Thursday 26 March 2020

Social Distancing And The Church Of England

For centuries, my dear friends in the Church of England used Cranmer's Book Of Common Prayer. In the Eucharist [communion service] the priest would mumble The peace of the Lord be with you and the congregation would mutter back And also with you.
Then in the 1970s, they loosened up a bit, and realised it was something to share - so they started "Passing the Peace" with one another People turned to their neighbours and shook hands, or hugged, or kissed or generally displayed affection.Not everybody liked this burst of informality ['too much like those wild Baptists']

Singer/songwriter Sir Richard Stilgoe wrote a witty little ditty about it 'Mrs Beamish'
He's a good chap, and started the Orpheus charity for young people with special needs who are interested in the performing arts. You can look on his website and download any of his songs for a £5 donation to the charity. 
But Mrs Beamish is the one exception. It is free. This week it has made me smile so much. I am posting it here - and I've sent my fiver anyway. Watch, and enjoy...

11 comments:

  1. Lovely to begin the day laughing. Thank you. Blessings

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  2. Never seen that before but it has given me a laugh to start the day. Thank you.

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  3. That gave me a giggle this morning , thank you .

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  4. That was very funny! Catholics, despite our more formalised liturgy at Mass, are very comfortable with the sign of peace (except a tiny, tiny group who insist the Mass can only be authentically celebrated in Latin). I hope you are recovering well. Gloria in Excelsis Deo!

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  5. Any this reminds me of the time a friend of my MIL took her along to church when she was newly widowed. My ex MIL had very racist views and had assumed that entire congregation would be WASP, they weren't and she was horrified. When it came to passing the peace she was clasped to the bosom of a large Jamaican chap, I don't think she recovered for a week. She certainly never went to church again!

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  6. Thanks for sharing this song with us, Angela. :)

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  7. Oh that was so funny, very cheering. I am going to send to my CofE vicar, I think he will find it funny!! Thank you so much for posting this.

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  8. Hilarious! Hope you are feeling better. Emma here overnight to collect her car. Now on standby waiting confirmation of graduation and subsequent deployment to a hospital. X

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  9. Hilarious - even we Presbyterians do a handshake during the Peace of Christ - sometimes it takes a bit of time for the minister to get us all seated again! I have passed this along to both of our ministers to give them a bit of a laugh today. Thank you

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  10. That's very funny! I love all the different traditions in church- new and old! I used to love my oldd church All Saints which was a mixture of old and new all happily coexisting with everything else! Hymns, worship songs and all. The way we did/do the peace used to make me really happy- a really long and extended trip round the church to say the peace with everyone. It's one of the things which made me choose to go to All Saints when I started going to church again as an adult! I loved all the love!

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