2021, here we come!

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Comments

  • Nick Tamen wrote: »
    That Mystery Worship will revive and thrive. I seem to be the only one filing reports lately, and I don't like to monopolize the feature.
    I’m betting it’ll help when more people can actually go to church again.

    I'm surprised we haven't had more reports on virtual services.
    I’m not particularly, and I think there are a variety of reasons for why we maybe haven’t had more.

    I think @Bishops Finger is right that it can be harder to concentrate when watching an online service. You’re watching/listening, and you only have to look away from the screen to think of other things. You’re not immersed in the service like you are in person.

    Speaking for myself, I find it harder to feel like I’m worshiping, much less participating in corporate worship. TBH, I generally can only make that hurdle if I’m watching a service from my own church, it’s live rather than recorded, and I’m with others (generally my wife and/or mother-in-law). Take away any of those, and I’m pretty much just watching a TV show. It may be a meaningful TV show, but it’s not really worshipful for me.

    Add to that, I think many watch virtual services knowing they’re not really what would be happening if people were gathered. They may be shorter, some bits may be dropped or shortened, there’s not the music or singing there might be otherwise. It may seem appropriate to judge whether a church is doing virtual well, but it doesn’t seem … fair? … to judge a church’s regular, non-COVID worship based on how they’re pulling off a virtual substitute.

    Plus, a number of the MW questions don’t really fit—did anyone greet you personally?, how comfortable was your seat?, what happened when you stood around looking lost? Those are the kinds of questions and answers that really give one a feel for a church as a whole, not just an impression of those in the chancel. Without them, it seems to be just a partial picture, if that makes any sense.

    At least that’s how it seems to me.

  • Yes, it does make sense, and amplifies what I was thinking earlier.
  • Just to tweak the tail of those who think she is The Perfect Monarch™, I wonder if HM the Q will abdicate in 2021?

    She's getting on in years, her Realm is rapidly disintegrating, and certain members of her Family are, shall we say, dysfunctional. Is it time to give Bonnie Prince Charlie a chance to reign over what's left of us, before he gets too old?

    :naughty:

    She will not abdicate but there might well be a regency at some point.

  • Fair comment, but I wondered if she might decide to abdicate before she got too old and feeble, rather as recent monarchs of The Netherlands have done.
  • Fair comment, but I wondered if she might decide to abdicate before she got too old and feeble, rather as recent monarchs of The Netherlands have done.
    I don't think she will go back on her word.

  • Amanda B ReckondwythAmanda B Reckondwyth Mystery Worship Editor
    Nick Tamen wrote: »
    I think there are a variety of reasons for why we maybe haven’t had more [MW reports of on-line services].

    I'll start a Styx thread. I'm really quite worried about the fate of Mystery Worship.
  • May 2021 be the start of a more rigorous period of my semi-professional painting career. Even with all the devastating effects of Covid-19, my friends are still wanting to buy my paintings and aren't balking at the reasonable prices I'm asking. Grateful that I'm encountering less lowballing then when I first started painting.

    Twice I got tested for Coronavirus and twice the results were negative. I can't fall back into complacency, though. Please, Dear Trinity, may we all get the vaccine without the typical greed...

    May Bishop's Finger thrive in 2021 and beyond. And maybe, I can meet mousethief and his wife! He doesn't even live that far away from me.

    Please let 2021 be the year I move to West Seattle. I would be mere blocks away from one of my BFF's and that would do amazing things for easing my deep trench depression.
  • MaryLouiseMaryLouise Purgatory Host, 8th Day Host
    Hoping for a vaccine to reach most of South Africa before the end of 2021. Just read a report on the rising Covid stats in our over-crowded prisons -- the incarcerated should be given priority along with health workers and the elderly.

    I miss attending church so much -- going to daily Mass was once something I took for granted along with silent prayer sessions and meetings on pastoral care. Now as the months pass I feel bereft and miss all of that community togetherness and worship. Even the terrible musical liturgy, the unending squabbles over fund-raising, the Traditionalist who always corners me out in the parking lot to tell me what the Pope has done wrong this week. We can't do Zoom or streamed broadcasts of Sunday Masses because almost nobody in our (somewhat underprivileged) congregation has Internet or smart phones, etc.

    And at Christmas and New Year, as at Easter, there are always newcomers and 'formerly Catholic' returnees wanting to give the Church a second chance. Where else can they go?
  • KwesiKwesi Shipmate
    An amicable resolution of the Israel/Palestinian conflict negotiated by Martin54, and signed by Fr Teilhard.
  • MaryLouise wrote: »
    We can't do Zoom or streamed broadcasts of Sunday Masses because almost nobody in our (somewhat underprivileged) congregation has Internet or smart phones, etc.

