Ship of Fools: Holy Week in the Snow

Thread: Holy Week in the Snow Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.

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Posted by Bishops Finger (# 5430) on :

.....'O come, all ye faithful' was very nearly our first hymn this morning, what with a dusting of snow and a very un-springlike bitter east wind. A good bit of the UK, of course, has it very much worse, snow-wise (it's very much like the winter of 1962/63 in some respects).

We started Holy Week with the usual Palm Sunday Liturgy, including a Procession, but this year we kept the Procession inside the Church, weaving our way up and down the aisles. Apart from that, no alterations had to be made - but how has it been in other parts of the country? Has anyone had to cancel, curtail or alter planned services because of the weather (e.g. if a priest was unable to get to the church)?

Ian J.

Posted by Arethosemyfeet (# 17047) on :

We did a swift circuit of the church grounds, led by a donkey. We've not had snow here but the wind was still gusting well into the 40s and bitterly cold. It's gradually improving though (Friday nearly blew me off my trike with the wind sustained at 45mph all day and gusting up to 68mph). All go for Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter morning.

Posted by seasick (# 48) on :

It's been cold here but no snow. One of the hymns in the Palm Sunday procession this morning was "Who is on the Lord's side?" The line "In the service royal/we will not grow cold" generated some mirth!

Posted by Carys (# 78) on :

No snow here, but cold. We were outside as planned, though I was on duty inside where the ceremonies are duplicated for those unable to process. So I have no first hand experience of the cold .

Carys

Posted by Qoheleth. (# 9265) on :

We completed a palm-waving lap of the Church inside, rather than out this morning. And even with the heating going flat out, I can't get the building above about 13'C, which will make for a chilly Holy Week. [Disappointed]

Posted by Conchubhar (# 17602) on :

This is going to be my first Holy Week, so today was my first Palm Sunday. Most of the snow had melted at Alton Abbey although it was still freezing. We started the service in the tiny gatehouse chapel and then processed to the main church. The procession was freezing and I forgot my gloves and by the last verse of 'All glory, laud and honour' we were a bit out of tune. But apart from that it was Anglo-Catholicism at its best.

Posted by Og, King of Bashan (# 9562) on :

Dusting of snow? Pshaw, we were treated to 8 inches yesterday. (We tend to get our biggest snows in March.) We usually process all the way around the block, but considering the cold and the possibility of ice, we kept it inside this year. We attempted to process around the aisles in the church, but we had too many people, and it resulted in a huge traffic jam.

Other than that, it was a smooth service. If I don't accomplish anything else this week, I will still consider it a success, because I was one of two baritones covering the very exposed opening note on the Weelkes "Hosana to the Son of David," and after spending the whole service psyching myself up for it, I nailed it.

Posted by dj_ordinaire (# 4643) on :

'In the Bleak Midwinter', surely? At least there is a donkey in it!

Posted by Pigwidgeon (# 10192) on :

Here in Arizona we have to start the procession in our Parish Hall -- people complain if they have to stand out in the hot sun.
[Razz]

Posted by Bishops Finger (# 5430) on :

What is this thing called Sun of which you speak?

On a somewhat bah-humbug note, what is it with donkeys? They are not the focus of Palm Sunday - but Our Lord is.

Oh, and we namby-pambies in the UK cry 'Woe!' and 'Oh calamity' if we get 1 or 2 inches of snow.....but at the moment it's the evil east wind (direct from Mordor) which is not nice.

Ian J.

Posted by Angloid (# 159) on :

I was presiding at a friend's church which is the warmest church building I have known. Jam-packed with many adults and with even more Brownies, Cubs, Scouts etc. But they didn't take the risk of processing in the cold although there was no snow on the footpaths and the sun was shining; the only way to involve everybody in the procession was for the kids to go round the church once and back to their seats, followed by the adults. It sort of worked!

Posted by Bishops Finger (# 5430) on :

Good to hear of a jam-packed church! We had a fairish turnout, though the Wind of Sauron kept a few away (mostly young Mums with small kidz).....

Even though we didn't process outside, it was good to be able to get people moving all round the church, and using it in the way that certain liturgists e.g. +Michael Perham and * gasp* Richard Giles suggest..... : [Two face]

Ian J.

Posted by Devils Advocate (# 16484) on :

We managed the usual outside Procession despite the snow and the cold East Wind blowing straight of the North sea from the Steppes of Central Asia and the Parkier bits of Poland!
The church was reasonably warm ( if you didn't take your coat off) though opening the west door to let the procession in let a lot of the warm air out!The Celebrant and I decided it would be business as usual as luckily the path from the hall to the west door was devoid of snow except in a couple of places.
I can see the Easter Fire will be very welcome on Saturday evening if things don't warm up

Posted by kingsfold (# 1726) on :

My diocese was due to have two Chrism masses on Saturday, one at the Cathedral and one in the deep south of the Diocese.

