Tradition and religiosity

This morning our morning service was somewhat different in that one of our curates was officially ordained (not entirely sure of the correct name for the affair) this means he can dish out communion and do other stuff that he couldn’t before (well he could but couldn’t according to Anglican rules).

I struggled a lot , not with his ordination - that was great and for anyone to answer a call and serve God in a full time capacity is wonderful but I struggled with the ‘religiosity and tradition’ surrounding the form of events.

I overheard someone else say ‘I don’t know why they can’t just wave a wand and say “there you go you’re done”‘, that whilst tongue in cheek is a very good question. Why did we need the bishop, why did we need the men in the frocks (none of whom introduced themselves so i was clueless who they were but I sussed out the bishop due to the hat and crook), the bling bling, the long sticks as people are escorted up and down the aisle and various other things.

I know we’ve chosen to be part of an Anglican community and I guess it can be argued that it goes with the territory however I don’t really see it as joining an Anglican church and ‘when in rome’ etc