[Extracted from a newsgroup: worth considering].

>This I understand very well as a result of my study of theology and my 30

>years of sitting in your pews. It does not address the problem. If you

>don’t understand the problem you cannot address it. Church excludes rather

>than includes. It is based on hierarchical power that restricts freedom ..

>particularly the freedom of artists and thinking people who are discouraged

>from asking questions. Church is intensely boring with silly little songs

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ >that have no meaning for 21st century people. Church demands loyalty but

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ >gives nothing in return. Church is more like a club than anything remotely

>concerned with relationship to God. It is one club out of thousands that

>could be joined. It offers no benefit that cannot be found in another

club. >Relationship with God is not dependant on attending the church club.

My problem with many of the songs we sing is that I think about the words on the OHP screen. A couple of Sundays ago we started singing “Blessing and honour, glory and power, be unto the Ancient of Days” and I thought “What would any of my non-Christian friends make of this?”

Just think about it for a moment – “blessing”, “glory”, “unto”, are not words in common use today, and as far as “power” is concerned, most poeple think the church has afr too much power already. And just what is the “Ancient of Days” ?

And when it continues “… all of creation, bow before the Ancient of Days” it becomes completely incomprehensible.