I have had the idea of recording 25 organ pieces as a sort of Advent calendar for my YouTube channel although most of the pieces will not have an Advent theme. Essentially, if I do not have something to work for I am not very good at doing any practice.
As a way of relaxing I was looking back over an old post and a bit of Googling took me to the video below. I enjoy this kind of music.
There have been a great many comments in a Facebook group about the church which is closing.
Although the congregation is very small it seems that a number of people larger than the number in the current congregation do not wish the church to close and will miss it when it has gone. Cries of "Shame" and "Why is the C of E allowing this to happen?" abound. Here are a few which I hope are sufficiently anonymous.
I feel moved to say it is a case of 'use it or lose it'.
The organ will not be greatly missed although I worked for my ARCO on it. The bells were a superb Gillett & Johnson light 6.
I went ringing today with a group which meets on a monthly basis. We visited a tower where I used to ring some 30 years ago. The then tower captain - I was told - is still alive but in a care home: he has dementia. His name appears on peal and quarter peal board in that and other towers.
I wonder about religion when I think about dementia. If a person is 'lost' where have they gone? If we are sinful beings and are ultimately to be brought to account for our wrong-doings by God, who will a person with dementia be when they die? Are they responsible for anything they do whilst afflicted?
Likewise, if everyone has a soul, how are children who die in infancy judged? What about people of other religions: do they get a 'free pass'?
Religion does not have answers to these and similar questions: I have asked. It is, apprently, all down to the grace of God.
It is often said that God has a plan for each of our lives. It can be very hard to work out what the plan was for someone murdered in an attrocity such as have been in the news recently.
Yet we carry on going to church, singing our hymns and behaving as if everything will turn out OK. Perhaps we are all like Julian of Norwich.
All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.
I have been going to church for a very long time because my parents promised my Grandparents (I don't think I have any Godparents) that they would ensure that I did. Initially I went to a Sudnay School at a Methodist church. When I became a chorister at the cathedral we - as a family - embraced the CofE and the rest is history.
If church-going drummed one thing home to my sister and I, back in the day, it was that telling the truth was absolutely vital. We were also brought up with characters such as Mrs-Do-As-You-Would-Be-Done-By as well as Biblical characters. So I get really fed up (P'd off) when people do not treat me correctly, as will be seen from previous posts.
What has prompted this post today is that on Yahoo there is a report that Liz Truss hass been criticised over ‘wildly dangerous’ false claims about £2,500 maximum energy bills.
It seems to me that we have exchanged one Prime Minister, whose view of the truth was askew from the norm, for yet another politician who does not know how to utter facts which are not wide of the mark, let's say.
I suppose going to church does not make one honest but I am sure that the decline of church-going has had a negative effect on society. We have lived for a long time in an England in which it seems OK to be 'economical with the truth'.
I played at a new (to me) church today in a different benefice to normal. I have played at another church in this benefice where the people are very friendly. This, however, was a group service so there were representatives from all the churches.
Not wishing to suggest that nobody spoke to me, I was greeted by a couple of choir members and a couple of the congregation said "Hello" as I waited for coffee after the service.
However, largely I was ignored. Had I been a potential new member of the congregation I was not encouraged returned. Perhaps it was obvious that I was the organist and people concluded that I was just there to do a job. Nevertheless folk did break up into small groups and nobody really made the effort to engage me in conversation. I did try with one chap but he was having none of it.
It baffles me how one can go to church and hear the congregation praying to be made into better people and to uphold the Christian way of life: yet one is just ignored.
Something isn't right.
I admit to being a bit fed up with the C of E. By that I mean I am fed up with the pretence that people (and the church is the people) actually care. So, I am fed up with church people.
Why?
Why do I bother?
A lot takes place before a service in the C of E. The list below will probably omit things which even I do not see as they take place in the sacristy.
One does not just turn up and hope for the best.
I played three pre-service voluntaries today because there was a problem with the sound on the technology which allows the service to be streamed on YouTube. The start of the service was delayed.
The choir does not process in but they take their places before the service starts. The organ console is right next to the choir facing East and the Altos sit with their backs to the console, facing North.
One lady was having an extended conversation with the other alto which was rather loud. She did shut up by the 3rd voluntary but I felt this was extremely rude of her. I am a guest deputy so I did not feel it was my place to say anything as I'd quite like to be asked back. In fact I am filling in there several times before the and of August.
If she does it again I may mention it.
I have realised for a long time that the churches where I play the organ are attended by middle class people. I have not seen anybody who is unsure where their next meal is coming from, who might be in need of a bath or whose clothes have seen better days. This trend has been observed and written about on the web HERE and HERE
Looking back over my church attendance during the last 60 years I cannot recall having seen the less well-to-do filling the pews. (Some people may be good at hiding their financial status I suppose.)
