| Waste
Not Want Not verses New Hymn Books Over
the years that I have been attending at St Philip’s
we have used either Mission Praise or the New English
Hymnal. And I have to confess to being surprised to learn
that new copies of “Common Praise” had been
delivered and the congregation “invited” to
contribute to the cost. I
would very much like to know what hymns there are in this
new book which are not already in the copies of the books
we already have? (mentioned above). More to the
point are we likely to need them? There
are, I feel, a couple of issues here – firstly if we
are going to be asked to pay for these books should we
not have been asked before they were ordered if we were
willing to do so? But much more to the point –
Do we really need them? I
feel that we ought to be setting an example and not
depleting this planet of its resources – whether
“global warming” is a fact or not it is our
responsibility not to waste any of the world’s
resources. In
the normal course of events I would have responded to a
request for contributions for specific items but not, as
in the instance, when I really cannot see a need for
incurring such a cost. If
my memory serves me correctly we are already in a
situation where we have difficulty in meeting our
obligations in some quarters (e.g. monies to the Diocese
– I cannot remember the details but I am sure there
was something about this in a recent magazine) and as
ever “The Church” is always crying out for
money. There
is so much paper wasted already we really should not be
contributing further to such a wicked waste. St
Stephens may well be in need of new hymn books - I am not
in a position to comment on that but, in my humble
opinion, we certainly did not need them at St Philip's. Margaret
Standen |