Re: Accrington Pal's
 

:D Well I did say Dowry Street. Is Arago Street the other one?

Re: Accrington Pal's
 

You are starting to sound like a Canadian .... giving directions using pubs and bars as landmarks ... or maybe we inherited it from the old country. Much better than using churches as landmarks. "St. Mary's ... where is that?" "Oh, just down the street from Ben's Pub, on the right". "Ah, ok.":D

Re: Accrington Pal's
 

I think teh term you were looking for is 'progressive' :D oh and soem CofE would be deemed 'happy clappy' by your terms.

St Johns in Baxenden use LCD projectors instead of hymn books, use video clips from blockbuster films during sermons, have drums, keyboards, giutars and singers at teh front and don't often sing traditional hymns

Re: Accrington Pal's
 

Mr. Collinson. Now there's a blast from the past! He was one of my teachers. Packed away somewhere in this house, I have group photos of my time at St. John's and I know he's in one of those. Will have to find them and take a little trip down memory lane.

Re: Accrington Pal's
 

Evangelical, or charismatic, with a bit of happy clapping, would have been more accurate.

No offence meant...to any clappers.:D

Re: Accrington Pal's
 

miss thurman, miss plaice,mr collinson, all taught me, be strange if were on the same group photo.:D oh forgot miss riley,lol

Re: Accrington Pal's
 

When I attended, it was Mrs. Hargreaves, Miss Wilkinson, Mrs. Thurman, Mr. Collinson and Mr. Plaice. Over the weekend, I found group photos for the classes of Miss Wilkinson, Mrs. Thurman and Mr. Collinson.

Re: Accrington Pal's
 

Its a real shame all the churches are being knocked down and replaced with offices and supermarkets or being sold to convert to houses :(

Thankfully my church has what I call a decent sized congregation so I dont think it will be proposed to shut it down.

I dont get time to go like I used to at school, I used to sing in the choirs. I would hate it if my church got knocked down just to build a shop or something there.

As already said though the main problem is with church attendance figures and its not just happening in accy, its happening all over the country. The best thing to do about it is to attend a church regularly, otherwise all they'll do is keep knocking them down.

Re: Accrington Pal's
 

But there is an unsettling irony in this. The reason that people are not going to church is that they no longer believe. And one of the major reasons for this death of belief is the carnage of WW1. It is no accident that the growth of existentialism roughly coincides with the war. The major rhetorical question on the minds of the people who lived thro' it goes something like "how can one believe in the existence of a benevolent god, when one has seen hell run unchecked on earth?" One Job we can accept, but not tens of millions. And what happens twenty years after the war to end all wars? Real evil, with a disarmingly silly tache, again runs amok.

But the irony is that the church which contains the memorial to the Pals may become a casualty of the war in which the Pals fought so bravely.

Re: Accrington Pal's
 

Re: Accrington Pal's
 

I vaguely remember a piece of doggrell from WW1, it goes something like:

Gott straffe England,

God save the King,

God do this, God do that,

God do everything.

Good God, said God,

I've got my work cut out.

Re: Accrington Pal's
 

:)nice to know that so many friends and strangers can come to gether just like the pals's of long a go:):):):)

Re: Accrington Pal's
 

Can I just add that I agree with Peter Britcliffe's comments (not often you see those words on here:))in this week's Observer when he said that it would not be appropriate to bail St John's out as there will be other churches in need of similar help in the future and it would not be possible to give money to them all.It really is down to the Church of England and the people of the parish.I hope they find a good home for the Pals chapel though,maybe St James in Accy centre would be a good place for it.

Re: Accrington Pal's
 

Isnt this a bit of a 'get out of jail free' card believers use to explain why their God has seen fit not to interfere with his creations continuing efforts to destroy each other. As Mr Pacino said God is an absentee landlord at best.

Re: Accrington Pal's
 

Just a bit unfortunate that he had recently said that he would do anything in his power to help the church though! :)

Actually I agree that if you help one you would have to help them all.