At our church on Mother's Day, the church gives the mom's little gifts to mark the occasion. But this church appears to be taking things to the next level:
Church Blesses Fathers With Beer
Apparently Concerned with the lack of men attending services, the Church of England is now offering new incentives: free beer, bacon rolls and chocolate bars!
Men at St Stephen’s church in Barbourne, Worcester, will be handed bottles of beer by children during the service. A prayer will be said for the fathers before the gifts are distributed.
The Ven Roger Morris, archdeacon of Worcester, who will be leading the service at St Stephen’s today, said that it was a practical way of sending a message to fathers.
“I don’t see any other time that we can stop and remember fathers, and this is a gesture saying ‘Here’s something that will bless you,’” he said.
“Posies of flowers are given to mums on Mothering Sunday and we wanted to give a laddish, blokeish gift to the men. A bottle of beer hits the mark. The whole of life is to be celebrated in church.”
5 comments:
That's great! Our church in Brandon used to give out Dad's root beer on Father's Day. In England a beer is as everyday a drink as pop, though I am sure many North America Christians would gasp in horror.
At our church on Father's day the guys got a coke and a kitkat.
Not sure I would be impressed with beer - I don't think it's wrong to drink beer, but I think the church should be sensitive - some of those dad's could be recovering alcoholics....there's lots of reasons why I wouldn't choose beer.
I bet if our church offered beer, more people would show up just because they were intrigued. I'm sure a few would ask 'what kind' and decide whether or not it would be worth going. :)
Ha! I would sure feel blessed, but i can see Lee's point about recovering alcoholics and the like. I think in that culture it is possible; here, maybe not so much.
Eric
I'd appreciate a bottle of barbeque sauce or a bag of golf tees more, being a non-drinker. But no matter what you pick you'll never please everyone. I'm on the fence on the beer subject, I can think of pros and cons for both sides.
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