Chelsea Instagram

[refugee]

17 hours ago, nausicaa said:

nd it's funny to me how Catholic Mass is always treated like this super long, difficult production on TV and in pop culture. One hour a week and you're done, baby. Pentecostals, Mormons, and Southern Baptists wish they could be so lucky. 

OT, but I loved the way the Mass was portrayed in While You Were Sleeping...

I don’t know if it was realistic, but it felt real. Lol!

[adidas]

Looks like Chelsea and her sister have both gone back to private on insta. 

Edited November 28, 2017 by adidas

[Ozlsn]

17 hours ago, PennySycamore said:

I always thought it was weird that most Southern Baptist churches wouldn't hold a service on Christmas Day unless Christmas Day fell on a Sunday.  That being said, I always hated when Christmas Day did fall on Sunday because church was boring.  I never minded going to Christmas Mass though.

Really? That is weird to me too. What was the reasoning behind that?

12 hours ago, Milly-Molly-Mandy said:

How so? Sorry I find this fascinating growing up in secular Australia!

Secular except for sport. The One True Faith.

[fundiefun]

My daughter and me were invited to a predominately African church and the service was 3+ long. A friend's cousin who is a traditional African her wedding ceremony the religious vows lasted six hours they snuck out for coffee and a break.

[PennySycamore]

@Ozlsn, I really don't know why most Southern Baptist churches wouldn't have a service on Christmas Day other than it's "too Catholic" or "too liturgical" is another way of saying that  it's too Catholic.

[fundiefun]

4 minutes ago, PennySycamore said:

@Ozlsn, I really don't know why most Southern Baptist churches wouldn't have a service on Christmas Day other than it's "too Catholic" or "too liturgical" is another way of saying that  it's too Catholic.

Christmas day seems very line in with Christianity since it is the birth of their saviour after all. That one doesn't make sense to me now I want to see what churches in my area are doing Christmas day services.

[usmcmom]

Traditional Churches of Christ don't usually have a special Christmas Day service, either. In fact, these churches usually do not even recognize Christmas as a holy day, at all, stating that the Bible does not specifically tell us WHEN Jesus was born. 

Having not been raised in the Church of a Christ, this was a huge shock to me when I started dating my husband, who was raised in C of C.  When we got married, we always celebrated Christmas as  Christ's birthday in our own home. About twelve years ago, we began attending a more "liberal" congregation that actually celebrates Christmas. They do not have a Christmas Day service but they do have a wonderful Christmas Eve service, which is still considered quite odd among other congregations. 

[HarryPotterFan]

22 hours ago, nausicaa said:

And it's funny to me how Catholic Mass is always treated like this super long, difficult production on TV and in pop culture. One hour a week and you're done, baby. Pentecostals, Mormons, and Southern Baptists wish they could be so lucky. 

An hour?? That's so short! Evening services for Shabbat are probably an hour to hour and a half, Shabbat morning they're 3 hours. Then the high holy days? Holy hell, there's a several hour morning/early afternoon service and an afternoon/evening service. Yom Kippur "morning" services are like 9-2, then an evening service but not many people go to that.

On Shabbat people tend to just arrive in time for the torah service (which starts an half hour - hour after services start) and stay for the food. Then on high holy days about half the congregation leaves after the Torah service because there is no food to entice them to stay.  This year toward the end of Rosh Hashanah services my rabbi held up some Hershey kisses and said we can have some if we stayed until the end. I never got mine.

37 minutes ago, PennySycamore said:

@Ozlsn, I really don't know why most Southern Baptist churches wouldn't have a service on Christmas Day other than it's "too Catholic" or "too liturgical" is another way of saying that  it's too Catholic.

As a non-Christian this seems so odd to me. I've always thought the original point of Christmas was to celebrate Jesus' birth and then it got commercialized, and now it's like nope...I'm confused. How much of a religious aspect is there to Christmas? I know it differs between different sects/streams.

It also bothers me that I have to use vacation days to take off for my religious holidays...

32 minutes ago, usmcmom said:

Traditional Churches of Christ don't usually have a special Christmas Day service, either. In fact, these churches usually do not even recognize Christmas as a holy day, at all, stating that the Bible does not specifically tell us WHEN Jesus was born. 

Well that's true. Wasn't he born in the spring, but the celebration was moved to coincide with a Roman (?) holiday to avoid persecution?

[bea]

A used to attend a Catholic Mass that was 45 minutes - it was for people with babies and little kids.


 

Edited November 30, 2017 by hoipolloi
Removed Tapatalk signature

[Briefly]

21 hours ago, PennySycamore said:

I always thought it was weird that most Southern Baptist churches wouldn't hold a service on Christmas Day unless Christmas Day fell on a Sunday.  That being said, I always hated when Christmas Day did fall on Sunday because church was boring.  I never minded going to Christmas Mass though.

