Teddy Bear Service

[OldGit]

Our village church is holding a teddy bear blessing on Sunday morning.  They are dedicating and blessing a new bear to be given to a children's hospice.  Also, villagers both old and young are encouraged to bring along their own teddies to be blessed.

Comments?

[DeterminedJuliet]

It reminds me of the "blessing of the animals" that goes on in some places during the Feast of St.Francis.

I get why they'd do it, it's kind of a cute idea (and the church is always struggling to find ways of getting the youth involved). I can't say that it seems to be very relevant to church doctrine, though. And, of course, it's not something I would ever bring my kiddo to. I'd rather bring him to a regular ol' teddy bear picnic. 

[Ali]

Seems like much ado about nothing to me (people spending time and energy "blessing" stuffed toys?  What?  What does the blessing do exactly, since presumably they don't believe stuffed teddies have souls...) But all in all it seems like a rather harmless way for the religious to spend their time.  To put it more bluntly, I would prefer that more Christians spent more time blessing teddy bears and less time campaigning against gay marriage.   

[Crow]

Meh no harm done, just a bit of harmless fun I just guess the priest didn't grow out of there teddy bear picnic phase. They should hurry up and give those teddies to the children as some might be dead by the time the ceremony takes place and that teddy might make a massive difference to those children.

[Ali]

Meh no harm done, just a bit of harmless fun I just guess the priest didn't grow out of there teddy bear picnic phase. They should hurry up and give those teddies to the children as some might be dead by the time the ceremony takes place and that teddy might make a massive difference to those children.

For a minute I forgot that one of the teddies was going to a hospice and I was thinking that you were kind of a weirdo for speculating that some of the local kids may be dead by Sunday.

[markmcdaniel]

I suppose that some parents may feel better if their children have "magical" teddy bears. And did I read the post correctly that they are giving this hospice a (as in one) teddy bear. I wonder would a hospice even except something as difficult to sterilize as a plush toy.

[OldGit]

I can't see a lot of harm in it, except that it's helping a little bit to keep the superstitious nonsense alive in the next generation, as DJ said.

It feels all gooey and cuddly and imparts a nice aura to the church.  Yuk!

I wonder would a hospice even except something as difficult to sterilize as a plush toy.

I think that's OK, they've got shedloads of toys already.

[MadBomr101]

Our village church is holding a teddy bear blessing on Sunday morning.  They are dedicating and blessing a new bear to be given to a children's hospice.  Also, villagers both old and young are encouraged to bring along their own teddies to be blessed.

Comments?

What they're not telling us is that the children must accept Jebus as their lord and savior or the bears will be thrown into a fire to illustrate the children's souls burning in hell for their lack of faith. 

It could happen.   

[OldGit]

^ It could, though probably not in the Church of England. 

[Stevil]

If they are getting just one bear I hope it is a really big one.

Kids love cuddling big bears, I think it is nice of them to do this, a bit of community spirit and something nice for the sick kids.
As long as they don't sew a bible or a picture of Jesus on it then it is a great idea.

[fester30]

I think blessing the teddy bears make perfect sense.  Anybody see Child's Play, when the cute Chucky doll was possessed by a serial killer?  It's obvious to me more children's toys should be blessed to prevent such atrocities.

[Amicale]

I was actually invited to a 'stuffed toy' blessing/service when I was a child. Kids were invited to bring their favourite stuffed toys (teddies, cats, dogs, you name it) so because I was only 5 or 6, my mother took me. The general gist of it was harmless, as I recall; it was really more a way to get kids into a group with other children so we could ooh and aah over one another's stuffed toys, and the person doing the service (pastor, I guess) asked a special 'blessing' on the children playing with the toys, and that the toys themselves would continue to bring joy to the kids. I know it's magical thinking, as well as very narcissistic (in a world where people go without food, we ask blessings for toys!)... but most people seem to see activities like this as harmless.

