Do You Need a Distraction?

I’ve been watching two TV series on DVD that are both a nice distraction, but also have some relevance to church, one silly and one more serious.

First, the BBC series Clatterford is about life in a small English village, with a focus on the women’s organization or “Guild.” The characters include a frustrated and harassed vicar, some highly eccentric women, and several generations of the local doctor’s family. The first episode is funny, and it gets even better from there. Get it from Netflix, or try your local library.

Second is the science fiction series Battlestar Galactica, a much more sophisticated remake of a 70s TV show. It’s about leadership in crisis, as well as the tensions between political and military leadership, with some family dynamics thrown in. I watched the miniseries which is the pilot instead of one of the presidential debates (true confessions). Watching some of these issues raised in a setting that is at a distance in time and space from our own helped me gain perspective. The first three seasons are available on DVD.

3 replies on “Do You Need a Distraction?“

Margaret Marcuson

at 7:36 pm

Rebecca, thanks. Perhaps it’s helpful to lighten up about some of these influential groups that can be challenge for pastoral leaders to deal with, if we view them as oppositional.

Rebecca Maccini

at 5:43 pm

Yes, Battlestar has some interesting relationships and dynamics. I was intrigued during the episode when the president’s cancer returned and she was at a press conference and someone asked her something like, “How long do you have to live?” and the president responded, “I don’t know, Jane (name of the journalist), how long do you have to live?” That was classic. The ‘god’ stuff is pretty quizzical. I try to piece it all together and still can’t at this point. I am going to look up Clatterford. Having presented at a “Guild” meeting while in the Church of Scotland, that organization always fascinated me. Also, I am interested because many churches I have been a part of have had ‘guilds’ or women fellowships, or women’s Bible studies, or some group that holds its own personal power and also works to influence church life, the minister, or other aspects of the organization or community.