We switched churches last year, it's still Southern Baptist but it's not like the stereotype - most SB churches I've been to are exactly like the stereotype!  Anyway, the new one - it's a lot more like the United Methodist churches we used to belong to (and I want to go back to.)  And there are services for Christmas eve, Christmas morning and also they observe Advent which most SB don't.  I can't remember, but I think there was also some type of observance of Lent/Ash Wednesday.  But I don't know if that's just my church not following the standard SB direction, or if maybe the SB churches are relaxing a little bit.

[Carol]

51 minutes ago, HarryPotterFan said:

An hour?? That's so short! Evening services for Shabbat are probably an hour to hour and a half, Shabbat morning they're 3 hours. Then the high holy days? Holy hell, there's a several hour morning/early afternoon service and an afternoon/evening service. Yom Kippur "morning" services are like 9-2, then an evening service but not many people go to that.

On Shabbat people tend to just arrive in time for the torah service (which starts an half hour - hour after services start) and stay for the food. Then on high holy days about half the congregation leaves after the Torah service because there is no food to entice them to stay.  This year toward the end of Rosh Hashanah services my rabbi held up some Hershey kisses and said we can have some if we stayed until the end. I never got mine.

As a non-Christian this seems so odd to me. I've always thought the original point of Christmas was to celebrate Jesus' birth and then it got commercialized, and now it's like nope...I'm confused. How much of a religious aspect is there to Christmas? I know it differs between different sects/streams.

It also bothers me that I have to use vacation days to take off for my religious holidays...

Well that's true. Wasn't he born in the spring, but the celebration was moved to coincide with a Roman (?) holiday to avoid persecution?

Heck, if you were lucky you could blow in after the sermon ended, right before the Offertory and leave right after communion.  It still counted as Mass but shaving those superfluous 25 minutes off was a real timesaver.

Of course, I never did this.  Some people told me about it. 

[PennySycamore]

@Carol, that thing about how little Mass you had to attend for it to count always makes me laugh.

[HarryPotterFan]

@Carol That's hilarious. My current rabbi actually gives pretty good sermons (on the high holy days, at least). This year he talked about a Star Wars.

[Carol]

It's pretty funny who told me this.  

It was my mom...super-duper converted, Rosary every night, Confession every weekend, Catholic.  I'd never heard it before.  One time we needed to leave Mass early because she had a hair appt.(not really, I made that part up).  She was quick to assure me that the real Mass was from the beginning of the Offertory to Communion, indicating she was safe from hell and so was I.  I think she thought of it as a good lesson in Catholicism.  I saw it as a way to incorporate my time and management skills into my Sunday routine.

Edited November 29, 2017 by Carol

[Hane]

When I was a kid and churches weren’t air conditioned, our priests often skipped the sermon in hot weather, bringing the Mass down to half an hour, so there wouldn’t be little old ladies passing out in the pews.

Re Sunday night religious services: When I was a kid in the ‘60s, I remember someone writing to TV Guide and objecting to Star Trek being moved to Sunday night because “people go to church then.” I thought it was odd that he assumed the vast majority of Star Trek watchers shared his religious practices.

Edited November 30, 2017 by Hane

[Briefly]

1 hour ago, Hane said:

Re Sunday night religious services: When I was a kid in the ‘60s, I remember someone writing to TV Guide and objecting to Star Trek being moved to Sunday night because “people go to church then.” I thought it was odd that he assumed the vast majority of Star Trek watchers shared his religious practices.

And then some of us just about worship Star Trek,

[StraightOuttaArkansas]

I am so late to catching up in thread! Sorry I have bring up something from a couple of pages back:

Re: the crawling thing. THANK YOU whoever contributed to this. My son did not really crawl much. He scooted a lot and realized there was so much family he did not need to move himself to get from A to B. He took his first steps right at around 12 months and was full on walking at least 3 months after that (after a nasty fall into metal umbrella stand right on the corner of his eye *shudder*). Fast forward to elementary school. He was put in a "special sports class" after school because he did "run properly" whatever that actually meant. His school was odd and had a focus on sports, but it was out local school so not much of a choice.  Reading the posts made me realize that he may have had bad coordination because of not crawling much/well. I also asked him just now (he's 13) to crawl across the floor so I could see how did and then my husband too and my son does not crawl like a normal person. So in sum thanks ya'll for solving a mystery.

