Going to church today?

For many years, as a young child, I did not go to church but - occasionally - my parents would decide to drop me off at Sunday School in the afternoon. I have come to realise that this was because my grandmother may have had a say in the matter and they felt guilty: also I suspect they wanted some time without the children about.

Still in my childhood and as a chorister, I used to have to go to Peterborough Cathedral on a Sunday morning for two services: Eucharist and Matins. I went again for Evensong in the afternoon.

When I became an organist I had a 0930 service to play for and, from that point (in the early 1970s) I hardly missed a week. I went from there to university as an organ scholar. Now, I did have a year or so off when I was doing my PGCE but I used to go to bellring for Evensong and stay for the service at a church a short drive from my hall of residence.

When I started teaching I did not have an organist position at first but that was soon rectified and was the case until 2005, with a few breaks. After that, going to church was part of my job at a boarding school.

Now I am retired my life has changed. Yes, I do get up and go to play when I am doing deputy work (although this has evolved into my having become the regular organist at 2 churches on 2 Sundays).

On my Sundays off I have the option of going to ring at the local church some 5 minutes walk away but, to be honest, I do not have the motivation. As I have implied before, I am pretty bored with what I call 'low level' bellringing which is the wrong attitude to have. Ringers ring to call the faithful to worship and we can do that equally well with round & call-changes as we can with difficult methods.

I do not think this is the Ringleman Effect, but perhaps a variety of it. I think the only reason I have been keen to go to church - as an organist - is because I am so obviously contributing and essential to the service. It also keeps me interested. I get bored very easily. New methods, new opportunities and recognition all spur me on to do better. Getting into a rut has the opposite effect - CBA as the acronym goes.

These days there is a lot of CBA about. People can attend virtual church online, or watch later (and skip the boring bits). For me, going to church is not about meeting other people - I LOATH 'The Peace' like Mrs Beamish, as I've said before.

The whole point of this blog is really for me to explore the C of E: after all, nobody is reading what I write. So I am not at church today neither have I gone to bellring. Have I thought about God? Yes I have; as well as my mortality, spirituality, my place in the universe and so on. Isn't that what church is about? So, do I need to go?