Blessed are the children - as long as they keep it down
Poor Father Ignatius Harrison, Provost of the London Oratory. Spare a thought for him tomorrow. The members of his congregation have been having a hard time sparing him any of their own thoughts because of the disruptive racket made by children during the service. The other Sunday morning he snapped. He forced his voice above the din to announce that there was "no point" in preaching against all the noise, and so he didn't.
One sympathises. When toddlers are turning church into playtime, the problem isn't finding the concentration to have holy thoughts, it's finding the good grace to avoid unholy ones. The repeated whacking of a toy car on the pew behind can be enough to turn even the most irenic of souls into a King Herod contemplating the massacre of the innocent.
For all this, a survey just released by the Church of England has found that 85 per cent of people agree that young children...
Dr. Joel Beeke | 1/4/2009
