by Paul Kerensa
DLT, 2013
I was given this as a Secret Santa gift. Paul Kerensa recounts his experiences ‘on the road’ doing comedy gigs on a Saturday night and then visiting the local church on Sunday morning. He attends services of all different denominations and styles, including a Quaker meeting.
If this light, easy read was read by someone who never attends church who was worried about attending in case they did something ‘wrong’, they will discover from the variety described, that there is no ‘right’ way to do church.
He attends a Catholic Church service and is surprised that unlike the other churches he has been to there are no service sheets or words on screens, the congregation know the words by heart. His view of the church is, p.56:
“Catholicism is of course more genetic than some strands of Christianity, but this only means that the Catholic Church will be alive and kicking long after other maverick churches have become trendy bars.”
He attends a Pentecostal service in Guernsey. At the end of the service, p.125:
“Conversations recommence, including three kind invitations for me to come to lunch. In all my years of church-hopping, I’ve never had so many offers in one go. […] I’m a big fan of lunch, and I’m an even bigger fan of three lunches.”
In the concluding chapter he writes, p.171:
“Numbers are down, innovation is difficult to find, and invariably there’s some over-casual middle-class man trying to keep the attention of a half-full room of starers. Comedy circuit or church? The accusation’s been put to both. Yet in my travels I’ve found that while both can contain this stereotype, if you seek it out, you’ll find growing numbers, creativity, and involving, dynamic people fronting these rooms of joy.”
Adrian Vincent. January 2019.