Anyone up for a chat thread?

[graceandpeace]

Ohhh, the kids thing. It's hard everywhere.

In my last parish I ended up buying a big icon of Christ blessing the children and hanging it so that whenever people turned around to frown at noisy kids they'd be eyeballing the icon. I think it actually made a difference!

I love this!

In my current church, we will soon be placing a sort of welcome notecard in the pews, that will include a welcome with tips for families with young kids, as well as a reminder for other parishoners of the blessing of children in the pews. Again, most people where I attend have been nice, but I've encountered a few grumps. Hoping a few changes coming will help these few lighten up some.

 

[Paidiske]

To be fair, it was an idea I adapted from somewhere else. I saw pictures online of a church - I think in England - where they'd set the children's corner up in what had obviously once been little side chapel in a recessed alcove. And they had painted all the walls of that alcove with a mural of Christ blessing the children; so when the real children went into the alcove they literally stepped into the scene.

It was awesome. I had no way to replicate it. So the icon was the next best thing!

 

[Paidiske]

It's quiet in here...

Has been such a busy day and I feel like I've got nothing of substance done (probably not true, of course, but ministry is hard to measure sometimes).

Daydreaming about the idea of working overseas (preferably somewhere warmer). They're looking for a cleric to be chaplain in Dubai. I'm not senior enough, but I'd bet it would be warmer than here. A girl can dream!

 

[CanadianAnglican]

I was having the exact opposite thoughts... The Diocese of the Arctic doesn't sound like such a raw deal on a sweltering day like today.

 

[SnowyMacie]

It's quiet in here...

Has been such a busy day and I feel like I've got nothing of substance done (probably not true, of course, but ministry is hard to measure sometimes).

Daydreaming about the idea of working overseas (preferably somewhere warmer). They're looking for a cleric to be chaplain in Dubai. I'm not senior enough, but I'd bet it would be warmer than here. A girl can dream!

There's a parish in Dubai?

 

[CanadianAnglican]

There are Anglicans everywhere!! We sometimes take a rather parochial view of Anglicanism, but there really are Anglicans all over the place, though in parts of the world the provinces are supranational (covering territories that include multiple countries, though actually TEC is like that isn't it?).

I have a friend whose family grew up in Dubai. I don't know if he attended the Church when he was there (I think they may come from a protestant background), but he may well have! There are a lot of Canadians and Americans over there working in the oil industry and other government consulting capacities.

 

[Paidiske]

The job advertisement is posted here: http://cypgulf.org/news/vacancies-news/

It's the sort of job I'd love to be able to apply for, but it'll be almost ten years before I'd be able to meet their criteria.

 

[Shane R]

My wife has posed the idea to me of rejoining the military as a chaplain. It's not really what I want to do for a variety of reasons. But this little chat got me thinking about some of the unique challenges the chaplain staff faced on the aircraft carrier I was stationed on. When the ship was overhauled, some fool thought it would be a wise idea to move the chapel up to the O-3 level, which is directly below the flight deck. It was rare to have flight ops on Sunday mornings, but the other various services were sometimes a challenge to sit through. The chapel was located just about under the terminus of the recovery runway, so the planes were coming to a very abrupt stop right over top of it - it sounded like the roof would peal off every time. I remember one particular service when they were doing high volume flight ops. The poor chaplain was trying to read the Gospel but he had to stop every sentence or two because of the unbelievable noise of an aircraft recovery. He just gave up when he was giving his homily and kept talking even though no one could hear him.

That ship had three chaplains: a Lutheran, a Catholic, and a Protestant (I never could get a straight answer from the guy as to who actually endorsed him, but he was a credo-baptist). The best attended services - 8:00 a.m. Roman Catholic Mass and the charismatic Protestant service - were moved to the fo'c'sle because the chapel only sat about two dozen people, maybe 30 at the upper limit. Having a service in the fo'c'sle presents its own challenges, because that is where all of the anchor gear is stored and if its cold outside - it's cold in the fo'c'sle.

 

[CanadianAnglican]

We heard from the retiring Bishop of the military ordinariate in Canada at the Prayer Book Society's national convention in April, and he discussed a lot of interesting different things relating to the chaplaincy, though the vagaries of aircraft carrier flight operations isn't something we've had to concern ourselves with for a few decades now!

I must admit I've contemplated reserve chaplaincy, but the way things are politically and militarily right now (and cruelly also applies to prison chaplains at federal prisons) I'm not sure how viable a full time Ministry it would be.

 

[Arcangl86]

I'm not sure if it came up here or in a conversation with colleagues, but it would be really interesting to be a cruise ship chaplain. Also, one person I really admire but can't imagine doing is the Orthodox priest in Antarctica.

 

[Paidiske]

I couldn't be a military chaplain. It's the one thing I told the archbishop straight up I wouldn't do. Too much of a pacifist; I'd be trying to talk them all into quitting!