Re: left handedness.  Same son as above had a lot of trouble choosing a hand. I think he was two before I was ready to believe he picked one. He chose left. He actually did reasonable well with both hands as a baby and young toddler, but in the end he was better with his left. I only have one cousin who is left handed and they live far away so it was a real challenge. In pre-school they were very understanding and always gave a lefty version of whatever if there was one.  When he started school we got him all the lefty things down to a pencil sharpener (not worth the money btw). They even make lefty fountain pens (German schools start those very early). His German teacher (the class they learned to write in) was horrible. He had this teacher for 3 of his 4 elementary years. She did nothing but complain about his handwriting and then come to find out even though we told her "well he is left handed so he needs a bit more attention and probably to learn to write differently", this cow was forcing him to write the same as all the other right-handed kids, including her example of how he was making a "t" wrong: "proper way" was down and cross to the right and he made it up and to the left, I still don't understand how that mattered. Thankfully in the last year he got a new teacher and she was also left-handed. She tried hard to fix and encourage whatever was still able to be fixed. I am still miffed at that first teacher. Just this year he has tried to find his own handwriting style and finally lost the "hook". I can actually read what he writes now consistently instead of just "his best writing". OH and in elementary school he was getting bad marks on test because they couldn't read things (understandable), but their solution was to tell him to write slower and carefully which led to him not finishing things, then giving him bad marks for that and telling us he was too slow. It was such a mess.

last this, really:
re: church times. I grew up southern baptist in Arkansas. We also did not every have homework or anything in public schools scheduled on Wednesday, even in high school. Thought that was already 12-13 years ago I graduated. The church I went to had Sunday morning, Sunday evening, and Wednesday times. I never went except on Sunday morning. I also remember the sermons let out early if there was a football game on. I found that (even as a teenager) questionable. Our church also never had a Christmas day service. I think even if Christmas fell on a Sunday (or we just never went then). They did do a rather late, candlelight Christmas Eve service though. Never went to that either, but I heard it was lovely. I think the real reason was that they knew no one really has much to do in the early evening on Christmas Eve if they are still in town, but also that no one, especially with kids, would be there at 9 am on Christmas morning either. I am recent Catholic convert and really though Mass is max one hour. Even with a choir. We are actually going to attend on Christmas this year. I think we can spare an hour. Funny story though: we had just moved and were new to the parish and apparently it was that time of year when priests are shifted to new parishes (I didn't know that was a thing). Our was old and boring, but a nice man. I was not terribly sad to see him go, but the parish was. On his last Sunday he was so upset and cried through most of the service. He actually said "This will the quickest Mass any of you has ever been to" and true to his word prayers, offering, communion all done in 20 minutes. It was the saddest Mass I was ever at too, but on the bright side the new priest is a bit younger am more lively.

[nastyhobbitses]

On 11/30/2017 at 5:12 PM, Hane said:

When I was a kid and churches weren’t air conditioned, our priests often skipped the sermon in hot weather, bringing the Mass down to half an hour, so there wouldn’t be little old ladies passing out in the pews.

Re Sunday night religious services: When I was a kid in the ‘60s, I remember someone writing to TV Guide and objecting to Star Trek being moved to Sunday night because “people go to church then.” I thought it was odd that he assumed the vast majority of Star Trek watchers shared his religious practices.

In general I don't like when laws/ordinances and mass entertainment cater to one group's religious practices. You choose to observe your religion in that way, and if you're not willing to make sacrifices (as your ancestors did and as the prophets/saints/other religious figures of your faith did), then adjust your observance. Don't demand that the world bend to your life choices. This is the modern version of the sacrifices of old: instead of sacrificing some of your livestock or harvest that would sustain you and your family, you sacrifice some of the aspects of modern life that you would otherwise probably enjoy. And if you're not willing to do that, that's not the legislature's problem, the TV network's problem, or the restaurant's problem, or the school's problem, or the liquor store's problem, or the movie theater's problem. That's your problem.

[PreciousPantsofDoom]

I'm not Catholic, but my husband is.  The shortest  mass I've ever been to was when we were in Ireland attending a friend's wedding. We left our other friends having breakfast and went off to mass at a church just down the street. It was like mass on speed.  A fast talking Priest  (The sermon was a bit like listening to an auctioneer ) kept things moving,  and all hymns were only one verse played at a good healthy tempo.

Communion was a hoot. As soon as it was time, the whole church just descended on the altar (no decorous waiting in line or pausing too long to pray) while the Priest speed walked back and forth doling out communion wafers like a Vegas card dealer. 

We were back at the hotel in 35 minutes, much to the surprise of our friends.  They were not even finished breakfast.  One of them said she would have come with us if she had known it would be so quick!

