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Ship of Fools: The Kitchen, Lambeth Palace, London

The Mystery WorshipperThe Mystery Worshipper Shipmate
edited April 2020 in The Mystery Worshipper

imageShip of Fools: The Kitchen, Lambeth Palace, London

Our Mystery Worshipper joins the Archbishop of Canterbury in his kitchen (virtually) for Easter

Read the full Mystery Worshipper report here


Comments

  • Bishops FingerBishops Finger Shipmate
    Someone I know thought it was a bit odd that ++Justin didn't use his private chapel at Lambeth - it's in the same building!

    The chapel is rather lovely, and the backdrop would have been less distracting than his kitchen equipment, but I guess he was making a point - you lot can't be in a church, so I won't be in one, either!
  • Columba_in_a_CurrachColumba_in_a_Currach Shipmate
    Bishops Finger wrote: »
    Someone I know thought it was a bit odd that ++Justin didn't use his private chapel at Lambeth - it's in the same building!

    The chapel is rather lovely, and the backdrop would have been less distracting than his kitchen equipment, but I guess he was making a point - you lot can't be in a church, so I won't be in one, either!

    I guess that was the idea. And maybe it worked for some people. But it felt a bit like inviting people (the entire Church of England and, indeed, worldwide Anglican Communion) into your house and then saying, "no, we're not going to eat in the beautiful and comfortable dining room, I thought we should all sit on the floor of the shed instead." Without a very clear and good explanation, that seems eccentric at best and bizarrely inhospitable at worst.
  • john holdingjohn holding Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    I think you overestimate, by a considerable degree, the extent to which the "worldwide Anglican Communion" knows or cares about what the ABC does or says.
  • Bishops FingerBishops Finger Shipmate
    Quite.
    :neutral:
  • Nick TamenNick Tamen Shipmate
    edited April 2020
    Actually, it may just be me, but I rather like the idea of the Eucharist being celebrated at a kitchen table. I can’t think of a more appropriate place in a house.

    But then, I tend to think of the table where meals are regularly eaten as the spiritual center, as it were, of a home.

  • Amanda B ReckondwythAmanda B Reckondwyth Shipmate
    I liked it too. I also liked the notion that the archbishop was trying to give a "homey" feel to it overall. Had he celebrated the eucharist in his chapel, it would have lacked that "homey" quality.
  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    I agree with all but the post from C-in-a-C. I may be wrong, but all the posters liking the idea of celebrating the Eucharist in the kitchen seem to be out of the UK, but aiui, that's where C-in-a-C. lives.
  • Bishops FingerBishops Finger Shipmate
    The Maundy Thursday Eucharist I watched online was indeed celebrated by a Bishop, and his (ordained) wife, sitting at their dining-table.

    As well as the white linen corporal, and the communion vessels (which I think were ceramic items), one could see the remains of the evening meal - a large bowl of what was possibly some sort of casserole, or stew, and a dish of green vegetables which I couldn't identify.

    Homely, appropriate, and reverent.
    :wink:
  • Columba_in_a_CurrachColumba_in_a_Currach Shipmate
    Gee D wrote: »
    I agree with all but the post from C-in-a-C. I may be wrong, but all the posters liking the idea of celebrating the Eucharist in the kitchen seem to be out of the UK, but aiui, that's where C-in-a-C. lives.

    Nope. :smiley: I live in the States. I did live in the UK for a while, though.
  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    Thanks - my apologies.
  • Augustine the AleutAugustine the Aleut Shipmate
    I fear that my shallowness as a human is exposed by my first spontaneous reaction that he was not wearing an amice.
  • Amanda B ReckondwythAmanda B Reckondwyth Shipmate
    I think, though, that under the circumstances the Baby Jesus and his Blessed Mother were not weeping as they usually would.
  • MarsupialMarsupial Shipmate
    I suspect they would probably be wondering what an amice is, actually. I'm guessing a smaller version of an arats, but I'm not sure...

    (The Baby Jesus didn't have access to Google, and I do, so I did look it up: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amice )
  • Bishops FingerBishops Finger Shipmate
    :lol:

    Actually, I thought he was vested in quite a seemly manner, given the circumstances. A chasuble would have been a bit OTT...
  • Columba_in_a_CurrachColumba_in_a_Currach Shipmate
    Bishops Finger wrote: »
    :lol:

    Actually, I thought he was vested in quite a seemly manner, given the circumstances. A chasuble would have been a bit OTT...


    Not sure I entirely agree.
  • Amanda B ReckondwythAmanda B Reckondwyth Shipmate
    Marsupial wrote: »
    I suspect they would probably be wondering what an amice is . . . The Baby Jesus didn't have access to Google

    But would he have needed it?
  • MarsupialMarsupial Shipmate
    Well, there's that... :smile:
  • Bishops FingerBishops Finger Shipmate
    I thought he invented it, to reduce his prayer-answering workload.

    I'll get me cassock...
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