermon as based on the Gospel reading for the day ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord’. The importance of the message was underlined by the preacher dressing one of the children as a special messanger.
Strange then that the annual general meeting that followed was so heated (should we get rid of the pews and replace them with chairs). Very little charity given here, but people feel strongly on this issue. What annoys me though, is the misuse of tradition. Too often it is cited when what people mean is the status quo. Following tradition, we should get rid of pews and chairs and have the nave as the open space it would have been in centuries past. It would encourage preachers to keep the sermons short…
