Growing up in the Church of England

[louiselux]

The cementing will probably be quite fun, if it doesn't rain. M's mum and husband have built their own eco-house in a field in the middle of nowhere, which I haven't seen since it's been finished. They are very sweet people too. The leg can stay on.

There have been a lot of posts about religion on my flist recently, and it got me thinking. From the age of 4 till I was 11 I attended a Church of England school. We said prayers three times a day, sang hymns every morning, had talks from the vicar on Friday afternoons, went in crocodiles to the church for special occasions, and celebrated all the festivals. So in one way our school days revolved around Christian traditions and beliefs, but in another way they totally didn't. I can't remember ever believing in God. There was no meaning for me in the prayers, they were a string of odd sounding words that we had to chant. The hymns meant more to me, but that was because I liked singing.

But mostly, there was no sense of a deeper meaning in any of it, and it makes me wonder what it was all about. Obviously, for the C of E, and for most churches there's a get 'em young policy. But they didn't get us young, they made religion into something you fidgeted through until you could get out and run around in the playground. And it makes me wonder- what was the point? I suppose there's an argument that goes; Louise, you spent 7 of your most formative years being told that God exists and the bible is all true, therefore, secretly, deep down, you probably do believe in God. Well, I don't know about that.

Comments

[daegaer.livejournal.com]

That's very interesting. I can't honestly remember saying prayers when I was in primary school - National Schools can't promulgate a particular denomination. So, even though my school was actually packed with people from my church, and had people from my church on its board it had to provide a secular education. I do remember singing hymns, but usually they were Christmas carols, or in other languages and learned off phonetically (Er. Can't really explain that one).

We did have RE, but it was of the vaguely lefty 'Jesus loves everyone' sort, and there were Catholics and various stripes of Protestants in the same class. Also, we didn't go to church at all until I was 5 or 6 or thereabouts. I have no idea why, and must ask my mum. She was deeply attached to the church and was and is a believer in God, and every week she'd wrap myself and my brother up and pack us off with my Dad and the dog to go to the seaside or the park. I was slightly alarmed when we did start going to church as it cut down on seaside time, plus I had very odd ideas about Sunday School. I soon worked out it was all about reading, so that was a laugh.

Secondary school was secular again, even the chaplain. RE teachers didn't last long when faced with my class (I'm ashamed now, but my class made a point of trying to actually drive teachers to break down in public. We had some spectacular successes - the Irish teacher who flung a textbook to the ground and jumped up and down on it, screaming obscenities, was probably the most effective).

And yet despite, or because, of the seaside Sundays, the secular schools and the fact that I was one of a class of right little shits I somehow did end up with religious belief. Huh. Ineffable, I suppose.

[lexin.livejournal.com]

I went to a CofE school as well, and I had much the same experience. And, you know, I could never quite understand why the vicar came to tell us about god, dressed up in his skirt and stuff, and the teacher could tell us about Tin Tin in her ordinary skirt and blouse. The confusion came in because, to me, they were obviously on the same level as far as my believing in them were concerned. I knew perfectly well that someone had made them both up.

[foreverdirt.livejournal.com]

I suppose there's an argument that goes; Louise, you spent 7 of your most formative years being told that God exists and the bible is all true, therefore, secretly, deep down, you probably do believe in God. Well, I don't know about that.

Or, (apologies as Google won't tell me who I'm paraphrasing) small doses of religion throughout your childhood stopped you catching the real thing.

My favourite religion-related memory of my CoE primary school was playing a Rabbi in the Easter story.

I told my (Jewish) grandmother how I was playing a Bad Person and so I had to be very serious, and she got upset and told me that while it was wrong to kill people, my character believed Jesus was attacking God and God's word. The next rehearsal for the play, the teacher started discussing the characters' motivations. She asked about the rabbis, and I, of course, put my hand up and repeated pretty much word for word what my grandmother had told me. The teacher wasn't best pleased, and told me that no, the rabbis were angry because Jesus wanted to stop them trading in temple.

Heh. That was more tangential than I meant it to be. Sorry.

[gehayi.livejournal.com]

You're quoting Sam Levinson.

The quote is "Getting inoculated with small doses of religion prevents people from catching the real thing."

[foreverdirt.livejournal.com]

Noted. Thank you!