Matthew Henry John Bartlett

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Monday 14 November, 02005

by Matthew Bartlett @ 10:22 am

Doug Jones on why Reformed churches always die [6MB MP3]

9 responses to “”

  1. david says:

    i like what this guy has to say. I think a religous calender can be very useful for a church to use in order for art/passion/creativity/music/fashion/joy/feasting to be utilised. A lot better than just working through the LD’s in the catechism.

  2. Matthew says:

    Crickey, I didn’t even notice anything about the church calendar.

  3. dennis bartlett says:

    I ‘ll admitt to not having fully listened to the audio yet (it sounds good so far) but if a church callendar is the answer how come most Anglican and Catholic churches are sparsely populated by a few grey headed old ladies and not many more?

  4. Ben Hoyt says:

    I’m guessing David was just using the talk as a bouncing-off point for the church calender.

    Yeah, good stuff. Hmmm, what he said about magazines made me think about Prism. But I see the magazine as a step in the right direction: trying to produce positive stuff.

    (On the other hand, I understand Rembrandt was bred in Calvinism, and Bach was a faithful Lutheran.)

  5. david says:

    Yes Ben, the calendar idea was a bouncing off point. There was nothing mentioned about it in the talk. Consider this example… Easter time = time for plays to be acted out, songs to be written, suppers to be shared with neighbours to tell them of the true storey. Part of Easter is knowing what it is about, that’s where our books come in wonderfully handy. But how many of us actaully ‘celebrate’ Easter time when it comes? Is it just another service at Chruch (if at all?) or do we write a song, paint a picture, have a feast, sing to our kids?

    So yes, the Catholics and Anglicans have their calendar year… but is it just a calander? or do they live that calendar out? I’m not going to say that a calander is the answer, but it can be a useful tool to help guide us in our creations for the Lord.

    If we look back at Israel’s history, there were so many feasts and celebrations and occasions and ‘relious days’ that sometimes I wonder where they found the time to work! They were always writing songs, celebrating days, remembering occasions, creating art. And that was all based around a religous calendar of sorts.

    Prism = good.

  6. Tim says:

    I say abandon work and have continual FEAST days all year!

  7. Aaron says:

    David that’s a very good point.

    One of the things that has stuck with me from my studies of early-modern English village life is the way life was totally dominated and shaped by lay Catholic piety, shaped around the major feasts of the church calendar.

    Now whatever else we might say about that, the fact is that Protestants, in their distruct of ritual and flight from all things ‘Catholic’, have managed to give up the shaping of life’s rhythms to secularism.

  8. jono says:

    Tim, some of us wouldn’t have much hair left if we feasted that much

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