It seems to me that - with the current cost of living crisis - those who attend church are going to start feeling the pinch. I don't have any answers but it just feels wrong that church is a place where people can congratulate each other and feel comfortable that they belong to a 'club' which is attended by folk in their own social class.
Matthew 26:11 "The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me." (NIV). I think the poor feel shunned. This brings me back to my post about not having been contacted by anyone from my nearest church. Once you leave (or if you never appear) it is a case of "out of sight, out of mind."
I recently cut back on my bellringing and yesterday I decided that I need to cut back on some of my organ playing.
I like playing the organ but that is about all I enjoy about church in the 21st century. I have blogged before about Show and Tell, chatter and other aspects of services which bore me rigid - SERMONS!
I have tried to rationalise, in my head, that an incumbent can run a service how he or she likes (actually I wonder if this is the case) and that I am only there to provide the music: the service is not being run to keep me happy. Still, it is fact that I am not happy and I put this down to cognitive dissonance.
I believe my mind struggles to balance the fact that I dislike a lack of order and decorum with the fact that I realise the world has changed and that styles of worship need to appeal to people who seek entertainment from church services. I see, far more, that church is a place where people go to engage in social activity at inappropriate times. I have always disliked the passing of the Peace in services.
So there we are. After September (I am committed until then) I shall reduce my church-going. I still have to consider what I am going to do about church #1 in the benefice as the services are taken by the same vicar. I have not taken to this person. I don't suppose it is the vicar's fault any more than the fact that I don't care to eat fish or play football: neither are things I like.
It is not my place to judge if the priest is good at their job but for someone to assume that everyone is as happy as Larry and run services with such an upbeat and 'game-show' atmosphere certainly makes me feel the job could be done differently.
As a bit of a loner I suppose I was always destined to play the organ. One has the power to play quietly or very loudly - I would not be a good flautist. I think I enjoy pulling the stops, pressing pistons, combining timbres and colouring the verses of hymns. In short I like to be in control.
Therein lies a problem. During a service I am captive. There are long periods (such as the sermon!) when I do not play anything and I cannot affect what is going on. At those times I am a nobody.
Other than the hymns I play pre- and post-service voluntaries but people talk during those. I understand my playing is not a recital at those times, but it used to be the case that a congregation would gradually hush as service time approached. Indeed they would have been 'trained' to calm themselves and get into the right frame of mind for an hour of devotion and praise. Would you chatter about the weather, the latest supermarket deal or Mrs Onion's rheumatism moments before meeting the Queen? Why do it just before an encounter with God?
An organist is likely to have been brought up as a chorister and to have had certain kinds of training, as well as having learned by example back in the days when things were done differently. Many of us are not happy bunnies and we feel undervalued. Oddly, we do not necessarily seek more money nor do we want folk to be profuse in their verbal thanks. In my case I want people to say nice things about me behind my back. The sad fact is that the treatment we get leads us to suspect that we are not positively discussed, if we are discussed at all, and that many a church would rather have a praise band (that's link is just to a random one)
More organists are turning to YouTube for satisfaction as they 'Can't get no satisfaction' in church. With the advent of digital organs this easy to do: in my youth when the notion was unthinkable as there was no internet!
Even YouTube does not have all the answers because a chap can fail to attract an audience and the necessary views which will make all the effort worthwhile.
I belong to an Organists' Association but it is made of up of - well - other organists and I don't find some of them very attractice people to be around: I'm sure they think the same about me.
So all this comes down to self image. These days unless one is young, brilliant and probably female the world is not going to pay you much attention.
We chaps just have to get used to it. Perhaps I should change religion.
Small congregations: fact.
This has to be seen in the following context. I played the organ at a local church flower festival this week for an hour on two afternoons. I am told that there was a constant trickle of people during this hour and there was certainly plenty of conversation and interest in the displays near the organ. When I went for my free cream tea the church hall was packed.
I conclude that people are not anti-church as such. In fact they are keen on supporting their local churches and would be devastated were the church to close. Hence, the problem must be that people are not interested in religion, the style of worship offered by the church or sitting in a building for an hour being brainwashed.
What is a church service? It is an hour in which people mumble a few words now and then, sing very badly, get told how wicked they are and spend a few minutes actually praising their creator.
They get told to carry Christ into their daily lives and show him to others. With so many misguided decisions and dishonesty in the world it is easy to get downhearted and fail to do this.
What a world we live in. No wonder people do not see the relevance of church. We may pray for things to get better but people have been doing that since the psalms were written.
Odd then, that a few flowers can make then flock to a building.
