Other Pages

Saturday 19 February 2022

Do your own thing

A few times, recently, I have had to play at services where there has been a baptism. (To me this just makes the service longer but I suppose I get bored easily and Christians are meant to welcome new members of the flock.) My children were baptised in private ceremonies.

What has got my goat is the way that some churches add their own little bits into the service. It used to be the case that a baby was anointed with the Oil of Chrism and then baptised with water. All fine.

A few weeks ago the vicar (who was the baby's grandfather and invited to perform the ceremony) got ALL the Godparents (and parents) to anoint the infant AND say the short verse which goes with this procedure. Clearly, some of those involved were uncomfortable with this but did it anyway.

Then there is a church which has extra bits in the Eucharistic prayer. They break up the long prayer of consecration with "Why do we do XYZ?" and the response from the congregation "Listen and you will hear."

No comments:

Post a Comment