Ship of Fools: Before church

Thread: Before church Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.

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Posted by HCH (# 14313) on :

Something mentioned on another thread made me think of this: If you go to a church service on Sunday morning, what takes place in your day before you go to church? I assume most people do get dressed, but what else? Do you eat breakfast? Do you start reading the Sunday newspaper? Walk the dog? Read a Bible passage? Struggle with other family members who want to sleep late? Feed the goldfish? Make telephone calls?

Posted by sabine (# 3861) on :

I walk to the corner store for a paper and eat breakfast. We start at 9:30 so there isn't much time unless I want to get up really early. Sometimes I do yoga.

sabine

Posted by Albertus (# 13356) on :

We're 1115. Get up lateish, walk dog, relaxed breakfast with Mrs A, wash up, change into decent clothes and there you are.

Posted by betjemaniac (# 17618) on :

Read the Spectator in bed, get up, go off to church at 1055 for an 1100 start. Residual Pusey House indoctrination means I tend not to have breakfast beforehand unless I'm ill if it's a communion.

Posted by BroJames (# 9636) on :

Get up 6.30ish. Shower etc., dress, breakfast, last bits of preparation then out for the 8.00.

Posted by Gee D (# 13815) on :

It depends upon which service we're attending. The preferred pattern is to rise around 6 to 6.30, walk Dog which will include having a coffee somewhere depending on where we walk, breakfast, shower and dress then leave for church (which is not a 5 minute walk, oh that it were!).

Posted by balaam (# 4543) on :

The alarm clock goes off at 8. After the news bulletin I get up, make 2 mugs of coffee nd return to bed, where we listen to local radio until 9.

Then I get up and cook bacon eggs and fried bread (AKA health food in Yorkshire). LRP rings for a taxi to get the M*th*r-in-L*w to church, which we walk to, just under a mile, to arrive around 10.30 for a 10.45 service.

The walk back home is often through the local park.

Posted by Spike (# 36) on :

My radio comes on automatically at 6am, even at weekends. At that time on a Sunday morning, Radio 4 is playing a rather bizarre programme called Something Understood . Even if you are wide awake, there's some pretty weird shit going on there, but if you're half asleep (as I invariably am) it's rather like taking some sort of hallucinogenic drugs.

I remain is a state of semi slumber as my dreams are invaded by Claire Balding and a bit later on by some bishop or another.

When the morning service comes on, I realise I've slept longer than I intended, so it's then a mad rush to eat breakfast, shower, dress and then drive to church in time for morning prayer.

[ 10. January 2017, 21:26: Message edited by: Spike ]

Posted by bib (# 13074) on :

I'm up, showered and dressed early on Sunday mornings to allow time for a light breakfast and quick glance through the Sunday paper. I need to leave home in good time so as to be at church by 9.30am for choir practice and robing prior to our 10.30am Choral Eucharist. In January, when our choir is on a Summer break, everything is much more relaxed.

Posted by Piglet (# 11803) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Spike:
... I remain is a state of semi slumber as my dreams are invaded by Claire Balding and a bit later on by some bishop or another ...

Quotes file, methinks! [Killing me]

We are house- and cat-sitting at the moment, so our current Sunday morning routine is: alarm at about 6:45, when I get up to feed the cat, then go back to bed for another hour or so. Then get up, shower, wake D. and get dressed in time to be at the Cathedral for choir rehearsal at 9:15 and service at 10, with a stop en route at the Tim Horton's drive-through to get coffee for me and tea for D.

What is this "breakfast" of which you speak? [Big Grin]

Posted by Bishops Finger (# 5430) on :

6am - wake up, get up, take first meds, stoke stove. Back to bed, sleep (hopefully):
9am - get up again, perform ablutions, have toast (one with marmalade, one with Marmite), take second meds. Dress (casual-but-neat). Sit down for a wee while:
1005am - leave home for walk up veeeeery steeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep hill to current Church for 1030am Eucharist.

(Our Place, where I serve as Reader, is several miles distant, so at present I'm only going there on special occasions when lifts are available!)

