Thought for the Day

Thought for the Day ©

By Michael Casey

I was at the Post Office Sorting Office this morning, it’s next to an old church and besides a huge Sheik Temple, I noticed just how peaceful it was there. The grass had been freshly cut around the graveyard, the Gurdwara opposite was glistening in the sun, over the main road used to be the steel works where my dad spent 40 years of his life. Up the road from there is a primary school where Betty our piano teacher had spent years teaching. She never met my dad in all those years, there is no demand for piano teachers in a steel works, nor steel workers in schools.

I enjoyed the Summer sun and remarked to myself just how peaceful it was there in sunny Smethwick. It was an effort to climb all the steps to get to the claim your post at the post office, but at least it makes you appreciate all the walking the postmen do. Now I’ve been looking at the DT and it was saying how the C of E was in decline, and it mentioned The Thought for Today. I could volunteer my words, and indeed I do, but I’ll just try and stick to topic.

People are more selfish, and going to church takes time, my local priest chastises his own brother for going to golf on a Sunday and not bringing the kids to Mass to hear their uncle sing, and celebrate Mass. The article was more about the C of E and how in a generation it could disappear. The Catholic church has its own problems, we know all about them, so no need for me to list them here. I have a Dave Allen and Don Camillo attitude to God, everything will be alright in the end. Only ISIS or Dash, would kill me, there must be a guidebook to slaughter. As for the C of E my 2 daughters stumbled into the choir several years ago, so they are      C of E and my Shanghai wife attends with them. She’s a covert to Christianity, she says she only married me because I was a Christian, though she did ask were Catholics Christians.

Churches have offers, not quite like Aldi, but offers that bring people through the door, coffee mornings, and bingo used to be the thing. Youth clubs and so forth, though some street wise kids will come just for the fun and not the Faith, and can you blame them? Maybe packaging is important, so you trick people into learning about Faith, a bit like fish fingers and potatoes being processed into shapes, just so kids eat them. Ditto with the Bible, though I should add other faiths are available, in the interests of balance, and political correctness.

Sermons should be short, 10 mins tops, you can run through the parish notices and then give the sermon. A sermon is about explaining the Word of God, it’s not about massaging the ego or intellect of the priest. If both sides of your buttock are numb then the sermon has been much too long, if just one buttock is about to get nub then the priest should be saying let’s stand for the Creed. I could be a mystery guest evaluating sermons.  

Boredom is probably the greatest cause for loss of people, why be in agony with your piles when the priest is too busy proving his intellect, when nobody cares. President Kennedy once said 15mins is the ideal length for a meeting, get to the point and then move on to something else. I think he was right, so priests should follow that advice.

Brian Cox has brought the stars to life, his simple style, the love he shows for his subject has made him a star, and made us all look up to the stars. I’m not saying he should become the next Archbishop of Canterbury, I am saying that love has to show through the messenger towards the message. If the messenger is dull and boring people will change channel, or stay and in bed and make love to the wife, or somebody else’s wife while the husband is at church being bored.

I’m not saying either that the Cherie Blair version of future church being like a happy clappy supermarket, without a cross to be seen, as it just would not be cool, so only hyper brainwashed yuppies need apply. A lot is to do with the “packaging” you have to get people interested in today’s App centric world. Jesus App for example, or is there one already?

2000 years ago it was all word of mouth, “you must have heard about Jesus of Nazareth ….” We had the tv series with Robert Powell 30 years plus ago, perhaps we need to reboot that. Modern technology has to be used, you have to meet people in their world, otherwise you’ll not meet them in the next. If all the C of E does is dress up and attend the Houses of Parliament for fancy occasions, then the weeds will grow all over their churches, and we all know about the Parable of the Sower.