Broken clapper

I have never rung the bells for a funeral before but I did so on Friday for half an hour before the service. We planned to ring for 25 minutes and then the tenor was tolled for 5 minutes.

Six minutes before the service and 1 minute before we would have stopped anyway, "Stand!" was called following a very loud bang from upstairs. The ringer of the 5th discovered that the clapper had fallen out of his bell or parted company with it in some other way. We were quite safe as there are two wooden floors between the ringers and the bells.

As it was a funeral we were ringing half-muffled. The video below shows muffles being put on some bells, but it is a brave chap who walks amongst the bells whilst they are up. I certainly wouldn't!

Congratulations

I have visited all sorts of churches over the last 60 odd years. There is only one church which find unattractive and almost ugly inside. Obviously I shall not name it and I do not generally name specific places on this blog.

I will make an exception today because I really did like the way the reordering has been done at Thrapston.

The interior looks splendid and the way the furniture has been selected fits well with the building whilst providing the necessary comfort. There is a spanking new kitchen/servery area at the back on the West side and the stairs up to the balcony and ringing chamber have been carpeted (I think they were on my previous visit) and new banisters installed in well-chosen wood (oak I think).

It may be that the style of worship would not suit me but I fully support all that has been done and the way the layout opens up the nave and makes the worship space fully functional. Although I suspect it is not much used, they have retained the pipe organ which did surprise me a little.

Well done St James, Thrapston!

Things in churches

On my recent travels I have found wooden boxes for donations in two churches. Not only have these not been locked but they were not even attached to anything. The thinking here is that if unlocked they will not be broken into with brute force. If not attached to the wall the church fabric will not be damaged. Better to lose the cash in the box than have something more unsightly happen. This does not make it a very attractive proposition for would be givers. I did leave a donation in one box as I had collected the church key from a nearby farmhouse. I didn't put anything in the other box.

I also found a Visitors' Book; they are very common. They are also a form of history as some go back a long way - this one to 1963. I was last at this church in 1977 but I don't think I signed the book (I didn't check)

Open

Earlier in April I posted that I find many churches locked and I know that this is indeed the case. However, I have found a few open ones, admittedly off the beaten track.

Church for Kiddies

My reader (!) will be aware that I favour a certain kind of churchmanship. I came across a video which sums up all that is wrong - from my perspective - with church worship in the 21st century.

I understand that the C of E wants to be approachable and welcoming: it may have been stuffy and remote in the past and a church style of the 1950s-1970s may not attract people these days. That said, I find plenty wrong with the video below (for as long as it stays on YouTube).

• A church service should not start with someone shouting "Good morning" as is so often the case now. Yes, this is not a formal service where the vicar has processed in; he has to get the congregation's attention somehow. Oh wait, I find that even if I try to set an atmosphere as an organist I have to contend with chatter and noise.
• At 57 seconds we see and hear the vicar leading the clapping. Again, one has to hear the reading just before this to set it in context but I would feel very uneasy in this setting. What is the point of clapping? This is not an old peoples' home where one is trying to get geriatrics to join in with enthusiasm. It all seems false to me. I accept that this may have been shortly after Lockdown (March 2021) and people may have not been too happy to sing in an enclosed space so clapping was an alternaive. See how I am getting to see the other side of the story?
• Then they go outside (this is obviously an edited service). I have never been a fan of singing outside and the trite "Hosanna" they are singing with a tambourine backing is less than dignified IMHO.

I have never been to Haddon and this was just one video which popped up as a result of some searching I have done in the area close by.

One must remember that, despite what derision I may pour upon this act of worship, the vicar may be extremely good with his flock, at the bedside of ill people, comforting the bereaved and everything else that an incumbent does. It is not his fault. He may have had a job before entering the priesthood and be quite worldly wise: I do not know. He will have been trained for his role and will be relying upon what he has been taught is the correct way to lead worship in the 21st century. It may be that he comes from an evangelical tradition; who knows.

So apologies to Haddon; this video just illustrates a point or two.

My question is, "Where does dumbing down stop?"

Modern wedding couples

I suppose I ought to applaud couples who want to marry in church given that so many places are able to host the ceremony these days; but what has happened to standards these days?

I find it appalling that people are so rude or disorganised that a wedding due to start at 1430 does not begin until 1501 and on a Sunday too when people are giving up their time to ring the bells (in my case as I was not at the organ). Every last detail was included on page 1 of the service sheet: the names of the page boys, bridesmaids, lesson readers, and a whole host of others (cake maker, hairdresser - no, not really but they might as well have been listed)

Vicars ought to be telling brides to arrive on time. In my youth it was common for there to be several weddings on one day, spaced out to allow time for photographs and so on. I did hear tales of brides' mothers almost coming to blows if the previous wedding overran; "It's our turn now!"

Modern couples like to throw money at weddings and the reception was at a very lavish stately home near here which I will not name. The couple were transported by coach and horses. However, when we finished ringing, the 3 bridesmaids had been left behind, all alone, as transport arrangements had not been thought through.

The service sheet had several typing errors and hardly anybody sang the hymns anyway. Worst of all, many guests were late arriving and were smoking right up to the church porch; they started again as soon as the service was over.

To cap it all the organist was terrible and had no idea how "Shine, Jesus shine" went. At least they only wanted one verse.

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?