 

[ScorpiousMalfoy]

In my (Catholic) church, Mass would usually be no longer then 50mins on Sundays and 30mins on weekdays. The weddings would also be quite short, for example in the "high season" eg summer, wedding services on Saturday would be held all afternoon every hour (one couple getting married at 2, second one at 3, all the way to 5 or 6 pm). Christmas/Easter Masses could be a little longer, say an hour or few minutes more. I cannot imagine staying at a church service for 2+ hours, although to be honest I am not religious at all at this moment and usually skip Mass altogether

 

Edited December 4, 2017 by ScorpiousMalfoy

[elliha]

Interesting to learn more about the length of Catholic Mass. I have had some conversations about theological topics with Swedish Catholics but we never compared how long Mass takes. I would like to know how Mass here compares to the times listed in this thread. In my Lutheran Church Sunday Mass is almost always 1.5-2 hours and if it is closer to 2 hours people start shuffling around in the benches so most priests try to keep to the "standard" which is more or less exactly 1.5 hours. Not all churches have weekday services but if they do they are generally on Wednesdays. In my church there is one every week and it is usually about 30-40 min and often a bit "lighter" in content and with regards to choice of hymns. Often the shorter more modern hymns are used and sometimes there is instrumental music when there would usually be singing on a Sunday. On occasion there are more than one church activity on a Sunday but often then second one is a special thing like a concert or a theological discussion with a guest speaker or something like that. I think no one expects everyone to come to both but some people do of course. Most people, even those a bit more invested in church don't go every Sunday in my church. I would say that is even quite rare. My church has its own Franciscan Third Order and one of the promises you have to make to enter is to go to church at least once a week so I assume that is considered a bit more than usual to do so. I try to go as often as possible which is more often during Advent and Lent and less frequently other times a year but usually still at least once a month. For parts of the year my church has Wednesday dinner, I often go to them with the kids and then to Wednesday Mass after that. 

We call it Mass if you get communion and a service if there is no communion. Usually my congregation will offer communion both on Sunday and Wednesday but some Sundays like yesterday do not offer communion. I think there was no communion because there were two choirs and extra hymns because of 1st Advent Sunday. It is also the Sunday of the year when most people go to church even those that never go there otherwise go there and it might be an organisation related decision since it takes forever to give out communion to that many people and you might need several stations and several priests to make it run smoothly. 

[Hane]

I went to Mass for the first time in a long time this past weekend—went with my sisters, as a show of moral support to my middle sister, who was scheduled for a D&C yesterday. (Baby Sister arranged for the priest to give Middle Sister a blessing after Mass, which was sweet of her.)

I had been a lifelong devout Catholic until about ten years ago, and found the hour-long Mass absolutely interminable.

[Howl]

On 11/28/2017 at 5:22 PM, usmcmom said:

They do not have a Christmas Day service but they do have a wonderful Christmas Eve service, which is still considered quite odd among other congregations. 

Lots of churches have a Christmas Eve service.  It's seems kind of traditional, like a sunrise service on Easter.

[SolomonFundy]

We weren't a devout family. My folks unofficially switched churches every few years, and officially moved their "letter of membership" twice that I know of. Most of the Protestant churches I attended growing up (Presby, Methodist, Baptist) had a Christmas Eve service every year, but not necessarily one on Christmas Day. The Christmas Eve service was always a play or "Christmas Cantata" (untrained members of a volunteer choir singing over the elderly organist), with maybe 15 minutes of preaching. One year that Christmas fell on a Sunday, the Methodist church that we'd been occasionally attending decided to move regular Sunday services an hour later to "give people time to celebrate Christmas". We attended church maybe 5 times a year, and I can't ever remember going on Christmas Day. We almost always went to the evening cantata/whatever though.

Regarding time spent at church: My folks got involved in a local Baptist church unexpectedly a few years ago, and they've really become invested in the past year or so. My father is a "Deacon", my mother has taken over the floral committee in what can only be called a coup, and my nephew (only grand kid for them) has become the family Shame Awareness Specialist. He accosts various members of the extended family and demands to know why THEY don't go to "his" church. 

All of this is to say, my parents now attend church for three hours Sunday morning (an hour of deacon/committee meetings, Sunday school, then church for another hour or so), at least an hour Sunday evening, and then Wednesday nights for prayer meetings, etc. It keeps them busy, and is essentially a social thing for them, but I struggle to reconcile their sudden devotion with the way they treated religion when I was growing up.

[Hane]

3 minutes ago, SolomonFundy said:

I struggle to reconcile their sudden devotion with the way they treated religion when I was growing up.

This reminds me of my mother. When I was a kid, she rarely attended Mass (I never could figure out why), though she sent us kids with Dad or a neighbor. That all changed when my baby sister became the organist and choir director, and Mom had something to brag about.