Welcome to the Church Sofa A – Z Guide to Church. Being the old traditionalists that we all are, we’re going to being with
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Aardvark: I believe the famous struggler, Edmund Blackadder got as far as aardvark when he attempted to write the directory. Hopefully this blog series will get past aardvark.
Abba: Old Aramaic word that’s still mentioned today in churches. Simply means “Dad”.
Advanced Pre-Judgement: The art of planning well ahead of time to judge people in church when they may do or not do a particular action.
Advent: For 11 months of the year, we all tell our children (big and little) not to play with fire. During the month of December Churches around the country invite both big and little children up to the front (as long as they behave) to light an advent candle. Its not unusual for this candle (or collection of candles) to be surrounded by a lovely flower display, which takes roughly 2 seconds to catch fire under the most controlled conditions. If the church survives the Advent candle being lit during church services, then there is always the “Carols by Candlelight” service, which depending on your background, could mean anything from a random candle being lit somewhere nearby, to fire being passed from person to person.
Therefore Advent is about waiting for the Fire to happen. After all, it cant be about waiting and preparing for Christmas. We have supermarkets to help us with that.
As well as being the title of an old Disney film, this is also the shorthand description of many a child’s disappointment on Christmas morning. Out of the box comes the exciting toy with flashing lights and a range of sound effects – but it is silent on account of having no batteries.
