• Contact us
  • About us
  • Digital edition
  • Online archive
Friday, July 11, 2025
Cumberland and Westmorland Herald
  • News
    Councils ask for planned mayoral election to be postponed

    Councils ask for planned mayoral election to be postponed

    Leo Group owner completes epic cycling challenge for MND research

    Leo Group owner completes epic cycling challenge for MND research

    Support for Penrith Mountain Rescue Team after charity box stolen

    Support for Penrith Mountain Rescue Team after charity box stolen

    Inspiring Penrith teacher Dawn Coates retires after 26 years

    Inspiring Penrith teacher Dawn Coates retires after 26 years

    Use it or lose it: Urgent appeal for people to get on the bus

    Use it or lose it: Urgent appeal for people to get on the bus

    Penrith’s Enterprise Hub plans start to take shape

    Penrith’s Enterprise Hub plans start to take shape

    Nurturing Eden school praised by Ofsted

    Nurturing Eden school praised by Ofsted

    Inflation and the impact on savings

    Inflation and the impact on savings

    Celebrating Alston’s heritage heroes

    Celebrating Alston’s heritage heroes

  • Sport
    Success for fighting squad

    Success for fighting squad

    Penrith skipper Nicky Burns calls on team to keep winning

    Penrith skipper Nicky Burns calls on team to keep winning

    £100,000 target for new changing rooms extension

    £100,000 target for new changing rooms extension

    Medal success for Upper Eden tug-of-war team

    Medal success for Upper Eden tug-of-war team

    Eden man competes in Hyrox World Games

    Eden man competes in Hyrox World Games

    Double national triumph for Stuart Robinson

    Double national triumph for Stuart Robinson

    Patterdale’s Eden Eagles make history

    Patterdale’s Eden Eagles make history

    Penrith teen crowned British vault champion

    Penrith teen crowned British vault champion

    Penrith gymnasts represent North of England in finals

    Penrith gymnasts represent North of England in finals

  • Obituaries
  • Nostalgia
  • Online archive
  • Buy Photos
  • Buy your paper
  • North Lakes Living
No Result
View All Result
Cumberland and Westmorland Herald
  • News
    Councils ask for planned mayoral election to be postponed

    Councils ask for planned mayoral election to be postponed

    Leo Group owner completes epic cycling challenge for MND research

    Leo Group owner completes epic cycling challenge for MND research

    Support for Penrith Mountain Rescue Team after charity box stolen

    Support for Penrith Mountain Rescue Team after charity box stolen

    Inspiring Penrith teacher Dawn Coates retires after 26 years

    Inspiring Penrith teacher Dawn Coates retires after 26 years

    Use it or lose it: Urgent appeal for people to get on the bus

    Use it or lose it: Urgent appeal for people to get on the bus

    Penrith’s Enterprise Hub plans start to take shape

    Penrith’s Enterprise Hub plans start to take shape

    Nurturing Eden school praised by Ofsted

    Nurturing Eden school praised by Ofsted

    Inflation and the impact on savings

    Inflation and the impact on savings

    Celebrating Alston’s heritage heroes

    Celebrating Alston’s heritage heroes

  • Sport
    Success for fighting squad

    Success for fighting squad

    Penrith skipper Nicky Burns calls on team to keep winning

    Penrith skipper Nicky Burns calls on team to keep winning

    £100,000 target for new changing rooms extension

    £100,000 target for new changing rooms extension

    Medal success for Upper Eden tug-of-war team

    Medal success for Upper Eden tug-of-war team

    Eden man competes in Hyrox World Games

    Eden man competes in Hyrox World Games

    Double national triumph for Stuart Robinson

    Double national triumph for Stuart Robinson

    Patterdale’s Eden Eagles make history

    Patterdale’s Eden Eagles make history

    Penrith teen crowned British vault champion

    Penrith teen crowned British vault champion

    Penrith gymnasts represent North of England in finals

    Penrith gymnasts represent North of England in finals

  • Obituaries
  • Nostalgia
  • Online archive
  • Buy Photos
  • Buy your paper
  • North Lakes Living
No Result
View All Result
Cumberland and Westmorland Herald
No Result
View All Result
Home Ross Brewster

Comment: Modern society is missing the communal benefits of religion

by CWH
7 January 2024
in Latest, News, Ross Brewster
A A
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Nobbut Laiking, by Ross Brewster

Religion. Ah, now there’s a thing. The school I attended provided subsidised boarding places for sons and daughters of people in the church. A rather quiet, studious boy in my year was excused from games and later became a bishop.

As a youngster I thought about religion. You could not avoid it with all those hymns and prayers at assembly and the special services once a month when parents of boarders came along. A clergyman’s parents once gave a sermon about sex and there was a definite hush in the close, broken only by the giggles of small boys.

I never really got religion. My principal worry as a confused 10-year-old was, when we die and go to heaven, do we have to take a change of underwear with us, or are all clothes provided?

Strange though, some of my most memorable Christmas thoughts are religion linked. The carol services at school where my children were pupils for instance. They were always great fun. You could guarantee something would go wrong. It was very Frank Spencer.

Perhaps the most memorable Christmas Eve was when I went to a midnight service at a little church set in the fells above St John’s-in-the-Vale. Most of the people there were from the farming community and a chap read a prayer in Cumbrian dialect which was atmospheric.

