Earlier today, our good friend "irishtenor" informed me that not one, but two parishes nearby MIMED the Passion on Good Friday. One of them did not actually read any words of the Passion at all (and the video is apparently on youtube). This of course is terrible.
But the funny part was that while relating the story, he said, "I mean, if you're going to mime..." Not words I ever thought I'd hear come out of the mouth of a member of this forum :)
The good news is that the past two years they have been cancelled due to lack of participants, so it's another example of the kids tacitly and correctly rebuffing the adults.
A former pastor of my Parish liked to do the whole "family Mass" thing on Christmas eve afternoon as early as possible (because apparently families weren't welcome at the other Masses?). This of course included "acting out" or miming the nativity story while the Gospel was read from the unapproved children's lectionary--complete with birthday cake for baby Jesus (apparently taken from one of the Gnostic Gospels), a visit from Santa and live animals (to complete the ambiance).
Well, one year the donkey (played by a pony) left a present for baby Jesus right on the carpet, which made the communion procession a little challenging. Another year, all the children carried a piece of straw to the manger which also made a mess on the aforementioned carpet. The teacher in charge then spent 45 minutes after Mass running the sweeper, which was not even in the same key as my prelude music for the next Mass.
Thank God, those days are gone and things have improved immensely. Still, I'm thinking there must be some sort of residue. (pun intended) :)
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