Your answers
Are all archdeacons like the archdeacon in the TV series
Rev?
I think it unlikely that any real archdeacon is like that in the
TV series Rev. In my experience, archdeacons are pleasant
and encouraging, but rarely seen. That said, the fictional
Archdeacon Robert seems strangely convincing. I think this is
because he personifies a kind of invisible archdeacon whom most of
us parish clergy carry inside us, quick to point out our mistakes
and ridicule our clerical posturing.
(The Revd) Pip Martin
Alderholt, Dorset
Sadly, no.
(Canon) Pat Lyes-Wilsdon
Bristol
No. Regrettably, some of us are nowhere near as pleasant,
straightforward, or meek as is Archdeacon Robert.
(The Ven.) Jonathan Smith
(Archdeacon of St Albans)
St Albans
Your questions
What is the likely provenance of this wartime prayer
card, and the "Air Raid Chorus" it contains? Have your readers ever
seen anything similar? H. M.
In most countries, funerals take place within a few days
of death. In the UK, when I began ministry as a priest in the
mid-1980s, it was unusual for the delay to be as long as a week.
Now the funeral is typically more than a fortnight after death.
This delay is traumatic for mourners, and also increasingly makes
the funeral a performance to be planned rather than a transforming
experience. Can readers explain why the delay is so great, and how
to reduce it? P. M.
Where there should be 12 representatives of the laity on
a PCC: through a failure to distinguish between ordinary and casual
vacancies, six were appointed by the annual parochial church
meeting (APCM) for three years two years ago, and the other six
were similarly appointed for three years last year. This leaves
none to be elected this year. Given that this is irregular, how
should this situation be recovered? Should both previous years'
elections be seen as unlawful, and thus all posts as vacant to be
filled this year for three years, and Rule 16(6) then invoked to
vacate four next year and the year after by the drawing of lots? Or
should two from each previous year be deemed casual vacancies, and
can the bishop use his reserve powers (Rule 53(1)) to provide a
rule to determine these, either by drawing lots after the example
of Rule 16(6), or simply by accepting voluntary resignation? Or
would voluntary resignation only continue the confusion by implying
only casual vacancies for the remainder of the three years of those
resigning? Or could a resolution of the APCM or PCC determine how
this matter is resolved? A. B.
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