This is what Jesus told them: “Take nothing for your trip except a walking stick. Take no bread, no bag, and no money in your pockets. Wear sandals, and take only the clothes you are wearing. When you enter a house, stay there until you leave that place. If any town refuses to accept you or its people refuse to listen to you, then leave that town. Shake its dust off your feet. This will be a warning to them.” (Mark 5: 8-11)So the disciples left behind their architectural guides; pergolas for fêtes on wet days; attendance record books; rules on how to count the congregation; 10-point guides to evangelism; silverware; capos; Powerpoint DVDs; service books; 25 years of Spring Harvest songbooks; little clicky machines for counting attendance; communion rails; Beryl tea services and books of canon law.
But they didn't throw them away.
They reckoned they'd need them later.
Proves they weren't Anglican, for either i] they wouldn't have any canon law books, or ii] if they had, these would have been thrown away.
ReplyDeleteIs the walking stick compulsory?
ReplyDeleteIt is a fashion statement; fashion statements are compulsory.
DeleteDear ArchDruid, your blog so often brings up more questions than answers, at least to a poor ignorant Papist such as me. What on earth are "Rules on how to count the congregation"? You go "one, two, three, four, no as you were, three, I mistook Mrs Flamboyant's new hat for a parishioner itself, four, five, six, have I counted those blasted children twice, why do their parents let them charge around like that, seven, eight," and so on. Unless you are going to involve Heisenberg I don't see the problem.
ReplyDeleteFor Methodists includes things like: whether to count someone twice if they come both morning and evening, whether to count the organist, what age groups to put the children in, how to classify someone who dies during the service, that sort of thing
DeleteGoodness, decisions, decisions! In this parish, if they have a pulse when they come in, they are counted as present, irrespective of what age they are or what function they perform; only celebrants excepted.. But if someone gave birth during the service, would that count as one or two in the final tally?
DeleteIn the C of E even the celebrants are counted. How much the church pays is based on these figures and a dastardly formula it is too. Little old ladies who have home communion once a month and give the vicar a fiver towards the church count as if they came to church every week and gave twice that every week. So you can have a congregation that looks like half a dozen pensioners and end up paying £9,000 a year in parish share as well as being expected to raise a six figure sum in three years to pay for the lead nicked from the church roof.
ReplyDelete