... is the mild response I find myself sometimes making when what I would prefer to say is anything but mild. A little while ago I had a message thus:
Hello, I'd like to enquire about having my son christened at the church. We live in the village and it's such a beautiful church, I wouldn't want to have the ceremony anywhere else!!
So we arranged to meet and discuss it. There's no long process of preparation for prospective baptism parents to go through at Swanvale Halt, nothing to put people off. Then some days after the fulsome endorsement quoted above I received:
Hi, after careful consideration we've decided to go to a church in Hornington for the christening. Thank you for your help.
I know, or suspect I know, exactly why this is, and I suspect I know it because other people have mentioned it in similar circumstances. It's because car parking is easier in town than it is here. Short of having the sheltered housing next to the church demolished and a car park put in its place, there is little I can do about this; but what grates, and if I'm honest grates quite hard, is the lack of frankness. I wouldn't mind so much if people felt they could be open about the reasons for their choices in these matters; we all know baptism parents with little connection to the Church treat churches as couples looking to get married do, as 'venues' with competing facilities, advantages, and considerations. There's something deeply corrosive about the way people feel they need to pretend.
My own irritation, as such, is of course due to Clergy Insecurity Syndrome and that's an entirely separate matter!
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