I agree it's harmless. It's not hurting anyone. The problem I have is, it's not helping too many people, either. In OldGit's town's case, it's nice that they're donating a toy to the local hospice, but really, I'd sooner see a 'teddy bear event' where they ask the town's people to bring new or gently used toys in good condition to donate, so that several children get a cuddly, soft toy when they're sick.

We have a tradition here we do every year that I like very much - a hockey game called the 'teddy bear toss'. You go to the game, bring a teddy bear, and at the designated time everyone tosses their teddy bears down onto the ice and they're all collected up to be given away to children in need of a new little 'friend'.

[DeterminedJuliet]

I think I'm feeling extra grumpy this morning, because as I re-read this post, I couldn't help but think of all of the youth church groups that I saw at the pretty extreme anti-abortion protest a few months back. First it's all, "Oh look! There are other kids here! See! The church can be fun!" then it's all "Hey tweens! You should come to this march! It'll be a lot of fun, all of your friends will be there! There'll be a singer singing Taylor Swift songs! _{oh and by the way, it's a pro-life march and we're going to yell at some women and wave signs of bloody fetus' around.} It's going to be a lot of fun! Yaaayyy!"

Probably not a totally fair comparison. But, as I said, I'm grumpy this morning. 

[fester30]

I think I'm feeling extra grumpy this morning, because as I re-read this post, I couldn't help but think of all of the youth church groups that I saw at the pretty extreme anti-abortion protest a few months back. First it's all, "Oh look! There are other kids here! See! The church can be fun!" then it's all "Hey tweens! You should come to this march! It'll be a lot of fun, all of your friends will be there! There'll be a singer singing Taylor Swift songs! _{oh and by the way, it's a pro-life march and we're going to yell at some women and wave signs of bloody fetus' around.} It's going to be a lot of fun! Yaaayyy!"

Probably not a totally fair comparison. But, as I said, I'm grumpy this morning. 

Not too far off from the truth.  Except that the churches I grew up with that were into public demonstrations had even the tweens indoctrinated into the closed-minded one-sided point of view of the protest.  Many of the tweens could even regurgitate biased information in a pinch.  I remember as many of the ones I knew grew into teens, they justified breaking their abstinence vows by saying it was okay since they planned to marry their bf/gf, because sex was simply marriage in god's eyes. 

[Crow]

I think I'm feeling extra grumpy this morning, because as I re-read this post, I couldn't help but think of all of the youth church groups that I saw at the pretty extreme anti-abortion protest a few months back. First it's all, "Oh look! There are other kids here! See! The church can be fun!" then it's all "Hey tweens! You should come to this march! It'll be a lot of fun, all of your friends will be there! There'll be a singer singing Taylor Swift songs! _{oh and by the way, it's a pro-life march and we're going to yell at some women and wave signs of bloody fetus' around.} It's going to be a lot of fun! Yaaayyy!"

Probably not a totally fair comparison. But, as I said, I'm grumpy this morning. 

No way near a fair comparison there is a saying about the Church of England "no god please we are C of E". I can totally understand why it sparked that memory though and they really piss me off.

That reminds me, most of my experiences with Christianity have been via the church of England and I have always thought that was a bit nuts, the other week I went to a secular funeral which was hosted by a Methodist priest/minister/whatever and I have never heard such depressing slavery infatuated bull shit in all my life, not once was the person in question mentioned and the only reason they were asked to speak was because they were such good friends with the deceased, I left the funeral fuming, as it was everything the person who had died didn't want. It made me realise how tame the C of E actually is, it must get really tiresome and infuriating having to deal with the not so tame believers on a daily basis. The majority of church speak is out of sight out of mind on a regular basis over here, unless you actually go looking you never really here much about them, when you do its always the C of E showing how decrepit and utterly useless they are (which is a good thing) or its the rare but extreme cases of people getting killed for being a witch and religious honor based killing.