Churchy stuff – Page 2 – The Artsy Honker

Minster-Shaped Church?

Byartsyhonker December 8, 2014 8 Comments

One proposal for the flourishing of the parish system in the Church of England The Church of England, we keep being told, has a problem: not enough resources to have a priest (or even a deacon) in every parish church. Some will say this is about a shortage of young vocations to fill stipendiary posts, others will be blunt and say it's because we don't have enough money to pay for that many...

Flash Compline Wednesday 3 December

Byartsyhonker December 2, 2014 0 Comments

There will be a Flash Compline service at 9.30pm on Wednesday, 3rd December, in the gardens of St Botolph-without-Bishopsgate, near Liverpool Street tube and mainline stations - here's a map Music: We will use this setting of Compline. We will have a small number of spare copies, which you can purchase for £3 if you want to keep them, or borrow if you don't. Don't worry if you aren't a confident...

Mystery Plays E11

Byartsyhonker June 9, 2014 0 Comments

On Sunday, 22nd June at 3pm St Andrew's Leytonstone is hosting Mystery Plays. The modern script is firmly in the tradition of the ancient plays: it doesn't just recount the Bible stories but offers some interpretation as well. There will be drama, poetry, dance, music and even video, by a mixture of professional and amateur actors from the local and wider community, including people of many...

Jesus loves Tories too

Byartsyhonker April 10, 2014 1 Comment

So, it transpires that David Cameron has been going on about how much he loves Christianity (or what he thinks of as Christianity) and saying ill-thought-out, embarrassing things. From what I can gather online he's claiming that Jesus invented the Big Society and David Cameron is, er, trying to follow in his footsteps. It doesn't take a lot to dismantle the first claim. Care for the widow, the...

Lent: Read the Bible in 40 Days

Byartsyhonker March 4, 2014 0 Comments

I've been humming and hawing for a while about what to take up, or give up, as a Lenten discipline. I'm not a huge one for giving up 'naughty' foods; it's too easy for these fasts to become, for me, about conformity to the world's ideas about what my body should look like, rather than about faithful engagement with God. But various disciplines I've taken up in previous years don't seem to be...

Addendum — Prayer

Byartsyhonker February 17, 2014 0 Comments

In my previous post I wrote about factors that contributed to my return (or maybe even my initial approach?) to Christian faith and practice. Somehow, I neglected to mention other people praying for me. I would be hard pressed to say that anyone was praying for my conversion, as such. If they did, they had more sense than to tell me about it. I am certain I would not have reacted well. But I do...

Why I came back: factors in church membership

Byartsyhonker February 17, 2014 0 Comments

This is the third in a series of posts examining my own experiences of leaving church and later returning to Christian faith and practice as a sort of case study, to see what can be learned about why people leave churches and why they come back. I’ve been thinking about this for a while, but some of it is triggered by recent comments about church growth. The previous post is about what kept me...

Liturgical hair: Going for Green

Byartsyhonker January 10, 2014 0 Comments

I have been dyeing my hair in liturgical colours since the beginning of Advent. This is to raise money for repairs to the bellows of our very fine Lewis pipe organ at St Andrew's. I've done purple, pink, purple with red, white/gold, and white with red. The sponsorship started well, and has now raised £1436 £1507.40: enough to sponsor 47 50 full days of hair in liturgical colours. Thanks so much...

What kept me away: Factors in church membership

Byartsyhonker January 10, 2014 0 Comments

This is the second in a series of posts examining my own experiences of leaving church and later returning to Christian faith and practice as a sort of case study, to see what can be learned about why people leave churches and why they come back. I've been thinking about this for a while, but some of it is triggered by recent comments about church growth. The previous post is about why I left...