Watch this space for upcoming events from Versailles and Cloverport
HELLO YOUNG WRITERS! ENTER ESSAY CONTEST
& WIN $175, $100, or $75
DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION: MAY 26, 2022
WHO: All writers aged 8 to 12 in the Episcopal Diocese of Lexington.
WHAT: Write a 400-600 word essay about how to behave (known as etiquette) at church.
WHY: To help celebrate the 175th birthday of St. John’s Episcopal Church, Versailles.
HOW:
1. Read (for inspiration) the essay below by a young writer who attended St. John’s in Versailles in the early 1900s. Her essays, written at age 10, were published in a book —O Ye Jigs & Juleps!— which became a best seller!
2. Write your own essay so to be read easily by the judges: typed, double-spaced, 14 point font. Include your name, birthdate, telephone number, and name of parish.
3. Email your essay by May 26, 2022 to stjohnskynews@gmail.com
BONUS: Watch a video about the essay contest and a reading of the essay by youth at St. John’s, Versailles at https://youtu.be/wLPV6KqNjkM
Etiquette at Church (excerpted from the essay in O Ye Jigs & Juleps! and used by permission of granddaughter of author Virginia Cary Hudson):
Before I go into the house of the Lord with praise and thanksgiving, I lift up mine eyes unto the town clock from whence cometh the time to see if I am late. It is not etiquette to be late.
Do not hop, skip, jump or slide in the church vestibule. Tip. Tip all the way to your seat. Be sure and do not sit in other people’s pews. Jesus wouldn’t care, but other people would. Paying money makes it yours to sit in. The first thing you do is kneel down and thank the Lord for your mother and father and your breakfast and your lunch and your dinner and your lovely wallpaper and your new pink garter belt. Then you can sit and look around just a little bit. Don’t turn around and look. That is not etiquette.
Kneel when you pray, stand when you sing, and sit when you listen. On communion Sunday take off your right glove and leave it in your pew. Don’t wait until you get to the rail and the Body and the Blood comes around. Don’t try to drink up all of the wine. That is not etiquette. Leave some for other people.
Never punch people in church, or giggle or cross your legs. Crossing your legs is as bad as scratching or walking in front of people or chewing gum or saying damn. Don’t lose your place in the prayer book. Bow for the cross and for the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. When the choir marches back to the Vestry room and the minister calls out goodbye to the Lord until next Sunday, then you can speak to people.
The Baptist church is next door to our church. They sing as loud as they can all the time we are trying to pray. I bet the Lord can’t hear one word we say. The Baptists sing about plunging sinners in a bloody fountain drawn from Emmanuel’s veins. We sing about Crown Him Lord of All. I think it is much more ladylike to crown the King than to be plunging around in a bloody fountain. I took the cotton off my sore finger once and stuffed it in my ear on the Baptist side. But just once. My mother attended to that.
Etiquette is what you are doing and saying when people are looking and listening. What you are thinking is your business. Thinking is not etiquette. Hallelujah, thine the glory. Revive us again.
P.S. If you want to stay awake in church, go to bed early Saturday night. You can’t go to the Altar rail until you are 12. That is God’s etiquette. You can’t put on perfume until you are 16. That is Leesville etiquette. After you are confirmed your sponsors in Baptism can’t be blamed for what you do. You are on your own then and if the devil gets you, it is your own fault and serves you just right.
Amen and the Lord have mercy.