Your answers:
Does anyone still publish the communion service in an illustrated booklet designed for children?
I know of at least two: My Holy Communion Book by Susan Sayers, published by Kevin Mayhew, and My Communion Book: A child’s guide to holy communion by Diana Murrie, published by Church House Publishing.
These may be found in enlightened churches that welcome children to their holy communion service, for them to borrow.
Margaret A. Turner
Chesham, Buckinghamshire
I notice a growing tendency that people with experience in secular employment are preferred for senior C of E appointments over those who have clocked up their experience in a church context. Is this compatible with the drive for young ordinands? Should they be cautioned that early commitment to specifically Christian work will harm their chances later?
Your questioner suggests that young ordinands might be advised that lack of secular experience will “harm their chances” (of senior appointment). It would be worrying if ordinands of any age were encouraged to think in terms of personal advancement, rather than serving in whatever way God calls them.
Christina Baron
Wells
Your questions:
Why have some medieval churches changed their dedications, and when did this happen, if it did occur at a particular time? I have discovered locally this sample from the 1530s: St Peter and St Paul, Swayfield, now St Nicholas’s; St Helen’s, Morton, now St John the Baptist; St Andrew’s, Ingoldsby, now St Bartholomew’s; St Andrew’s, Walcot, now St Nicholas’s; and St Andrew’s, Swaton, now St Michael’s. My evidence comes from a record of Lincolnshire wills proved 1532-34, and the churches or churchyards are specifically mentioned; so the dedications do not apply to altars or chapels within them. I am sure that there are many other examples.
M. A. E. B.
In his commentary on the readings for the First Sunday of Christmas (Faith, 22/29 December), Canon Angus Ritchie makes much of “the Holy Family” — as do, to a lesser extent, other contributors. During the years when the Alternative Service Book 1980 was authorised, I recall the Feast of the Holy Family on that Sunday of the year. Common Worship has only an oblique reference in the post-communion prayer. Why is this?
R. W. C.
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