As memories of Christmases past come back it strikes me that we have lost our sense of community as we have lost our Christianity. But perhaps we don’t need to believe to maintain our religious identity. People trot off to the churches that do lunches once a week. It’s a godsend for elderly people on their own. No-one questions their beliefs.

As a young reporter I had to attend lots of church and chapel events in a largely rural area. They brought people together. Things like the rushbearing and the band of hope, I’m certain a lot of people having been to the latter to uphold abstinence were later to be found in the pub. Churches and pubs have gradually disappeared in recent times.

I don’t think people swallowed the whole religion thing, but mums liked to get together with other parents and the churches were the place where they met for events. For the elders of village society being on the bench and on the PCC was a badge of seniority.

But I do wonder in my philosophical moments, is the decline in our traditions and religion what lies behind our divided society. What is there to bind us together? Most folk would say we are a secular society and glad to be free of the ties of religion. And yet…

I don’t mind the WI singing Jerusalem or organisations having a quick pray as Father Ted might say. I am sorry that so many local events have gone by the wayside and we have lost our togetherness as a nation.

But can I have it both ways? A watered down version of religion that at least sustains our communities. I wonder what my grandfather Reverend William Brewster would have said. A speaker of such effect they named a whole housing estate after him. I don’t think, with his reputation as a hell-fire preacher, he would have brooked my wishy-washy concept of religion.

If, in the unlikely event I arrive in heaven one day, clean underwear or not, I have this dreadful fear that William will be up there waiting for me, his Bible open at various salient passages.

Could the Christmas TV adverts tone down the greed this year?

I hope you had a merry little Christmas, but not just like the song says.

Well actually it does say that, but it’s ironic. It’s not really about a merry Christmas at all, although when Ol’ Blue Eyes Frank Sinatra recorded it he demanded that the lyrics be rewritten and lightened up. It’s one of those songs that are played interminably in the weeks leading up to Christmas.

It was written by Hugh Martin for Judy Garland in the 1944 movie classic Meet Me In St Louis. Even Judy Garland found it depressing with passages like “have yourself a merry little Christmas, it may be your last.”

But it does make one think about a season that is not so festive for those who are lonely, can’t afford food and are separated from friends and family. In 2023 it’s criminal that we have people relying on food banks to feed their children and sleeping in the streets.

It also got me thinking about the television adverts this Christmas which seemed somewhat misplaced with their tables groaning with turkeys and ham and every conceivable trimming, especially when times are hard for a lot of folk. Apparently a “high end” lunch cost an average of £41.76 this year.

I don’t want to be an old grouch. I understand there’s competition among the big stores to have the most spectacular TV advert, but couldn’t they tone down the suggestion of greed?

Well that’s got my major moan out of the way. All that remains is to wish you a happy and peaceful new year.

Tags: premium

Related Posts

Councils ask for planned mayoral election to be postponed
News

Councils ask for planned mayoral election to be postponed

11 July 2025
Leo Group owner completes epic cycling challenge for MND research
News

Leo Group owner completes epic cycling challenge for MND research

11 July 2025
Support for Penrith Mountain Rescue Team after charity box stolen
News

Support for Penrith Mountain Rescue Team after charity box stolen

11 July 2025
Inspiring Penrith teacher Dawn Coates retires after 26 years
News

Inspiring Penrith teacher Dawn Coates retires after 26 years

11 July 2025
Use it or lose it: Urgent appeal for people to get on the bus
News

Use it or lose it: Urgent appeal for people to get on the bus

11 July 2025
Penrith’s Enterprise Hub plans start to take shape
Latest

Penrith’s Enterprise Hub plans start to take shape

11 July 2025
No Result
View All Result

Stay connected

Facebook Twitter Instagram

Most popular

Changes to lease accounting – how will this impact your financial statements?

Changes to lease accounting – how will this impact your financial statements?

6 July 2025
Leo Group owner completes epic cycling challenge for MND research

Leo Group owner completes epic cycling challenge for MND research

11 July 2025
Penrith’s Enterprise Hub plans start to take shape

Penrith’s Enterprise Hub plans start to take shape

11 July 2025
Councils ask for planned mayoral election to be postponed

Councils ask for planned mayoral election to be postponed

11 July 2025
Inflation and the impact on savings

Inflation and the impact on savings

11 July 2025
Looking back to 1986

Looking back to 1986

11 July 2025
Cumberland and Westmorland Herald Logo

33 Middlegate
Penrith
Cumbria
CA11 7SY

Phone: 01768 862313
Email: news@cwherald.com

Registered in England as Barrnon Media Limited. No: 12475190
VAT registration number: 343486488

Explore

  • News
  • Sport
  • Farming
  • Property
  • Obituaries
  • Nostalgia
  • Your view

Useful links

  • Contact us
  • Photosales
  • Online archive
  • Buy your paper
  • Digital edition
  • North Lakes Living
  • Advertise
  • About us

Follow us on

© Barrnon Media Limited 2025

Terms & Conditions / Privacy Policy / Cookie Policy

This website and its associated newspaper are members of the Independent Press Standards Organisation
Review Your Cart
0
Discount
Add Coupon Code
Subtotal
Total Installment Payments
Bundle Discount
Checkout

 
0
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • Sport
  • Obituaries
  • Nostalgia
  • Online archive
  • more
    • North Lakes Living
    • Buy Photos
    • Buy your paper
    • About us
    • Contact us

© 2020 Cumberland & Westmorland Herald