CH Gospel Choir at St Paul’s

[Katharine]

Reading up about the new Archbishop of Canterbury, I was surprised to find this https://www.facebook.com/reel/1310592664245227

[rockfreak]

Couldn't make the link work Katharine. The "gospel" bit of it had me worried. Are these choristers redolent of the American Happy Clappy style of religion where their songs sound like entries for Eurovision, rather than the grand old hymns that we sang at CH? The Rev Oilwelby (late Archbish of Canterbury) did time at Holy Trinity Brompton (which is the country's HQ of evangelical looniness) and are we to understand that the Rev Sarah Dullally is cut from the same clerical cloth?

[rockfreak]

OK, so having checked out Dullally on Wiki I find that she is actually quite progressive and pro-feminist and pro LGBT. So I feel a bit bad about having jumped to conclusions about her. My experience of Born Again Christians and the evangelical mob is that they tend to be anti-gay and a bit reactionary generally. The African Tendency in the C of E seem to be a bit upset about her but of course they have never moved on from the Old Testament fire and brimstone that our Christian missionaries sold them in the nineteenth century. The historian David Starkey always said that he thought it was a mighty mistake to have a worldwide Anglican Communion when we in England, a largely non-religious nation, were always bound to part theologically from other nations in the Third World. All I ask is that the Gospellers respect our European Enlightenment values, which are of course, deep in our common law, and don't take their religion too seriously. And try singing some of those grand old hymns that we grew up with. Much better than entries for Eurovision.

[rockfreak]

This business of women priests in the C of E was given an interesting slant when, years ago, the historian Bethany Hughes did a number on one of her BBC TV documentaries and found that women deacons were commonplace in the early Christian church in places like Syria. Makes today's arguments about women priests look a bit passe (sorry that should have an accent but my keyboard doesn't run to it).

[rockfreak]

Of course it could be that the CH gospel choir is of the black US Southern states variety whose music has so influenced American soul music - Aretha Franklin's father was a preacher. In which case it may be a cut above the happy clappy Eurovision Song Contest style.

I had a friend who joined the local Born Again Christians when I lived in a commuter village in Kent where people joined the Christians much like they joined the stamp collecting club or the ramblers group in order to have a social life. A friend dragged me along. They were very nice, supportive people but unfortunately they were stark staring bonkers. One woman had a back problem. Every week they prayed for her and laid hands on her back but it never seemed to get any better. No-one thought to tell her to see a GP or an osteopath. Also, they spoke (or rather sang) in tongues. One woman who up till then had appeared fairly rational was heard blathering one of their Eurovision ditties in some kind of Esperanto. As I remember from religion at CH it was only the Apostles who could speak in tongues and they had the Holy Spirit put a tongue of fire on their heads. This was noticeably lacking from our congregation in Kent. They clearly weren't doing it right.