    MaryLouise, our church is similar, and we have been using a thing the minister found which means multiple people can phone in to a conference call using any old telephone. Charges are reasonable, and (we discovered, after enduring folks squabbling in the background, leaving the TV on, heavy breathers etc!) it is possible to mute everyone except people who are contributing, and turn everyone back on (for a few moments of echo-ey semi-intelligibility) during intercessions, the Lord's Prayer, and the closing Grace.

    It's a UK thing it seems, but the link is here - maybe there is a SA equivalent?

    https://whypay.net/

    Our mostly elderly congregation really like it, and are busy chatting and saying hi to each other for the first 5 minutes before the minister mutes us and leads the service. It seems to encourage people to remember each other and ring each other up, as well. Our little family provides hymn singing which must sound awful but is better than nothing and provides something of our normal service structure.

    all the very best - I hope your wait for vaccines is not a long one and that the promises to distribute the Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine (now approved here!) globally at cost are made good.
    Mark
  • MaryLouiseMaryLouise Purgatory Host, 8th Day Host
    @mark_in_manchester that sounds accessible if unwieldy -- I'll see if we have any equivalent here.
  • caroline444caroline444 Shipmate
    edited December 2020
    I mostly lurk, but I always look out for your comment @Bishops Finger and hope very much that you will be around to provide cheer for many years to come.

    I'm not going to be mean enough to name names @Amanda B Reckondwyth but my morning zoom service is held by a rotating circle of different vicars based in their offices or sitting rooms. One of them sits just in front of a cuckoo clock. At 8.59am we hear a loud "Cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo" and a bird pops out of the clock three times... then the vicar says "Let us begin....." Luckily the congregation are all muted so sniggers are silent.
  • :lol:

    A Trinitarian cuckoo, you will observe...

    Thanks @caroline444 - I'll do me best!
  • MaryLouise wrote: »
    @mark_in_manchester that sounds accessible if unwieldy -- I'll see if we have any equivalent here.

    It's unwieldy as h*ll - but in a funny way we have got used to it and made it our own. I'm a bit like this, but the fact the medium is so clunky makes it easier to focus for me, easier to feel it is 'worship', and it's very amenable to closing ones eyes and / or providing ones own visuals with a candle or whatever. A semi-polished video thing (if we did it) would be worse in some ways, I think, and we'd be chasing diminishing returns with skills we don't have - this way we have the word and that's enough. :smile:
  • Gramps49Gramps49 Shipmate
    One thing I hope our new government does is re-enter WHO and contribute to the worldwide distribution COVID vaccines. Enough of our exceptionalism.
  • MaryLouise, our church is similar, and we have been using a thing the minister found which means multiple people can phone in to a conference call using any old telephone.

    You can phone in to a zoom call. We have a few people who join by phone each week.

  • Re the Queen and Scotland, wouldn't she simply continue as the Queen of Scots, assuming no republican malarkey, just as she is Queen of Australia?
  • Gramps49 wrote: »
    One thing I hope our new government does is re-enter WHO and contribute to the worldwide distribution COVID vaccines. Enough of our exceptionalism.

    Hear hear. I'd like the whole American exceptionalism to start dying in every area. Rapidly.
  • orfeoorfeo Shipmate
    Gee D wrote: »
    I don't want to be very picky on a thread like this, but calm seas did not make for a prosperous voyage.
    Tell that to Beethoven.

    That was actually Beethoven's point. In his day, calm seas were scary things.
  • Is WHO about exceptionalism or isolationism? I don't know. Gramp's post caused a slight brow raise (my brow is fused, so that I can't arch one eyebrow without arching the other). Are they related concepts or descriptions of the same thing?

    I always thought exceptionalism was about America's "mission", as perceived in various ways, its uniqueness as a nation founded upon Enlightenment principles. I reckon that's consistent with membership of the UN, NATO etc.

    On eyebrow raises, my wife taunts me with her capacity often.
  • having now listened through the whole of this thoughtful topic, I find myself nodding in agreement with most of the hopes voiced. I thinnk I remain an optimist, although that optimism has certainy been dented here and there in 2020. I'm not sure that 'happy' is the right word to use in a greeting to people this week, but am equally unsure what to use instead.
  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    edited January 1
    Gee D wrote: »
    I don't want to be very picky on a thread like this, but calm seas did not make for a prosperous voyage.
    Tell that to Beethoven.

    As TheOrganist sets out, when the pace picks up, that's the prosperous part of the voyage.
  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    That thought occurred itself to me, too, but she could (I suppose) be like the Emperor of Austria/King of Hungary, and reign happily and gloriously over both nations at the same time.

