Saturday 9 March 2013

A Mystery Solved, A Tradition Explained

It's been really lovely to welcome Aggie to our fellowship for a few days. At the age of 97, she is the oldest remaining member of the Extremely Primitive Methodist church that I was brought up in. A particularly strict sect, who took notice of the instruction in Psalm 8 to look up to the starry skies, all their services were held at night in a roofless chapel. As a result, the hymn books were always drenched in wet weather. The Ministry of Healing was much evidenced by Pastor Selby-Date, which was just as well, as the worshippers were constantly contracting Trench Foot.

Agnes left for Dorset in the 1970s, and  chatting with her yesterday, I finally got the explanation to a mystery that has always bothered me.

It was the custom, among the Extremely Primitive Methodists, to sit down during the singing of the last verse of the hymn before the sermon. Any stranger who stood up to sing it would be hissed at until he or she hit the pew. My parents told me that it "was always like that", and that was it. We used to say of Wesleyans, and other such heretics, that "They're so godless, they'd stand up afore the sermon."

But Aggie was a small girl when she saw the first time the congregation sat down for the last verse. She reckons it was about 1924. The Extremely Primitive Methodists had a new minister, who was used to singing Wesley's hymns in the "short" version. Accordingly, after what he thought was the "normal" 24 verses of "And Can it be", he sat down. Seeing him do this, the congregation did likewise. And so they sang the last verse in that position.

Now the congregation thought that, where the new man came from, they always did it like that. So, assuming it was the hippest new tradition (for he had come from that hotbed of liturgical innovation, Bedford), the next week they all sat down for the last verse of the hymn before the sermon.

Presuming this was what they always did, I guess, the pastor saw the congregation sitting down, and did likewise. And so that was the new tradition. For 70 years, until the damp really got under the walls and the building fell down.

It's nice to have a tradition explained. But, somehow, I wish I'd kept the mystery.

1 comment :

  1. You must have heard the story about the young woman who always cut the end off a piece of meat before roasting it. She asked her mother why, and was told "That's the way your Granny taught me to do it". When she asked Granny, she learned that Granny had been quite poor, and the only roasting pan she had wasn't quite big enough to takea piece of meat so she cut off the bit that was hanging over the end so she could cook it in smething else.

    I think I, personally, am getting to the age when I sit down during some hymns whether I'm told "Stand if you are able" or "Sit or stand as you wish" or even "Please all stand" because otherwise I spend the time thinking about the ache in my joints.

    ReplyDelete

Drop a thoughtful pebble in the comments bowl