21st October
I've just got back from my cooking episode - one of my American clients uttered a phrase that has been buzzing around in my head puzzling me.
She was teling me about her church (episcopal) and said
We're having pastor trouble
In what way?
Well the congregation feel he is too European
Is anyone reading this who can translate, What would a priest do that is specifically European and considered bad form - buy unpasteurised cheese?
Homeric Hapaxes.
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Via Laudator Temporis Acti, a quote from Bryan Hainsworth, The Iliad: A
Commentary, Volume III: Books 9-12 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1993; rp...
4 hours ago
Posts
Hmm. Fascinating food for thought. Let's see. Perhaps in greeting he kisses the left cheek then the right cheek, then the left again, of both men and women. (Regular Americans are terribly clumsy at this, esp. the men. as you ay imagine). He may be enthusiastic about the wrong kind of football, the kind played with a round ball. I am guessing his shoes are an odd brand. He may not have the proper attitude toward pancakes and chicken - American church hall staples. God only knows (literally) what sort of beliefs he holds. Do they have Anglicans on the continent, or is he British and still too European? That would be quite a feat.
ReplyDeleteThey accept gays?
ReplyDeleteThis has been the big divisive point in Anglican/Episcopal politics of late.
Oooh. Incense? Purple robes and Prada shoes? Manbags? Cologne?
ReplyDeleteI like the sound of him already.
KSV- Do American vicars do kissing?
ReplyDeleteJacob- OK maybe - that's quite a big thing going on in the UK church world too
Jaywalker - I thought that kind of stuff was the point of becoming a priest or is that just catholics?
lulu - already I feel that several interlopers are reading your blog. And not just me. Oh well; one must share.
ReplyDeleteIn response to your question: europeans are (a) emotional and (b) into bondage.
Hope this helps.
Lulu -
ReplyDelete"No" to your question about American "vicars" kissing. (Vicar is a charming anglicism, BTW, not in use on this side of the pond). If he did kiss people, at least if he did more than a single air kiss at the old ladies, this would mark him out as alarmingly foreign. I'll bet Jaywalker is onto something with the cologne. Cologne is not the done thing for an American clergyman. Do you know if your American clients climbed out on the ledge to close the shutters on the Chateau when they left?
Ernest - you are expectionally well qualified on this one as a psychologist and as someone who grew up outside Europe - good insight. Madonna doesn't agree with you about the emotion bit - but what does she know? Did we teach the Americans about bondage then?
ReplyDeleteKSV - I had to do the climbing out the window thing - and having laughed at the instructions all week the penny only dropped as I was about to leave.