IJ

Posted by Graven Image (# 8755) on :

Sleep in until 8, Splash water on face, having bathed the night before, throw on clothes leave nuts out for blue jay. Ring bell 3 times, Father Son and Holy Spirit to let jay know his breakfast is on the railing. He has trained himself to the bell. Walk dog, feed dog, Wash hair, eat toast and juice, check mail, do odd bits around the house, dress for church, leave at 11:15 to drive to 11:30 service.

Posted by The Phantom Flan Flinger (# 8891) on :

Alarm at 7, Clare Balding & tea in bed.

Up at about 9.00, coffee, leave for church at 10.00.

Unless we have a Sunday morning music practice, in which case it's up at about 8.30, no coffee, leave at 9.00.

Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :

Now that our church has shifted the 8:30 a.m. service to 9, life is easier. Rise at 7:30, eat breakfast and drink coffee. Feed cats second breakfast. (Like hobbits they get two breakfasts and two dinners, and sometimes elevenses.) Dress up and drive off.

Posted by Jane R (# 331) on :

Get up about 8.30. Drag Daughter out of bed. Have breakfast. Panic about being late for choir practice. Usually arrive just in time before the choirmaster starts frowning sternly at the latecomers, and wake up properly halfway through practising the psalm.

Posted by Sipech (# 16870) on :

The alarm goes off and I move from the bed to the sofa to watch the 2nd half of Match of the Day, which I will typically have been watching the night before and gone to bed part way through.

Have a leisurely breakfast with decent coffee while I then shout at the tv when the Marr Show is on.

When it's over at 10, it's time to get ready for church, which includes packing the bag for the foodbank, finding a suitable bible (church uses the NASB, though I don't have one - NRSV is reasonably close - Amplified is a big no-no) and checking the weather forecast. I then nip out at 10:15, wait for a bus, walk half a mile at the other end and hope to make it in time for the 10:45 service.

I always position myself on the left, partly as a reflection of my politics, but also it helps to catch the sun as it moves around, so I can be sat in the warmth of the rays during the sermon. [Big Grin]

Posted by Piglet (# 11803) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Sipech:
... so I can be sat in the warmth of the rays during the sermon.

If I were in the warmth of the sun during the sermon I'd probably doze off ... [Hot and Hormonal]

Posted by Graven Image (# 8755) on :

Originally posted by Sipech:
... so I can be sat in the warmth of the rays during the sermon. [

Tangent In my youth and newly engaged I use to sit in the warmth of the sun so I could look at the stain glass reflected on my new diamond ring. [Hot and Hormonal]

Posted by Pangolin Guerre (# 18686) on :

This from the thread referred to in the OP, I think, but with some expansion.

For me, an 11am start allows me to listen to the first hour of a current affairs programme, CBC R1's The Sunday Edition. I have a tea, shower, shave, choose my tie (proper liturgical colour if I remember). I walk to the Cathedral, service, walk back to the neighbourhood pub for a pint and a chat. The pint and chat is extraordinarily therapeutic. Bobby, the father of one of the owners, is usually there April though October, interrogates me about the homily, and then we banter, needling one another and self-deprecating by turns. It is, in its own way, a type of fellowship that evokes The Little Vagabond, and I rather miss him when he relocates south for the winter. Then home to begin the day, but by then it's 2-2:30pm. A late start, even without having to contend with partner, children, etc. Make some tea or pour a glass of wine, and start planning dinner, listening to the radio (Tapestry - spiritual issues, then Writers & Co.). Finish reading the Saturday newspaper.

I mention wearing a tie. I'm not a martinet about how one dresses for church, but I rather like wearing a tie. I had to at university, at work in finance, and it feels quite natural.

The funny thing about everyone's report is that however different in detail they are, they share a sense very comfortable order, almost coziness. I wonder whether that's part of the reason that we attend church - it imposes a simple gentle structure on our day.

Posted by ExclamationMark (# 14715) on :

Wake as usual around 5.30. Get up - go to study. Read, pray and if I am preaching or leading that day go over the service.

At about 8ish take tea to Mrs M. Shave, bath (listen to wireless usually Radio 4), dress, make sure I have everything.

Leave for church at 10.30 no later than 9.30 - usually picking someone up on the way. At church, coffee and make sure everything is sorted for the service. Sit quiet and pray; pray with others

Posted by Baptist Trainfan (# 15128) on :

For a brief moment, I wondered who "Mrs M. Shave" might be. Then the penny dropped!

