A reflection for the Sunday before Pentecost by the Rev'd David Warnes
There’s a church in the town of Madison, Wisconsin where new members are welcomed by the singing of a somewhat modified version of a song from Lionel Bart’s musical Oliver! It starts “Consider yourself confirmed…”
This seems, on the face of it, an odd choice, since, as those of you who have seen the show or the film will know, the song is sung by the Artful Dodger and his gang to welcome Oliver into the criminal fraternity run by Fagin. The original version starts like this:
“Consider yourself at home
Consider yourself one of the family
We've taken to...