Comments

• HarryCH Shipmate

  July 30

  I'm not sure it qualifies, but I am charmed when a small child gets loose from the parents and wanders around.
• Caissa Shipmate

  July 30

  I have never felt closer to G-d than a teenage winter retreat at a Baptist camp in NB. I was outside walking in the snow and felt a strong sense of divine presence and connection.
• MrsBeaky Shipmate

  July 30

  HarryCH wrote: »

  I'm not sure it qualifies, but I am charmed when a small child gets loose from the parents and wanders around.

  
  That's lovely 😍
• MrsBeaky Shipmate

  July 30

  Caissa wrote: »

  I have never felt closer to G-d than a teenage winter retreat at a Baptist camp in NB. I was outside walking in the snow and felt a strong sense of divine presence and connection.

  
  Connection with God through nature is something with which I can really identify. Was the Baptist setting your normal church environment or did you fond this connection in a setting which was out of your comfort zone? Please forgive me if the question is too intrusive.
• Caissa Shipmate

  July 30

  It was a weekend winter camp trip for a youth group I attended at a local Baptist church. (My background is Anglican.) I wouldn't say it was outside my comfort zone although it was outside of my day to day activities.
• Aravis Shipmate

  July 30

  I grew up in a Baptist church where many of the congregation were somewhat dismissive of Anglicans and regarded Catholics as completely beyond the pale. I did go to an Anglican secondary school, as my parents thought it was better than a completely secular one, but only expected to encounter God in my own church.
  
  Every term there was a school Eucharist in the sports hall (the only place that had room for everyone). As always, it was bright, echoey and smelt of sweaty feet. But in 1980 (?) we had a Eucharist for Pentecost where I was transfixed by hearing the hymn “Come down O love divine” for the first time (I’d grown up with the Redemption hymnal and 1970s choruses) during communion. I watched the deputy head queuing up for the chalice alongside teenage boys he’d put in detention earlier in the week and was secretly moved by the equality and the acceptance that we were all the same before God.
  
  I got confirmed as an Anglican in 1986. I think my mum eventually resigned herself to this.
  
• MrsBeaky Shipmate

  July 30

  Thanks @Aravis it's really interesting how something perfectly normal for one person can become really significant for another. It's very easy to become so accustomed to our own practice that being reminded about the beauty of it is really helpful.
• Gamma Gamaliel Shipmate

  July 30

  For the most part, my more sneering and scoffing posts aboard Ship about these matters are meant to be tongue-in-cheek and not to be taken too seriously, but I do overstep the mark at times.
  
  FWIW I can recollect very poignant and affecting moments both when I was in different traditions than I'm in now and when visiting churches of other traditions.
  
  I could cite instances from Baptist, Methodist, Anglican and independent evangelical or charismatic settings, as well as occasional exposure to RC ones.
  
  @HarryCH - if you were in an Orthodox parish the sight and sound of children breaking loose from their parents and guardians and hurtling around the place would still charm to some extent.
  
  But there'd be times when you wished they were kept under control!
  
  As an aside, I'm always worried when I see unsupervised children messing around with the candles and peeling melting wax from them to chew or to make shapes. I'm always concerned they might burn themselves.
• Gamma Gamaliel Shipmate

  July 30

  As an aside, I'm not sure I've ever been surprised to find grace in any Christian setting I've encountered.
  
  It's the lack of grace not the presence of it that would surprise me.
  
  I would, of course, draw the line at some things - and I think we all do that to some extent or other.
  
  I'm obviously more comfortable in more liturgical and sacramental settings these days, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't expect to find grace operating in other contexts.
• MrsBeaky Shipmate

  July 30

  Gamma Gamaliel wrote: »

  As an aside, I'm not sure I've ever been surprised to find grace in any Christian setting I've encountered.
  
  It's the lack of grace not the presence of it that would surprise me.
  
  I would, of course, draw the line at some things - and I think we all do that to some extent or other.
  
  I'm obviously more comfortable in more liturgical and sacramental settings these days, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't expect to find grace operating in other contexts.

  
  Perhaps it would have been better if I'd said "means of grace" rather than grace!
  Due to historical personal damage for me it's all too easy to expect certain situations to be hard work or even upsetting so if I then find myself connecting with aspects of it spiritually then that lands as a means of grace.
• Gamma Gamaliel Shipmate

  July 31

  Ok. I get that.
  
  There are certain expressions of the Christian faith I'd tolerate at best or avoid if at all possible for reasons of personal history.
  
  I'd find it hard to cope with a full-on charismatic meeting these days, for instance and more moderate 'charismatic-lite' services feel trite and somewhat thin to me now.
  
  That doesn't mean I don't believe they aren't a 'means of grace' for those involved in them. I'm sure they are.
  
  As to whether they are a 'means of grace' to me ... well, I wouldn't dismiss them out of hand and I'm sure I'd find something edifying in such settings, whether it be a particular phrase in a song or a point in the sermon or the very evident faith and sincerity of those involved - even if it no longer feels like my 'bag' as it were.
• Forthview Shipmate

  August 1

  I'm not sure if the following incidents were unexpected graces in unexpected places but they have certainly stayed with me throughout my life.
  One Sunday evening in 1962 I went to a Mass in the church of St Germain des Prés in Paris. To my surprise the priest celebrated the eucharist facing the people, something which was virtually unknown then. Although the Mass was all in Latin he spoke the words of the eucharistic prayer out loud, also something which, at least in the Roman rite,was not done ,as the words were considered too sacred to be said out loud.
  It was ,for me anyway, an amazing moment which I have never forgotten.
  
  Some time later ,again by chance in a church near Paris, the priest,celebrating Mass,said the Gloria in excelsis in French and encouraged the congregation to say it in French with him.
  I don't think that I particularly liked this (it just didn't seem right ) but I knew that this was going to become the norm in the near future.
  
  Since then I have grown to appreciate greatly the liturgy in the vernacular,but I always think that my experiences then must have been like those of the English people who were the first to hear the language of the Book of Common Prayer.
• Gramps49 Shipmate

  August 1

  Our sanctuary is in the round. The altar is a six-sided table in the center. Every once in a while, a toddler will sit under the altar during the service. Causes much embarrassment to the parents but gives a chance for the congregation to show grace to the family.