How well I remember that old translation - and how it confused me as a somewhat literal child ("Excuse me, Father, why are you letting people call you "Father", Father?).
I noticed with unholy glee many years later how the Presbyteriate closed ranks and suborned the translators into changing it to "Rabbi" (That'l throw them off the scent - none of us are called Rabbi anyway! )
Did anyone's PP urge everyone to "Call me Dave (or "Fred" or whatever)" yesterday?
Q
(Aw c'mon folks, we can't have all our topics deadly serious, can we?)
quaeritor wrote:Did anyone's PP urge everyone to "Call me Dave (or "Fred" or whatever)" yesterday?
No, because he's not called "Father" anyway, except by visitors who don't know his name. In fact, I'm not sure I know a single priest who is so addressed – although I do tend to use it to older clergymen as, in other walks of life, I would call them "Mr". However, our PP did say how difficult it was for him to hear that passage, how it reminded him of his own shortcomings, how much he questioned his own life and work.
You obviously don't move in the circles that I do, many priests still like people to use 'Father'. I normally use 'Father' when in public or if I don't know them but use Christian names in private - similar convention to calling a teacher Mr/Mrs/Miss) . Though I have been pulled up by a priest (not in my parish) for using his name
I always address Priests with 'Father' when in church and tend to use their names in a more social setting.
My current PP is very traditional (I always call him "Father" - many people call him "Canon") and on Sunday he lent me a book. When I opened it part of an old Air travel boarding pass fell from the front cover where his title was "Mr". Made me smile.
I let them lead ....... I know just how irritated I get when addressed as "mate" by pimply-face shop assistants. But I guess "grandad" would be even worse.
alan29 wrote:I know just how irritated I get when addressed as "mate" by pimply-face shop assistants.
That's what I get in college when I hold a door open for a 16-year-old. "Ta, mate!". Am dying to ask, "Sorry? Do we know each other?" Still, slightly better than the first couple of weeks of term when the new students address me as "Sir". Soon knock that out of them!
