Monday 18 June 2012

Reverent Disposal

I noticed this advice on dealing with worn-out missals this morning. It is an interesting thought - that things we invest much in, when they are beyond use, require disposal. Of the printing of different translations of the Bible there is no end, and when, at the end of some (normally evangelical) life we discover that the dear departed has collected about 130 Bibles, many of them falling apart from age - what do we do? Although we are not bibliolaters (if that is even a word), we may feel a certain reluctance to dispose of precious things. His Hermeneuticalness's suggestion of reverent recycling seems very sound. While our own method of dealing with the mountains of laser-printed service sheets that get produced every day - i.e. storing them up then burning them - is equally good for the environment.

After our experiences with the Hamster of Atonement, we have avoided the re-use of any worship-related material in animal bedding. In the case of poor old Rubbles, it was having bedding made entirely of shredded paper with sins written on it that upset him - causing him to become remarkably shifty and unfriendly before his brief career as an investment banker - but I'd be very wary of the impact of using shredded service sheets of any kind in future. After all, use the remnants of the Julian service we held the other week, and the new Community Hamster, Wiggy, might find she's got ideas buzzing in her head that her little brain can't cope with. Certainly I couldn't - especially when the "thing the size of a hazelnut" that got handed round turned out to be a pistachio. It wasn't the small size and fragility of the world I couldn't get my head round - it was the massive crack in the shell that worried me. Has the state of the environment really descended so far?

For more permanent objects used in praise and worship - hymnbooks and the like - most British churches recommend that, when they're worn out or hopelessly outdated, the best thing to do is send them to a church in Africa. This has the advantage of clearing our conscience and moving the problem to another country. What the African Church is doing with the wave of copies of Sounds of Living Water that must currently be breaking across the continent is another question. But thankfully it's their question. Drayton Parslow tells me that he has sent all the worn-out King James Versions in the Bogwulf Chapel (and the copies of the 1549 Book of Common Prayer he found in a cupboard) to a small village in Burma. There are rumours that when he sent a group from his church out on a mission visit, they discovered an entire community in the jungle speaking 16th-century English.

There is also the reverse process. This is where an item formerly used for commonplace household purposes - such as a sofa, or an old non-digital telly - is to be replaced by a new one. Recognising the sanctity that this object has acquired through long use, people often donate them for either the Church or Manse. Sometimes, bundles of newspapers can be donated "in case the Sunday School wants to make papier-mâché". In the Extremely Primitive Methodists chapel that I grew up in, this practice grew to such proportions that the minister had to build an extension just to keep all the old armchairs and bookshelves he'd been donated. And it became a squeeze getting into the chapel on a Sunday morning, because of the piles of chairs and tables laying round the place. On the bright side, since the Extremely Primitive Methodists eschewed all unnatural forms of heating, on cold winter mornings we used to burn the furniture to keep warm.

Finally, I'd like to observe that there actually appear to be laws in the US on how to dispose of their national flag. The site I found this on has an ironic side - the text itself is very respectful, while the adverts in the side-bar are for a series of waste-disposal companies. I like to think this is why America exists - to combine solemn patriotism with the profit motive.

10 comments :

  1. Q: How many Methodists does it take to change a lightbulb?

    A: You can't change that lightbulb! My Grandfather donated that ligtbulb in 1947 in memeory of my great grandmother. That lightbulb is a symbol of my family's connection to this chapel through generations. If you change that lightbulb I shall NEVER SET FOOT IN THIS CHURCH AGAIN!

    (Always accept anyone's resignation: never accept anyone's piano.)

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    1. Can you believe I have read that same story about Anglicans instead of Methodists?

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    2. The American Episcopalian version involves several committees before deciding this same fate.

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  2. I thought that I was the recipient of anything surplus. On many occasions, I have been offered books etc from someone who is retiring and clearing the decks. How naive I was is evidenced by the great piles of dusty, unread books that I acquired. Now, I politely, but firmly acknowledge with gratitude, but so I already have a copy of them all, and really couldn't place another.

    I recommend them to the huge number of charity and second hand book shops that abound around the University of London Campus - I've never seen so many, full of dusty old books, that once, must have been the treasured property of some academic or aspiring student.

    If my polite rejection fails, I tend to feign deafness to continuing plea's. I have also managed to successfully managed to divert them towards the Vicar or Curate who might unwittingly walk by. The Vicar says that this tactic is underhand as he is already overloaded. The Curate just sigh's and reminds me that she actually originally pointed the person towards me.

    There seems something just wrong about destroying a copy of the Bible - is it sacrilege? I don't really know. But just in case, I'm not getting my 19 copies blessed as has been urged by our over Pious reader.

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  3. Locally, it's the Salvation Army which is known for accepting just about anything. Other charities have rules about 'No outdated electronics' or 'no futons' or 'No mattresses' (fear of bedbugs, maybe?), and the organizers of the parish fair say 'No Flea Market Items!!' Can you tell I've had to help clear out a relative's apartment recently?

    I liked the comment in the linked article saying 'I encourage children to take home a palm but stress that they should not use it to have a pretend sword fight.' I guess the children in our church are not unusually violent after all, if others have noticed similar uses for the palms!

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  4. My Catholic friend was got communion wine spilled on her dress by a clumsy EM and had asked her priest what to. He instructed her to either a) wash the dress in a river or outside where the runoff would go to ground or b) burn the dress. She decided upon burning the dress in her hibachi grill, but as it was polyester it just melted. Too late to just wash it.

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    1. A Catholic answer to a question that has baffled them for 2000 years. In fact, the Priest should have asked for the dress to be washed and than for the water to be consumed as consecrated water. They always get it wrong.

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  5. The table in our church entrance currently hosts a tape deck circa 1985 with a plaque in memory of someone who was a faithful servant 1911 - 1983 which is waiting for someone to take it away. Moral - if you want to be memorialised don't attach your inscription to a piece of technology.

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  6. Good evening, Archdruid! Speaking of recycling... I don't know if you'll think I'm a flagrant plagiarist, a sincere flatterer or just really rather sad, but I used your exercise of holding a pebble up to the light and thinking of it as a planet orbiting the Sun with a group at the weekend. (Tealights also featured heavily). Went very well - Eric Idle's Galaxy Song makes a good introduction.

    Just wondering - when the Beaker Folk receive their Names - the ones that are place-names that sound like people-names - are they restricted to the names of places around Husborne Crawley? If not, there was a wonderful selection on the letters page of today's Daily Telegraph that might serve as inspiration. For myself, I'd be tempted by Melbury Bubb - unless he/she is already one of your loyal followers.

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  7. I'd put in a word for 'Rodney Stoke' driving through recently I pondered whether it was designated a 'thankful village' because it wasn't as bad a bottleneck as the neighbouring village. My ancient brain clogs clicked back into gear and I realised it was because all their soldiers came home. A sad reflection on the true cost of war. (Apologies for wandering further off topic)

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