{"id":1839,"date":"2009-06-13T18:29:00","date_gmt":"2009-06-13T18:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2009\/06\/fresh-expressions-for-the-vicar\/"},"modified":"2014-12-24T10:30:02","modified_gmt":"2014-12-24T15:30:02","slug":"fresh-expressions-for-the-vicar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2009\/06\/fresh-expressions-for-the-vicar.html","title":{"rendered":"Fresh Expressions for The Vicar"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Guest blogger, The Rev\u2019d Humphrey Blytherington, Vicar of St Hilda\u2019s Little Snoring and All Saints\u2019, Great Snoring weighs in on matters Anglican\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n


\n<\/span><\/div>\n
I was down at the Goose and Garter enjoying a sausage roll and a half pint of lager shandy with Mrs Vicar the other evening when, Josephine, one of the ladies from the Mother\u2019s Union happened along and asked Daphne whether she would help with the flowers for the new-fangled thingamebob service that Lavinia, the lady curate over at St Etheldreda\u2019s was laying on.<\/div>\n
She said it was all part of a new project<\/a> by our Archbishop Dr. Williams. \u201cYou mean Animal,\u201d I chuckled. That\u2019s our pet name for the dear old ABC ever since little Geoffrey our grandson noticed his likeness to the orange muppet who plays the drums on that charming programme on the telly.<\/div>\n
Anyway, it seems that this new project is called \u2018Fresh Expressions\u2019. Lavinia, (or \u2018Rev Lav\u2019 as the young folk call her) has got all sorts of super ideas for livening up the services at St Etheldreda\u2019s to draw in the young. She\u2019s got the lads from the youth group to pull out the pews and put in some sort of thingies for skateboarding in church. She\u2019s borrowed the sound system from Arthur Sykes down at the Spit and Sawdust. He says they don\u2019t use it for carry ok (or something like that) on Sundays and she might as well use it at church. She\u2019s got the choir singing hip hop versions of Gregorian chant and apparently some of the girls from a dance troupe over in Swindon are putting together a little routine to be used instead of the Scripture reading. They\u2019ve even taken a name for their group: Salome\u2019s Sisters.<\/div>\n
Sounds jolly attractive to me! I\u2019m sure the boys will be there in droves. Now some people are naysaying the whole enterprise, but that\u2019s always been the case. They say it\u2019s just another gimmick that will be here today and gone tomorrow. Some have even said the new services will be all form and no content. Imagine anyone accusing the Church of England of such a thing! Well, I must say I\u2019m not one of the spoil sports. I\u2019m always in favor of giving the young a chance. I\u2019ve run the odd youth club in my day, and even won the skittles tournament one year!<\/div>\n
Lavinia and her friend Georgie are doing a smashing job reaching out to the young. I must admit they\u2019ve got some unusual ideas about politics and keep talking about \u2018gender equality\u2019 whatever that is, but can it do any harm if they happen to understand the current lingo? Not in my book. Daphne grumbled that they never mention the \u2018Father, Son and Holy Spirit over at St Etheldreda\u2019s anymore, but what harm can it do if the youth want to experiment with the words of worship a bit? We used to sing \u2018Bind Us Together\u2019 and \u2018Kumbayah\u2019 and it didn\u2019t do anyone any harm.<\/div>\n
Josephine wanted Daphne to help with the \u2018flower\u2019 arrangement. Apparently it\u2019s meant to be made not of flowers but soft drink cans cut up and wired together. Supposed to be supporting re-cycling and other good causes. I can\u2019t see that there\u2019s any harm in it, as long as Daphne wears gloves. I must say, I do think Canon Huffington-Post was right to discourage Lavinia\u2019s idea of him going up in a hot air balloon to celebrate Ascension.<\/div>\n
The idea sounds jolly good fun, but there would be too many jokes about Vicars and hot air, and the Canon already endures a fair bit of ribbing about being \u2018a \u2018big shot\u2019.<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Guest blogger, The Rev\u2019d Humphrey Blytherington, Vicar of St Hilda\u2019s Little Snoring and All Saints\u2019, Great Snoring weighs in on matters Anglican\u2026 I was down at the Goose and Garter enjoying a sausage roll and a half pint of lager shandy with Mrs Vicar the other evening when, Josephine, one of the ladies from the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":557,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[93],"tags":[4,21,94],"class_list":["post-1839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-vicar","tag-alter-egos","tag-anglicans","tag-humor"],"yoast_head":"\nFresh Expressions for The Vicar<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Guest blogger, The Rev'd Humphrey Blytherington, Vicar of St Hilda's Little Snoring and All Saints', Great Snoring weighs in on matters Anglican... 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