    Don't forget that she is already the monarch of 14 or 15 of the Commonwealth nations as well as the UK. Hasn't exactly spread herself around them, but at least we don't have to contribute to the bills she runs up save when she's actually here.
  • SusanDoris wrote: »
    having now listened through the whole of this thoughtful topic, I find myself nodding in agreement with most of the hopes voiced. I thinnk I remain an optimist, although that optimism has certainy been dented here and there in 2020. I'm not sure that 'happy' is the right word to use in a greeting to people this week, but am equally unsure what to use instead.

    Keep back! :trollface:
  • It took me a moment to realise what you meant, but yes - or *Keep your distance - I don't want to infect you!*
    :grimace:
  • AnselminaAnselmina Shipmate
    Having obediently not bothered my GP since March I'm hoping to get an appointment somehow to get my knee seen to as it continues to half-cripple me, having deteriorated over the past several months. And, because I'm on medication where regular bloods need to be taken I'm hoping to somehow get an appointment for that to be done, as it will be the first time since July. I'm glad that my GP surgery have just kept issuing my medication - but even I'm beginning to wonder how my liver's getting on (Lockdown Liquor, don't you know!)

    And getting over to Northern Ireland to see family is a definite goal.

    Long life, health and happiness to everyone here, for 2021!
  • Our family will have "Hoppin' John" for supper tonight, a New Year's Day tradition ... meant to bring good luck for the new year ...
  • Our family will have "Hoppin' John" for supper tonight, a New Year's Day tradition ... meant to bring good luck for the new year ...
    Interesting! Ham, black-eyed peas and greens are the standard good luck foods for New Year’s Day in the American South, but I’d never heard of any of them being part of tradition outside the South. Enjoy the Hoppin’ John!

  • Nick Tamen wrote: »
    Our family will have "Hoppin' John" for supper tonight, a New Year's Day tradition ... meant to bring good luck for the new year ...
    Interesting! Ham, black-eyed peas and greens are the standard good luck foods for New Year’s Day in the American South, but I’d never heard of any of them being part of tradition outside the South. Enjoy the Hoppin’ John!

    Having traveled (a bit) in The South I enjoy some things about their cuisine ... e.g., okra, "grits" as part of breakfast ... or sausage gravy over biscuits ...

    Thanks for the good wishes ...
  • Gramps49Gramps49 Shipmate
    Anselmina wrote: »
    Having obediently not bothered my GP since March I'm hoping to get an appointment somehow to get my knee seen to as it continues to half-cripple me, having deteriorated over the past several months. And, because I'm on medication where regular bloods need to be taken I'm hoping to somehow get an appointment for that to be done, as it will be the first time since July. I'm glad that my GP surgery have just kept issuing my medication - but even I'm beginning to wonder how my liver's getting on (Lockdown Liquor, don't you know!)

    And getting over to Northern Ireland to see family is a definite goal.

    Long life, health and happiness to everyone here, for 2021!

    I have had both knees replaced over the last few years. The replacements have certainly helped. Hope you will find the same.
  • Gramps49 wrote: »
    Anselmina wrote: »
    Having obediently not bothered my GP since March I'm hoping to get an appointment somehow to get my knee seen to as it continues to half-cripple me, having deteriorated over the past several months. And, because I'm on medication where regular bloods need to be taken I'm hoping to somehow get an appointment for that to be done, as it will be the first time since July. I'm glad that my GP surgery have just kept issuing my medication - but even I'm beginning to wonder how my liver's getting on (Lockdown Liquor, don't you know!)

    And getting over to Northern Ireland to see family is a definite goal.

    Long life, health and happiness to everyone here, for 2021!

    I have had both knees replaced over the last few years. The replacements have certainly helped. Hope you will find the same.

    Sweetie-spouse and I were very fortunate to have had cataract surgery last Winter just before the bug hit ...
  • Simon Toad wrote: »
    SusanDoris wrote: »
    having now listened through the whole of this thoughtful topic, I find myself nodding in agreement with most of the hopes voiced. I thinnk I remain an optimist, although that optimism has certainy been dented here and there in 2020. I'm not sure that 'happy' is the right word to use in a greeting to people this week, but am equally unsure what to use instead.

    Keep back! :trollface:
    You and BF seem to have inferred from my words some ill-will towards others. I hope this was not so as such an inference would be entirely wrong.
  • For myself, I can confirm that there was no such inference - I was being rather whimsical, but I guess that may not come across on Synthetic Dave! Apologies for any misunderstanding.
  • I was being perverse. My intention was to amuse, not offend.
  • Thank youBishops Finger and Simon Toad for clearing that up.
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