Posted by Albertus (# 13356) on :

That sounds pretty much like a perfect Sunday, Pangolin Guerre.

Posted by Sioni Sais (# 5713) on :

Wash/shower, dress then make coffee for Mrs S, get stuff together for bring'n'share lunch (typicaly CAKE made the night before) then quick breakfast. We are about 30 minutes drive from our shack so breakfast may be omitted but never coffee. Mrs S would rather arrive late.

Posted by Snags (# 15351) on :

I have two "before church" rituals, depending on whether it's a day I'm on music duties or not.

If I am, it's up at 6:30/7:00, ablutions, kick off the coffee, walk dog, clear up last night's chaos whilst drinking coffee, feed dog, sit on floor with dog drinking another coffee, head out just before 9:00 to rehearse before the service starts (10:15).

If I'm not, the start time is the same, but there's more coffee and relaxation. And quite often not actually getting to church at all.

Posted by L'organist (# 17338) on :

Get up and shower listening to Radio 4

Unload dishwasher while old-fashioned stove-top percolator makes coffee

Coffee (double or triple espresso) and scan the paper.

If summer maybe hang washing on line.

Drive to arrive at church 20 minutes before service begins - may be earlier if I haven't been to church the day before to put service music ready in vestry.

Service is at 10:00 and drive takes c15 minutes in the winter, more in summer thanks to cyclists and riders.

[ 12. January 2017, 12:46: Message edited by: L'organist ]

Posted by Wet Kipper (# 1654) on :

quote:
Originally posted by HCH:
.... what takes place in your day before you go to church? Struggle with other family members who want to sleep late?

Sunday is my wife's day for a lie-in, so my struggle is with family members who want to get up early......(aged 3 and 7)

Posted by BabyWombat (# 18552) on :

Alarm goes off at 5. Coffee, final review of sermon if I am preaching, check e-mail and on-line news from two different sites. Breakfast (cottage cheese and an apple usually), shower, shave, dress. Leave by 6:30 to get to church (30 min drive from home these days) early enough to sort things out before our first Eucharist at 7:30.

Posted by Cathscats (# 17827) on :

On Sunday mornings I sleep in till 6.45. I then make double the usual amount of porridge, as on this day not only will husband partake, but I will also consume the oaty gloop, as this will keep me sustained through two services on my feet. Gloriously leave husband to cope with the rising, or otherwise, of teenage offspring (my job the rest of the week, when there ican be no otherwise about it). Leave the house by 9, and sometimes stop by a lonely lochan on the way to the first service to finish my prayers. Reach first church 35 minutes before service, ready to cope with what I may find: knee-deep snow which no one has remembered to shovel, or, this week, heating which has forgotten to come on.....

Posted by Japes (# 5358) on :

I'm up at 6.00 a.m., my usual weekday time, and after the usual routine and breakfast, I then try to get as much of the next week's pewsheet prepared as I can, check over the hymn list, check I have everything I need musically, then have some time just to be with God before I leave the house at 8.45 a.m. for the five minute walk to church to get set up and prepared for organ playing.

Posted by daisydaisy (# 12167) on :

Around 8:30 feline house guest informs me that the day has started, at 9:00 I emerge and she snuggles into the warmth that I have left. I potter around until around 10:10 when I realise I should have left by now, then hurtle down the hill on my bike, arriving usually just as the announcements are finishing at the start of our 10:30 service. Although if I am on coffee duty I am usually much earlier. Maybe I should be on coffee duty more.

Posted by Stercus Tauri (# 16668) on :

Now we have a late service again, the early morning is time for a hike in the woods on a good day, or sometimes, for reasons that elude me, on an exceptional day I can do an hour or so of work at the computer on the current project. I don't know why that works so well, but that's when I do some of my best work: I work quickly, and when it goes well it settles me nicely for worship. It is no doubt a dreadful breach of good presbyterian Lord's Day observance, but it works.

Posted by Al Eluia (# 864) on :

I get up earlier than Mrs Eluia. I get the paper and read a bit of it, make coffee, and then we listen to the Sunday Puzzle on National Public Radio.

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