The weekly bulletin has a very limited circulation, but our website receives several hundred hits per week (!). There is IMHO a moral duty of care - as well as GDPR rules - to publish as little personal information as possible.
If you do not list the surnames, then you may have situations in which you have an Ethel Jones and an Ethel Smith, one of who passes on. How is anyone to know which it was?
Not necessarily. You can't be sure it's Ethel Jones, who seemed in good health last Sunday, or Ethel Jellicoe, who hasn't been to services for a while, or even Ethel Johnson, who everybody knew has been sinking for a while but as far as they know has not yet actually sunk. The people who will know will be the friends and family of the Ethel J concerned, and that will be all right.
But perhaps Bishop's Finger should be given the chance to explain, without us hypothesizing about it for him...
Not necessarily. You can't be sure it's Ethel Jones, who seemed in good health last Sunday, or Ethel Jellicoe, who hasn't been to services for a while, or even Ethel Johnson, who everybody knew has been sinking for a while but as far as they know has not yet actually sunk. The people who will know will be the friends and family of the Ethel J concerned, and that will be all right.
But perhaps Bishop's Finger should be given the chance to explain, without us hypothesizing about it for him...
You're correct in what you say. The weekly bulletin is really only seen by members of the congregation, either in person on a Sunday, or via the email which FatherInCharge sends out each Friday or Saturday. There is therefore a degree of local knowledge, so to speak, and the correct Ethel J in question would be specified in order to avoid confusion.
However, I publish an edited version of it on our website, and it is on that site (obviously freely available for anyone to look at) where surnames, and details of illness etc., are omitted. Apparently there are Malefactors who trawl church websites looking for personal information, so that they can then try to contact family (or friends) for nefarious purposes.
I can certainly see that problem, but our place has gone to the opposite extreme, where in a large congregation we have the following as a prayer list:
Prayers:
John
Lisa
Thanh
Ewok
S
and not a word more.
Which means we haven't a clue whether these people are sick, bereaved, dying, in some other need, or what--and since there are two services, we may not hear through the grapevine, so to speak. Which reduces our prayers to a grocery list ("Please bless the following people:"). Which is I suppose better than nothing, but feels very rote, and I'm not even sure which of three Johns and two Lisas we're talking about--and I'm certainly not stirred to go and inquire how I can be of help...
FInC's weekly list includes first names, and the reason why prayer is being asked - *cancer, stroke, in hospital, problems, mourning the loss of his mother etc. etc.*, although IMHO he sometimes goes a little too far with something like *X, who is making a mess of his life*. I'm sure FInC has asked X if it's OK to mention in these terms.
Ours is a small congregation, with only one main Sunday service, so anyone on the list who is a regular (or irregular, for that matter) is usually known. Some will be complete strangers, but FInC talks to a lot of people outside the congregation, and often offers to pray for them and their concerns.
Our Next-Door Place includes more details of people's complaints, such as *Lift to the Lord our sister Annie Boggs, whose leg ulcer is becoming very noisome* (I exaggerate only slightly).
It's on the (usually short) list of recently departed where I feel that surnames should not be published, for the reasons mentioned earlier, and which might lead to unwanted correspondence.
When giving a list to a prayer group who were praying for inmates in our jail, I never used their real names. I left it up to our Lord to know who they were praying for. I made it clear what the request was. "John," real name Jim would like you to pray for his wife who is distressed. The reason was that some of these people were well known from news reports and such. I found some found a pleasure in telling their friends, "My prayer group is praying for that guy who held up the bank last week,"
I just received a call from, "my Utility Company," telling me they had been overcharging me on my bill and would be refunding me $50.00. Unfortunately, I simply do not have the time just now to answer the questions needed for my refund. Such a loss.
I've gotten a ton of those "post office needs you to visit this link and fill out your personal info so they can deliver your package which had an incomplete address" lately. They suck.
On the subject of full names on church prayer lists I have two tales from the church of my youth (MOTR C of E) one sad, one mildly amusing:
- due to the fact that my mother was unmarried, her aunt and cousin who lived in the same town as us no longer "knew" us although we would get a Xmas card from them with a five pound note in it which my mother would pass to me. One Sunday when I was about 8, as the church service was about to begin I was reading through the church newsheet of " those who we commend to God's care and keeping",and guilessly said to my mother: isn't that your aunt's name? Yes, as she confirmed with the vicar after the service, her aunt had died and the funeral had taken place without her cousin seeing fit to let my mother know. She was rather upset.
- the other was in the 1990s when I had left the area. My first name is an unusual one and on the list of sick to be prayed for at my mother's church was "Wanderer H". I am in fact Wanderer L but several people approached my mother after the service to say "and how is your daughter?". She assured them that I was fine. It seemed to be people who knew her well enough to know her daughter's name was Wanderer and that I was married,but not well enough to remember/ know my married name. My mother was curious to know who Wanderer H might be so asked the church secretary. There is a local C of E primary school - the lady being prayed for was the mother of one of the teachers there.
