Once more for your delectation – the Provost’s Perfect Pancake Receipt:
Ingredients:
100g plain flour
pinch of salt
2 large heggs
200 ml milk
75 ml water
50g melted butter
Method:
Sieve
Whizz
Fry
9 responses to “Never mind the quality, feel the width”
-
Gosh, you’ve hit an apparently tender spot there. As someone who was originally brought into the church – and I mean the whole shebang, not just a particular building or denomination, though that was important too – by beautiful music and dignified liturgy, I have been asking for an aspiration towards excellence for the past 30 years or so. But is it not the case that for many people that smacks of an elitism that sits ill with their idea of ‘being church’ (a vile phrase, therefore I use it not)? The idea that as church is for all, you’re not allowed to look for certain standards in music, in reading, in serving …
I could go on, but I don’t need to. You’ve said it. Go for it! (And please delete the earlier comment, in which I was so carried away by my parenthesis that I forgot to finish the original clause) -
I was thinking about all of this yesterday. It is choir holidays at the moment and yesterday the choir were singing down in Englandshire. It might have been expected to be a bit of a flat day here. However, there was none of that. We had a good turnout and wonderful worship both morning and evening. No sign of a summer slump and it was obvious that people came expecting something good even without the regular musicians.
Summer Sung Evensong last night attracted 37 souls. That’s 35 more than might have been expected to turn up seven years ago.
Now, we’ll all be thrilled when the choir come back and put the icing on the cake in a few week’s time – they are full of fabulousness, but yesterday was good proof that we are not simply a one-trick musical pony.
-
Well as you know we don’t have a choir in my church, tho’ many years ago there was a great one with children and adults. But we can still produce a frisson, and the reaction of visitors bears that out; it’s just that not everyone seems to see what produces said frisson.(I know. It’s not just us, but …)
-
Excellent points and something of an encouragement to me at the moment.
The new set up is much better on my phone, by the way.
Fp
-
[…] it for six, it’s not just cosy log-rolling for me to affirm his point. This morning, Kelvin says what great many people won’t: that excellence and forethought and diligence and attention really do make a tremendous difference […]
-
Preaching. I have a wealth of experience of hearing terrible preaching, and a wealth of hearing good. The gulf between the two is immense. I have NO IDEA how one can persuade those who cannot, really really cannot, preach to do something to raise their game. I think you hint the way is probably to persuade those who can, REALLY can to raise their game too. HOW? How when the attempt to hold a music day fails,and people generally find that a much easier thing to approach? Teaching preaching is something at which I am good – if you ever find a way, I will come along and help coach.
-
[…] worship Posted by Fr. Sam Keyes on July 23, 2012 | 0 comments Kelvin Holdsworth, Provost of St. Mary’s in Glasgow, wonders why more people don’t consider the obvious […]
-
Couldn’t agree more about the music days either, Rosemary – we’ve held several singing workshops here, and unless they are tied in to fundraising and a BBQ the attendance tends to be thin and the usual suspects – who can generally sing quite respectably anyway – turn up.
-
but thankfully, you do a really good BBQ so there is hope yet.
-
Previous Posts
-
Opera Review – Macbeth – Scottish Opera
Here’s my review of Scottish Opera’s latest production, as posted at Opera Britannia. The exclamation marks are obviously not my own and have been added by an editor. Rating: Scottish Opera’s revival of Dominic Hill’s production of Verdi’s Macbeth is something of a mixed bag that is saved by several confident performances, most notably that…
-
Sermon – At the Well
Here’s this morning’s sermon. I went a little off piste from the text, but essentially what I wanted to say is in both the video and the words below. Let me begin this morning with a poem. Just a short poem – so slight that you need to listen or it will pass you by.…
-
Who is the happiest of the them all?
Mirror, mirror, on the wall…. Who is the happiest of them all? Turns out the answer is clergy. According to the BBC, the government is beginning to include measures of happiness in what it attempts to do and part of that has been trying to quantify who the happiest people are in society. Turns out…
-
St Augustine
I saw this painting recently in London. It purports to be St Monica being handed her newly born son who was to become Augustine of Hippo. It seems to me that this painting explains much.
Leave a Reply