{"id":5463,"date":"2020-11-16T17:12:43","date_gmt":"2020-11-16T17:12:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stuartpoetry.art\/?p=5463"},"modified":"2020-11-16T17:12:43","modified_gmt":"2020-11-16T17:12:43","slug":"the-ceremonial-of-the-english-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/2020\/11\/16\/the-ceremonial-of-the-english-church\/","title":{"rendered":"The Ceremonial of the English Church"},"content":{"rendered":"

Divine Service is composed of rites and ceremonies involving the use of ritual and ceremonial in their performance<\/em><\/p>\n

The manner in which the terms ritual and ceremonial are used have been frequently confused and it makes it desirable that we should have a clear idea as to the exact meaning of these terms<\/em><\/p>\n

Constance placed the small blue book carefully on the poolside table<\/p>\n

What do you think Henry<\/em><\/p>\n

About what<\/em><\/p>\n

About the ceremonial in English churches<\/em><\/p>\n

I cannot say that I have given it much thought<\/em><\/p>\n

What do you think of pantheism<\/em><\/p>\n

That being<\/em><\/p>\n

It is a religious belief that God is all around us throughout the universe and beyond<\/em><\/p>\n

Paul climbed out of the pool and sat on a pale blue chair opposite Jane<\/p>\n

Why do you ask<\/em><\/p>\n

When I was last in Marlborough in Wiltshire I stopped to look at a grave stone in a churchyard<\/em><\/p>\n

Which church were you visiting<\/em><\/p>\n

The redundant one near the college<\/em><\/p>\n

I was there a few weeks ago and stood above the grave of a young woman who died in 1825<\/em><\/p>\n

Her name was Catherine<\/em><\/p>\n

This was her final resting place<\/em><\/p>\n

Her eternal resting place was in a redundant church yard just yards from a busy main road<\/em><\/p>\n

What is your point Constance \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

I wondered if God was still with her after all those years<\/em><\/p>\n

You were standing above her mortal remains<\/em><\/p>\n

She is as far as we know in Heaven with God at this very moment<\/em><\/p>\n

But was God in that churchyard<\/em><\/p>\n

In short I believe he was<\/em><\/p>\n

Is he here at this swimming pool<\/em><\/p>\n

Yes<\/em><\/p>\n

He is happy in our recreation<\/em><\/p>\n

If you believe as you say then God can be felt throughout the universe<\/em><\/p>\n

Even here at the swimming pool\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Jane slipped the book into her Constance bag<\/p>\n

Why did you bring the book to the pool<\/em><\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t as I found it in the changing area<\/em><\/p>\n

Somebody must have lost it<\/em><\/p>\n

A priest lost it<\/em><\/p>\n

How do you know Constance<\/em><\/p>\n

Because I stole it from him<\/em><\/p>\n

It was a thrill steal Phil<\/em><\/p>\n

I have not stolen anything for a while as you know<\/em><\/p>\n

The priest was watching me<\/em><\/p>\n

I think he liked me or was having unclean thoughts about me\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

So I stole his book whilst he was swimming in the pool Paul<\/em><\/p>\n

I went to his locker and stole his book from his Henry bag<\/em><\/p>\n

That was why I was reading it here at the table<\/em><\/p>\n

I wanted to see if he would ask for it back<\/em><\/p>\n

Is he still in the pool<\/em><\/p>\n

No he left about thirty minutes ago<\/em><\/p>\n

Was he aware that you had stolen his book<\/em><\/p>\n

Yes<\/em><\/p>\n

What did he do<\/em><\/p>\n

Nothing<\/em><\/p>\n

He was happy with the theft or so I thought<\/em><\/p>\n

Do you think that God was happy with my dishonesty<\/em><\/p>\n

Ask him<\/em><\/p>\n

Do you think that he will punish me<\/em><\/p>\n

Time will tell<\/em><\/p>\n

Shall we leave the swimming pool now and head for the beach as this defeats the purpose of living in a coastal town<\/em><\/p>\n

If you wish as long as the priests have not returned and stolen our clothes<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Divine Service is composed of rites and ceremonies involving the use of ritual and ceremonial in their performance The manner in which the terms ritual and ceremonial are used have been frequently confused and it makes it desirable that we should have a clear idea as to the exact meaning of these terms Constance placed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5463"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5463\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}