The other day, I received a voicemail from an unknown number. They left a message saying someone had charged my Amazon account. They asked me to call them back. I reverse traced the number and found it was a VOIP number. Apparently other people had also reverse traced it. I let the tracing company know that I suspected the number was a spam number seeking monetary information.
Whenever I have a charge on an Amazon number, I will get an automatic text from Amazon. I did not get such a text.
Be careful out there. Had I called the number back, I would have likely been asked to give them my Amazon number or some other identifying information. That would not have been pretty.
I had a text message from Emma, offering me unspecified employment. Unfortunately I can't easily relocate to Indonesia.
You didn't get her number did you?
On second thoughts, Indonesia sounds a bit too hot.
Linked In's top job pick for me is in Iran - I can pass the details on if that sounds cooler. I don't understand their algorithm at all - they seem to think anyone living within a 50 mile radius of Aberdeen must have an involvement with the oil industry and pipe line engineering experience.
@Wanderer, that reminds me of a biography I read. The family received news on a Saturday that a close relative abroad had died very suddenly. As he had been in excellent health, they thought it might have been suicide and decided to say nothing to anyone until they had further details. This was at a time when they would be expected to wear mourning black following a bereavement, but they delayed putting on mourning, to avoid having to disclose the death.
In church the next day, as the family attended in non-mourning normal clothes, the minister announced the sad death of X who had been hit by a car while crossing the road. The family were mortified.
I've had a message purporting to come from An Post (postal service in the Republic of Ireland). My delivery information is missing a street address, apparently.
Seems a bit lacking in national pride for An Post to be sending messages from a UK mobile number.
I recently had to buy a used car (because my beloved 15-year-old model died on me). Ever since, I have been deluged with numerous emails from various sources all informing me that my computer has been infected with multiple viruses (they can't seem to agree on how many), but assuring me that it can all be fixed by clicking on their link. How sweet of them.
Anushka from Kazakhstan, who can't spell her own name consistently, is ageing rapidly. She was 36 a few days ago, now she's 40. At this rate she'll be 100 by Christmas.
Huh. All I get are spam emails telling me my McAfee sub has expired, and that MY PC IS UNDER ATTACK!!!!!!!
I think if anyone told me I was liable to be arrested for some gross misdemeanour, I'd be quite proud, and would invite them to come and take me off to Rwanda (or wherever) straightaway...
I fell for this:
It came when I was on holiday, it said my cover would expire in a few days. But I decided to risk it, internet usage was low, so when I got back my cover had expired. Or so I was told.
When I pressed the link button, a week after I was told the cover had expired, I got a pop-up screen warning me the link was unsafe from a still active McAfee.
Really fed up with endless emails, calls and texts purporting to be from my energy supplier insisting I need a smart meter and even reserving an appointment for the work to be done. They take no notice of refusals. I'm now blocking their phone numbers.
Stand by the drinks are on me. The Executive Director of Publishers Clearing House just called me himself to tell me I had won One Million Dollars. Unfortunately, I was so excited I hung up on him.
Stand by the drinks are on me. The Executive Director of Publishers Clearing House just called me himself to tell me I had won One Million Dollars. Unfortunately, I was so excited I hung up on him.
I've had a couple of emails recently claiming to be fron the head of the FBI, and telling me I can have 10 million dollars from a United Natios fund if I send in my bank details.
Shame they were to my work email, and got caught by the spam filters....
Over the last couple of weeks, my FB was deluged with clothing advertising all because I did a search for pants. One pant company had several fronts. Same pants, limited time to by them, only 250 left at the listed price, 4,400 people on website.
After seeing the ad several times per visit, I had had enough. I started deleting the ad every time it came up. After two days, they are finally cleared off.
So do I. Consequently I'm currently getting ads for cement mixers, earwax removals, support stockings, funerals, shingles vaccinations and bowel problems. It's like they're saying, "You had the choice to choose ads for nice things which would have been relevant to you, you decided not to, so deal with it."
Pay-pal sent me an E-mail and told me to remove a $600.00 charge false charge I needed to click on the link and open my browser so they could take it off. I am still laughing.
Spammers are certainly getting going. No less than 11 emails today from women somewhere in the former Soviet areas all desperate for a boring man whose life they will turn around (or bank account they will wreck) within a few minutes.
Someone recently tried one on my elderly Dad. He used to own some shares, and the scam works by someone getting hold of an old list of shareholders, contacting them (acquiring a degree of apparent legitimacy since the share holding was at one time real) and telling them they have 'scrip' (dividend) shares which they may be unaware of, which are now potentially worth 1000s owing to an impending buyout of the company.