The one at the cathedral took place, but I understand the one in the deep south was cancelled because the police said no travel, except for essential/emergency.

[ 25. March 2013, 11:23: Message edited by: kingsfold ]

Posted by St Everild (# 3626) on :

I was planning not to have a Palm Procession anyway, due to the challenges of our building and the ageing congregation...the wind is like "a whetted knife" today and was yesterday, so...

Posted by cheesymarzipan (# 9442) on :

To the people mocking 'a couple of inches of snow', SOME parts to the UK have more than that. My parents village has 14 inches, apart from the pavements where the snow plough has made it waist deep with snow off the road.
All the schools in the county were closed on friday (even though it's up to each head teacher whether to stay open or not).
I don't know about the churches around there, but the anglican vicar lives about 10 minutes walk from the church so there was probably a service of some kind there, with or without processions. The methodist/presbyterian chapel has clergy from further afield so not sure what they would have done.

Posted by Stercus Tauri (# 16668) on :

We went very traditional and had a performance of The Messiah yesterday evening. When we stepped outside into the snow afterwards, all those who had grumped that it was Christmas music must have been feeling pretty smug about it. (Good performance, so it was).

Posted by leo (# 1458) on :

Usually, the elderly and infirm stay in the pews and wait for the procession to arrive.

Yesterday, out of a congregation of 74, about 40 stayed in church - many of them young - while the rest of us froze. I am wondering whether to look for some 'liturgical gloves' to wear with vestments as global warming continues to change the gulf stream and all that.

Posted by Jante (# 9163) on :

Out of 10 churches in our benefice only 2 managed a service yesterday. the outlying villages of derbyshire have 3 foot plus drifts of snow on the roads making getting there impossible. However in out town church we did a procession inside- ice on the paths outside making it impractical to process outside. One funeral in an outlying village has also had to be postponed and there is concern about carrying the coffin into church tomorrow in th town church!

Posted by Baptist Trainfan (# 15128) on :

quote:
We managed the usual outside Procession despite the snow and the cold East Wind blowing straight of the North sea from the Steppes of Central Asia and the Parkier bits of Poland!

The church was reasonably warm (if you didn't take your coat off) though opening the west door to let the procession in let a lot of the warm air out!

Instead of doing the first part of the Liturgy in the Churchyard we did it at the back of the church ... then we processed out of the side door and round on the pavement to the front door. The congregation was considerably lower than normal but nearly everyone who was present processed. We did however wonder if "All glory, laud and honour" should be replaced by "Good King Wenceslas".

We did have three problems:
- the town roads weren't too bad but it was worse on the outskirts and in the country;
- we didn't know was that it had started snowing again just before we went outside;
- the church heating failed to come on and didn't get switched on manually until 2 hours before the service. Fortunately there was some residual heat left over from organ tuning and choir practice on Friday, but it was stll chilly.

In the evening there was a smallish congregation for Stainer's "Crucifixion" but a very good worshipful atmosphere. And it was warmer!

Posted by Bishops Finger (# 5430) on :

I suspect that the continuing bitter wind (which I now think must be the Black Breath of Morgoth the Enemy) put a few peeps off coming out on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and today - but, thank God, we've not had any more snow other than a brief flurry or two.

So - alleluia! Christ is risen!

And although some were away, we still had a festive Easter High Mass, complete with an adult baptism, much sprinkling of the congo with holy water, and Regina Coeli to finish with.

Ian J.

Posted by Angloid (# 159) on :

Lots of brilliant sunshine here in the Pool. Cold but almost springlike. But the priest who I was meant to be assisting/ preaching for was struck down by a rampant virus after the Maundy Thursday liturgy, so Friday, Saturday and this morning I felt I was flying by the seat of my pants. Great fun though: lively Easter Vigil with lots of noise, well-behaved children and not-so-well behaved fireworks (the sanctuary party and half the congregation were nearly annihilated by a misdirected rocket).

Posted by PD (# 12436) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Pigwidgeon:
Here in Arizona we have to start the procession in our Parish Hall -- people complain if they have to stand out in the hot sun.

You live down the hill I take it. It was bally cold here on Palm Sunday morning, so we decided to process inside this year. This actually all but eliminated the folks not processing problem because only the very creakiest decided they could not make a lap of our smallish church building. It had warmed up by lunchtime, so going out and doing the sick communions was quite pleasant.

The weather the rest of Holy Week was so pleasant (65F-70F) that it seemed to discourage folks from attending. This was not helped by the fact that due to problems elsewhere I was forced to have my Maundy Thursday service earlier than usual, which must have discouraged folks.

Easter behaved a bit like Christmas this year. Some regulars away, visitors replaced them, and then some. However, it was still abut 10 down on last year as we have been raided by ACNA.

PD

[ 31. March 2013, 22:06: Message edited by: PD ]

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