tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8299409348701300460.post2152313304077697932..comments2023-05-25T09:14:35.702+01:00Comments on The Vernacular Vicar: Church ImbalanceAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08268991293847325315noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8299409348701300460.post-6290402769958176212010-11-01T11:24:43.209+00:002010-11-01T11:24:43.209+00:00To Sui - God gets us in the end and at about the r...To Sui - God gets us in the end and at about the right moment I am sure! And yes, for the mission hearted, absence does not make the heart grow grow fonder - in fact we own it and wonder what we are doing wrong persoanlly. <br /><br />I said in one post on old age that I am apt, when/if incumbent, to channel all my energies at the toddlers and dodderers, and leave the Yoof the the guys up the road. Experience has taught me that as fruitful ministries go, those two groups would keep me going for several lifetimes!Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08268991293847325315noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8299409348701300460.post-86476129292088228402010-11-01T11:20:33.929+00:002010-11-01T11:20:33.929+00:00Fractal - thanks for stopping by! I am hugely comf...Fractal - thanks for stopping by! I am hugely comforted by what you describe and I thank God for her and her choices! I was a child as you describe - and was encompassed by 'jobs' - i served and sang in choirs, and I rang bells etc - and if I hadn't done those things, I may have been less 'present' on Sundays!<br /><br />It reminds me of something someone said to me once - that God wanted me to be a priest because he didn't trust me to go to church otherwise!Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08268991293847325315noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8299409348701300460.post-32858971358246603492010-11-01T10:42:11.893+00:002010-11-01T10:42:11.893+00:00Oh, and on a (possibly) more trivial note, I was r...Oh, and on a (possibly) more trivial note, I was reminded by Father David's own youthful status, of a priest friend of mine who was turned down for ordination in 1980-something, and then accepted twenty years later and ordained in 2000-something. I believe if he had been ordained in 1980-something he would have been the average age for a new priest (late twenties). When he was ordained twenty years later he was still the average age for a new priest!Sui Jurishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09730688362896132933noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8299409348701300460.post-85601234016086182102010-11-01T10:40:37.107+00:002010-11-01T10:40:37.107+00:00You may (or may not) be comforted to know that aft...You may (or may not) be comforted to know that after several years of badgering to be christened, my 11.5 year old daughter will be christened and confirmed next Sunday. She regularly sings in the choir and acts as a boat girl.<br /><br />Maybe she'll fall away from church through her teenage years, but I wouldn't bet on it. Only a few do round here. Umm, and we have Lay Pastoral Assistants who are both closer in age and less scary than a real priest for the teenagers to deal with. Any ads that are asking for priests who can connect with youth probably already have a problem they can't work out how to fix ...Fractal Angelnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8299409348701300460.post-89493442633505365782010-11-01T10:37:19.204+00:002010-11-01T10:37:19.204+00:00Hear, hear! I've also long thought this. T...Hear, hear! I've also long thought this. There is a perversity in concentrating most effort on the category of people who seem statistically least likely to respond. There is a genuine calling, I'm sure, to work in unprofitable-seeming fields, but as a whole-church strategy it is odd. Is it only the cult of youth, I wonder, or is there some magic quality in youthful converts that makes us (I was one) more valuable.<br /><br />It is a shame, to the mission-hearted, that so few young people go to church. But then it is also a shame that so few people go full stop. The members of my church are mostly elderly, but most of the elderly in the parish don't go either. We've plenty of mission to do there, it seems.Sui Jurishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09730688362896132933noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8299409348701300460.post-2082637944878838102010-11-01T10:35:28.588+00:002010-11-01T10:35:28.588+00:00YES!YES!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com