confusion or the lack of it

[deird1]

One of the nice things about spending time with Baptists after several years as an Anglican is that Baptists pray properly.


No - I'm not talking about some Important Theological Point Of Great Meaning. I'm just talking logistics.

You see, in the circles I grew up in, group prayer goes something like this...

Person 1: Dear God, blah blah blah blah blah.
Person 2: Dear God, blah blah blah blah blah.
Person 3: Dear God, blah blah blah blah blah.
Person 4: Dear God, blah blah blah blah blah.
Person 5: Dear God, blah blah blah blah blah.
Person 6: Dear God, blah blah blah blah blah. In Jesus name, Amen.

And the "In Jesus name, Amen" bit functions as a nice little cue to tell everyone that we're done praying now, so it's okay to open your eyes and resume the conversation.


Whereas, in Anglican circles (at least the bit I'm now hanging out with), it's more like this...

Person 1: Dear God, blah blah blah blah blah. In Jesus name, Amen.
Person 2: Dear God, blah blah blah blah blah. In Jesus name, Amen.
Person 3: Dear God, blah blah blah blah blah. In Jesus name, Amen.
Person 4: Dear God, blah blah blah blah blah. In Jesus name, Amen.
Person 5: Dear God, blah blah blah blah blah. In Jesus name, Amen.
Person 6: Dear God, blah blah blah blah blah. In Jesus name, Amen.

...at the end of which, we all sit there in stunned silence for several minutes, sneaking peeks at each other to try to figure out if we're still praying or not. It gets confusing.


You don't realise how important the little things are until you have to do without them.

Comments

[velvetwhip]

The Anglican way sounds like a phone call with my late (and dearly missed) grandmother. The first goodbye was never actually goodbye. Nor was the second or third. Sometimes the fourth one was, but you were rarely going to get off that easily. Normally the fifth one was the magic farewell, but the call could extend to the sixth or even seventh goodbye. It was a delicate business, ending a call with my grandmother...and you learned to NEVER hang up first.


Gabrielle

[next_to_normal]

Hahaha, my grandmother says goodbye about twelve times on the phone:

"All right, so long."
"Bye, Grandmom."
"Be good."
"I will."
"Bye. Love you."
"Love you, too."
"Bye. Be careful."
"I will."
"Bye bye. Say hiya to everybody."
"I will."
"All right, bye bye."

My dad has been known to hand the phone off to me halfway through this ritual, and my grandmother is still saying goodbye to him when I pick up the phone to say hi. :-P

[velvetwhip]

I am right there with you, only in between my grandmother's good-byes were loooong stretches of further conversation. Bless her. I'd give anything for another three hour goodbye.


Gabrielle

[next_to_normal]

When I was in college and prayed in a group, we used to pick someone to go last, and so that person would just wait a minute or two and if no one else spoke up, then they'd close it out. (Especially helpful since not everyone always prayed out loud, so we weren't all looking around waiting for someone to speak if they weren't going to.)

[vass]

I don't think I've ever had Anglican group prayer like that. They seem to be set up for ritual, not personal prayers. It doesn't surprise me that they're a bit pants at it when they try the personal stuff.

Other things (in my experience) Baptists do better than Anglicans: seeing the music team as a valuable part of the congregation, not a group of evil show-off interlopers distracting from the worship. (Yeah, the Anglican church I used to sing at was just a tiny bit dysfunctional.)

For parity, things Anglicans do better than Baptists: THE MUSIC ITSELF, OMG. Both the written music itself, and the performance quality.

[lirazel]

Ha! I grew up in a tradition MUCH closer to the Baptist one than the Anglican one, so I'm used to the former way of doing things. I haven't done a prayer group yet in my Anglican church, but I'll be sure to notice this when I do!