The Anglican bishops meeting for the Lambeth Conference are following a consultative process called Indaba. This is reminiscent of Benedictine and other styles of meeting.
July 25 1968 Pope Paul VI published his Encyclical letter Humanae Vitae. His commissions, set up in response to the development of oral contraceptives in…
Lambeth Bible Study with Joanna Clegg A famous poet representing the other party (Alexander Pope), once said ‘know thyself, presume not God to scan; the…
I’ve not seen presents left at the foot of the bed. Is that a NZ tradition padre? In North Am countries the presents are usually under the Christmas Tree.
Interesting question, Br David. I think here it’s also under the tree. Some small presents might be in a stocking. When I asked around there wasn’t great surprise at having some presents by the bed in the stocking tradition – but still the important ones under the tree. Blessings.
I think presents attached to the foot of the bed, though never really done in my lifetime in the UK, is part of the mythology- that’s how it’s been done in ‘traditional’ movies and images etc.
Actually in the 60s and 70s we never had ‘stockings’, we each had a chair where our presents were laid out whilst we were asleep Christmas Eve and we came down Christmas Day to our spot to see what was there, which was generally one larger gift ( ones I remember were a doll which drank water and peed…a fancy plastic doll crib which my sister fell off the bed onto and broke- sorry I thumped you sis! And the ‘English Book of Verse’ which I still read to this day ) plus a chocolate ‘smoking set’ ( hardly p/c today- chocolate cigarettes and pipe etc. ) a colouring book with crayons, a jigsaw, a tube of ‘jelly tots’ candy and a ‘selection box’ of Cadbury’s chocolate- one year this was a gift of mini chocolate bars in a little machine where you put in a penny, turned the handle and a tiny bar of chocolate came out!
Another year I got a plaster cast set to make then paint Disney figures, my pouring the remainder of the plaster down the drain which then set flooded the bathroom, so I took a hammer and chisel to the sink which cracked in half then I called my mother’s work screaming ‘this is an emergency-send my mother home’…I’m laughing now but I don’t think I was when my parents rushed home!
I talked to my dad this morning- I must ask him next time if he remembers this and all the other crazy things we did…
I’ve not seen presents left at the foot of the bed. Is that a NZ tradition padre? In North Am countries the presents are usually under the Christmas Tree.
Interesting question, Br David. I think here it’s also under the tree. Some small presents might be in a stocking. When I asked around there wasn’t great surprise at having some presents by the bed in the stocking tradition – but still the important ones under the tree. Blessings.
I think presents attached to the foot of the bed, though never really done in my lifetime in the UK, is part of the mythology- that’s how it’s been done in ‘traditional’ movies and images etc.
Actually in the 60s and 70s we never had ‘stockings’, we each had a chair where our presents were laid out whilst we were asleep Christmas Eve and we came down Christmas Day to our spot to see what was there, which was generally one larger gift ( ones I remember were a doll which drank water and peed…a fancy plastic doll crib which my sister fell off the bed onto and broke- sorry I thumped you sis! And the ‘English Book of Verse’ which I still read to this day ) plus a chocolate ‘smoking set’ ( hardly p/c today- chocolate cigarettes and pipe etc. ) a colouring book with crayons, a jigsaw, a tube of ‘jelly tots’ candy and a ‘selection box’ of Cadbury’s chocolate- one year this was a gift of mini chocolate bars in a little machine where you put in a penny, turned the handle and a tiny bar of chocolate came out!
Another year I got a plaster cast set to make then paint Disney figures, my pouring the remainder of the plaster down the drain which then set flooded the bathroom, so I took a hammer and chisel to the sink which cracked in half then I called my mother’s work screaming ‘this is an emergency-send my mother home’…I’m laughing now but I don’t think I was when my parents rushed home!
I talked to my dad this morning- I must ask him next time if he remembers this and all the other crazy things we did…
The stocking/Saint Nicholas legend comes from 4th century Greece- now part of Turkey http://ingoodfaith.wordpress.com/2010/12/06/nikolaos-the-wonderworker/
Saint Nicholas in legend also resurrected the bodies of three slain children…as all the gun-murdered children recently in the US reminded me.
Would we could.