I have a friend who is a Buddhist monk, and he was explaining to me that there are no Buddhist military chaplains (in Australia, at least, don't know how things work overseas), because even chaplains have to learn how to handle weapons etc and it would be a total breach of a Buddhist monastic's vows even to handle the weapon. Apparently the Buddhist council here have been in conversations with the military about creating a new model of chaplaincy which could have space for such radical pacifism. I don't know how it would work but I'm interested to see how the discussions progress.

 

[Arcangl86]

I couldn't be a military chaplain. It's the one thing I told the archbishop straight up I wouldn't do. Too much of a pacifist; I'd be trying to talk them all into quitting!

I have a friend who is a Buddhist monk, and he was explaining to me that there are no Buddhist military chaplains (in Australia, at least, don't know how things work overseas), because even chaplains have to learn how to handle weapons etc and it would be a total breach of a Buddhist monastic's vows even to handle the weapon. Apparently the Buddhist council here have been in conversations with the military about creating a new model of chaplaincy which could have space for such radical pacifism. I don't know how it would work but I'm interested to see how the discussions progress.

IIRC there are exactly 3 Buddhist chaplains in the United States military, but the US does not require chaplains to undergo weapons training.

 

[Cappadocious]

To be fair, it was an idea I adapted from somewhere else. I saw pictures online of a church - I think in England - where they'd set the children's corner up in what had obviously once been little side chapel in a recessed alcove. And they had painted all the walls of that alcove with a mural of Christ blessing the children; so when the real children went into the alcove they literally stepped into the scene.

It was awesome. I had no way to replicate it. So the icon was the next best thing!

My parish set up a sort of smaller icon stand with rotating icons for the kids to kiss. It's typically Christ blessing the children but they mix it up.

Personally I wish it were hung up to keep the lines moving, but hey, I'm impatient.

 

[Paidiske]

Agh, the problem with getting new pews (which it seems we are actually doing!), is dealing with the faculties.

Do any other denominations have faculties for stuff in the building, or is this a peculiarly Anglican obsession?

 

[Arcangl86]

Agh, the problem with getting new pews (which it seems we are actually doing!), is dealing with the faculties.

Do any other denominations have faculties for stuff in the building, or is this a peculiarly Anglican obsession?

What do you mean by "faculties"?

 

[Shane R]

Agh, the problem with getting new pews (which it seems we are actually doing!), is dealing with the faculties.

Do any other denominations have faculties for stuff in the building, or is this a peculiarly Anglican obsession?

Oh, anything Anglicans do, administratively, Lutherans have found a way to make even more complicated (from a former member of LCMS).

 

[Paidiske]

lol, Shane, at least I know I'm not alone in my misery!

Arcangl, faculties are official authorisation for something in the building. Theoretically, if you put something intended to be permanent(-ish) in the building, you're supposed to get the bishop's permission; and then if you ever want to take it out again, you need permission as well. The permission is called a "faculty."

The problem I have right now is that our bishop has retired and his replacement isn't here yet, and our archdeacon has moved and her replacement isn't here yet, so although I need to get permission for new pews sorted quickly, I don't actually know whose permission I need, to go ahead and do it. And my vicar is going on leave and wants it sorted.

Sigh. These new pews better be worth the hassle!

 

[Arcangl86]

lol, Shane, at least I know I'm not alone in my misery!

Arcangl, faculties are official authorisation for something in the building. Theoretically, if you put something intended to be permanent(-ish) in the building, you're supposed to get the bishop's permission; and then if you ever want to take it out again, you need permission as well. The permission is called a "faculty."

The problem I have right now is that our bishop has retired and his replacement isn't here yet, and our archdeacon has moved and her replacement isn't here yet, so although I need to get permission for new pews sorted quickly, I don't actually know whose permission I need, to go ahead and do it. And my vicar is going on leave and wants it sorted.

Sigh. These new pews better be worth the hassle!

Thank you. I have never heard the term used in that context. From what I remember of the ELCA, something like what you are talking about would actually require a congregational vote. I remember a story I heard about my old church where the congregation argued for an hour over removing 3 pews so that the musicians can sit in chairs. My understanding in the Episcopal Church is that it is simply a decision for the Vestry.

 

[Deegie]

My understanding in the Episcopal Church is that it is simply a decision for the Vestry.

Agreed. In TEC, the only time the bishop and diocese have to get involved is if you are doing something with the building itself, such as mortgaging it or selling it.

 

[CanadianAnglican]

I couldn't find a general prayer request thread, but I've been away for a bit as there was a sudden and unexpected death in my family and just this week now my mother has been going through severe health concerns. I would appreciate it if I and my mother (along with the medical staff caring for her) could be upheld in prayer.