Forgot to mention the best bit of today. A Richism - the man with the best collection of bons mots I've ever met:
'We're going through a period in College Chapel where you can't have silence. You're only allowed to meditate if someone is playing in the background the sort of music that means somebody has died on Neighbours.'
Respect to the Burley man.
8 comments:
Indeed! I'm trying to get him to join the blogging world to impart such quotes directly. Seeing him this weekend - will have another go then.
That's quite an interesting point. In our Chapel services, I don't think we do silence that well. Most of our students attend churches where silence doesn't really feature.
I think that's a bit of a shame really.
My sort-of claim-to-fame is that "Chris Pettifer" writes incidental music for Neighbours. Perhaps the sort of music you'd get when someone has died...
http://www.perfectblend.net/features/interview-pettifer.htm
Could the real Chris Pettifer please stand up (that's me).
In St Paul's we always have "music during communion" as an apparently undeletable category. I've never figured out quite why. Silence would be nice once in a while - stops me being distracted by thoughts like "for goodness sake can't the PA guy hear that there's too much low-mid on the guitar" or "if you hear that you're singing out of tune, please do us all a favour and move your mouth away from the mic" or "why must Stuart Townend always mistake worship for a chance to wedge his particular brand of theology into the minds of unsuspecting Christians?" or "why are modern worship songs always written in the first person singular when it's clear they're made to be sung by a plurality of people?" or any number of niggles that stop me worshiping. And, no, I can't turn my mind off to these thoughts like other people do - that's just not how I'm wired - it's both a gift and a curse.
"Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must remain silent." - Wittgenstein on theology: too right.
What's that terrible line??: "The Father turns His face away"??
Yeah, that's a bad line - I hadn't thought about that one actually. There's also:
"Ashamed I hear my mocking voice call out amongst the scoffers"
and the general uncomfotable feel that the lyrics in the last two verses of "In Christ Alone" are pointing to a particularly literal, reformed-theology view of substitutional atonement.
St., as a person who doesn't do silence in intercessory prayer, what do you make of this?
I never had a problem with those lines. In fact, I generally found In Christ Alone to be good lyricaly. It says I'm committed to christ, and is also helps me express joy about the ressurection. That's why I chose it for my baptism. (I admit to liking the music, but in this case for once, that is secondary.)
Most people just use words in intercessory public prayer so I use music to demonstrate its possibility and because no-one else does.
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