M
Michael_Francis
Guest
Please keep all images as links unless you can resize them down to about 350x400 or so. Oversize images distort the pages badly and may cause the thread to be removed.
- Status
C
ComplineSanFran
Guest
Did that, but obviously it distorted the page. Sorry.
R
Rosebud77
Guest
Ay me!
When I was still tiny we moved to a new house, as in just built, well away from the damaged towns so it was when we went to Liverpool or Manchester that we saw the wreckage.
Macabre unsettling views of half a staircase leading nowhere, rags and tatters of patterned wallpaper and even a dressing gown on the back of a bedroom door high above us.
The landscape of our childhood.
And the speed at which brightflowering weeds veiled the desolation. Rose bay willowherb especially, softening and brightening.
Yes we had “little” but we had our lives and so many were left without fathers or brothers. So much grief and pain and so many war damaged, like my own father.
And to this day things today;s kids take for granted like chocolate are huge treats as we saw so little of them in those years
I am planning a book on memories of that childhood. There cannot be in history seven decades in which things have changed so fast and so greatly
And for me a strong and happy faith- filled childhood, with Sunday School and then Church after Confirmation, Sunday school teaching, conference leader etc etc etc. . Bible based and peaceful . Good foundations in the life the Church of England gave then.
C
ComplineSanFran
Guest
And to get back to the original post of who is welcome (and then by interference) who is not, I wonder where the line is. Is it looks? Someone with a baseball cap? Is it behavior? Someone who is there to sleep, or is a bit too vocal? Does it make a difference if a service is going on vs when the church is not in use?
P
Peter_J
Guest
A forum on the internet isn’t the best way to tell how things are IRL.
Tis_Bearself
Patron
I can only hope that’s the case. Unfortunately, having been in many Internet forums, they all seem to have the same dozen or so types of posters posting in them regardless of the subject being discussed, and I always suspect they are a microcosm of the greater human nature.
S
steve_b
Guest
wearing a baseball cap at mass is appropriate? Where does that thinking come from?
Tis_Bearself
Patron
It sure doesn’t take much to sidetrack people from the topic at hand
P
Peter_J
Guest
Yeah, when my friends complain about CAF for one reason or another, I’m always like “I’d switch to a different forum, except I think that other forums aren’t any better than CAF.” (Posters who have spent a lot of time on CARM probably know what I’m talking about.) I think it comes down to individuals, not which forum you’re on – hence the importance of CAF’s Ignore List feature, Youtube’s Subscribe Button, etc etc.
Microcosm? Well, I’m not that cynical.
Tis_Bearself
Patron
I’ve heard about CARM, never visited it. Probably dodged a bullet there.
I tried to join some Catholic groups on Facebook. With the exception of the prayer groups, which take everybody as long as you pray along, I wasn’t holy enough to pass muster on the admittance questionnaires. I still chuckle about trying to join the Lynyrd Skynyrd fan group and some trad Catholic group in the same day. Skynyrd let me in immediately but the Catholics didn’t want to know me.
I think I need to just go in the Prayer Intentions forum here and stay there.
R
Rosebud77
Guest
Interesting question. Depends on if you see a church as a holy place where we focus on God and on prayer?
THEN we are good hospitable loving socially aware folk in a more appropriate setting.
Prayer feeds us. And needs a place. Just as many have a prayer space in their homes.
And also we need to respect prayer and the place of prayer
Wonder what behaviour was acceptable in the Temple at Jerusalem? I seem to remember Jesus being very vocal about appropriate behaviour there, “In my Father;s House”.
A few weeks ago I stopped at a small country church where there is a glorious Connemara marble altar.
Two cars pulled in; a group of Canadian tourists. They had been there some years before when one of the outdoor statues was being painted.
They had never been in the church; deeply respectful. Not church people.
I quietly took them in, explained things there … Then we went outside and chatted some more.
Hospitality matters.
And I have often done this with visitors.
But prayer matters. And in this noisy world a place apart is a gift to be treasured and to nourish in other ways.
God first. The rest will then follow.
Maybe the root difference between your church and the Catholic approach
- Status