Looking for blog - wandering parishioner
  • tandrews
    Posts: 157
    Hello everyone,

    I'm trying to find an old church blog where the writer would wander from church to church every weekend and write about what he experienced at every church's liturgy. Google searches for "wandering parishioner" and "masked parishioner" and "incognito parishioner" have turned up nothing. I remember looking at this blog years ago with church music friends to see if our churches had been visited yet, and see the guy's review.

    Thanks!
  • WGS
    Posts: 297
    I think you are looking for:
    https://shipoffools.com/mystery-worshipper/
    Thanked by 4tandrews CHGiffen sdtalley3 tomjaw
  • tandrews
    Posts: 157
    YES
  • Jeffrey Quick
    Posts: 2,044
    I wish the old Mystery Worshippers were searchable (or even findable. My old gig got reviewed, and that was probably 15 years ago.

  • Liam
    Posts: 4,940
    Pre mid 2018 Mystery Worshipper reports:

    http://ship-of-fools.com/mystery/
    Thanked by 2tandrews Jeffrey Quick
  • tandrews
    Posts: 157
    Yeah the older one is way easier to use.
  • Jeffrey Quick
    Posts: 2,044
    Ah, there we are...that long ago. They're still hanging on.
    http://ship-of-fools.com/mystery/2002/583Mystery.html
    Thanked by 1CatherineS
  • Carol
    Posts: 847
    I hope we are never visited in my parish. Yelp for church music. What's net?
  • CatherineS
    Posts: 690
    It's rather fascinating that those questions are featured. Are those the things I'd want to know? What are the reasons I go where I go? Access to bathrooms, quietness and cleanliness rank fairly high, when I have a choice. I live in a big tropical city with crumbling infrastructure, so those three can be hard to find.

    I have very mixed feelings about most places I go regularly, which limits my enthusiasm for inviting others. This seems a problem worth solving, since ideally I would happily invite friends to Church. Or maybe people don't do that? I used to get invited, especially by Protestants. I sometimes invite non-practicing people to a liturgy where the music will be especially interesting to them or where the church building/location are unusually beautiful, since that seems an easy way to engage with sitting in a pew for an hour or more, for someone who doesn't otherwise have much interest.

    But I would like to develop more enthusiasm for just inviting people anyway, anywhere I might go. I find the "evaluations" thing a bit cringe-worthy. That I myself do it, as if on autopilot, seems cringe-worthy, too. So that will be a goal for this year - no cringing; invite more people.

    What questions would Jesus ask, if He were asking in that "I already know but I'd like to hear your answer" way that He sometimes used with the disciples?
    Thanked by 2CHGiffen Elmar
  • Felicia
    Posts: 110
    When visiting other places I've learned (and am still learning) to say to myself, "I'm not in charge of the music here, so it's not my business to be the music police." Of course, this is not a problem when attending early morning or daily Masses without music.
    Thanked by 3a_f_hawkins Carol Elmar
  • Carol
    Posts: 847
    My mother died a few days ago and she was a Catholic convert. When she was at a theological college studying to be a missionary in the 1940's, she went to Christmas Midnight Mass in Boston at the prompting of another girl who was not Catholic. It was the first time she had been in a Catholic church. She was a very musical person. Soon after that she began her thesis on the errors of Catholicism and eventually she converted!

    Inviting people to church is risky, but it is our commission to "make disciples of every nation."
    Thanked by 7sdtalley3 tomjaw Chris Garton-Zavesky Elmar CHGiffen irishtenor CatherineS
  • Richard MixRichard Mix
    Posts: 2,767
    If you subscribe, or haven't used up your free quota, check out the NYT article With Paris theaters closed, church is the only show in town.
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