The scam apparently progresses through several phone calls before the sting (some kind of demand for a payment of some kind before the 'share' sale goes through). It fell over in our case as Dad has learned a 'you better write to me in person by post' response, which so far has protected him.
In the past when you used to get salesmen at the door my mother’s line was, “I can’t buy anything without consulting my husband.” A very effective line, and absolutely hilarious to anyone who knew them both.
My wife used to teach in a very multicultural inner city school. In her class of 25-30 children, despite having children from more than a dozen different countries, she managed to have two boys called Jack, whose surnames did not differ until the fourth letter.
I had a call from a really poorly trained scammer yesterday. When I politely advised him that if he hoped to succeed in his chosen career, he would have to do much better than that, he shouted that I could "f*** off!" Twice. And then hung up. No future as a career counsellor for me, I'm afraid.
Comments
The weekly bulletin has a very limited circulation, but our website receives several hundred hits per week (!). There is IMHO a moral duty of care - as well as GDPR rules - to publish as little personal information as possible.
But perhaps Bishop's Finger should be given the chance to explain, without us hypothesizing about it for him...
You're correct in what you say. The weekly bulletin is really only seen by members of the congregation, either in person on a Sunday, or via the email which FatherInCharge sends out each Friday or Saturday. There is therefore a degree of local knowledge, so to speak, and the correct Ethel J in question would be specified in order to avoid confusion.
However, I publish an edited version of it on our website, and it is on that site (obviously freely available for anyone to look at) where surnames, and details of illness etc., are omitted. Apparently there are Malefactors who trawl church websites looking for personal information, so that they can then try to contact family (or friends) for nefarious purposes.
Prayers:
John
Lisa
Thanh
Ewok
S
and not a word more.
Which means we haven't a clue whether these people are sick, bereaved, dying, in some other need, or what--and since there are two services, we may not hear through the grapevine, so to speak. Which reduces our prayers to a grocery list ("Please bless the following people:"). Which is I suppose better than nothing, but feels very rote, and I'm not even sure which of three Johns and two Lisas we're talking about--and I'm certainly not stirred to go and inquire how I can be of help...
Ours is a small congregation, with only one main Sunday service, so anyone on the list who is a regular (or irregular, for that matter) is usually known. Some will be complete strangers, but FInC talks to a lot of people outside the congregation, and often offers to pray for them and their concerns.
Our Next-Door Place includes more details of people's complaints, such as *Lift to the Lord our sister Annie Boggs, whose leg ulcer is becoming very noisome* (I exaggerate only slightly).
It's on the (usually short) list of recently departed where I feel that surnames should not be published, for the reasons mentioned earlier, and which might lead to unwanted correspondence.
You didn't get her number did you?
On second thoughts, Indonesia sounds a bit too hot.
- due to the fact that my mother was unmarried, her aunt and cousin who lived in the same town as us no longer "knew" us although we would get a Xmas card from them with a five pound note in it which my mother would pass to me. One Sunday when I was about 8, as the church service was about to begin I was reading through the church newsheet of " those who we commend to God's care and keeping",and guilessly said to my mother: isn't that your aunt's name? Yes, as she confirmed with the vicar after the service, her aunt had died and the funeral had taken place without her cousin seeing fit to let my mother know. She was rather upset.
- the other was in the 1990s when I had left the area. My first name is an unusual one and on the list of sick to be prayed for at my mother's church was "Wanderer H". I am in fact Wanderer L but several people approached my mother after the service to say "and how is your daughter?". She assured them that I was fine. It seemed to be people who knew her well enough to know her daughter's name was Wanderer and that I was married,but not well enough to remember/ know my married name. My mother was curious to know who Wanderer H might be so asked the church secretary. There is a local C of E primary school - the lady being prayed for was the mother of one of the teachers there.
Whenever I have a charge on an Amazon number, I will get an automatic text from Amazon. I did not get such a text.
Be careful out there. Had I called the number back, I would have likely been asked to give them my Amazon number or some other identifying information. That would not have been pretty.
Preach it, sister!
Linked In's top job pick for me is in Iran - I can pass the details on if that sounds cooler. I don't understand their algorithm at all - they seem to think anyone living within a 50 mile radius of Aberdeen must have an involvement with the oil industry and pipe line engineering experience.
In church the next day, as the family attended in non-mourning normal clothes, the minister announced the sad death of X who had been hit by a car while crossing the road. The family were mortified.
Anushka, 36, has emailed me three times this evening. I'm stonewalling her.
Seems a bit lacking in national pride for An Post to be sending messages from a UK mobile number.
In the sure and certain knowledge that our attic contains only boxes of books, Mr F politely declined.
Who is the current President of the United States of America? (This is a question to check you're paying attention, so please select J. Biden)
Whatever will I do now?
I fell for this:
It came when I was on holiday, it said my cover would expire in a few days. But I decided to risk it, internet usage was low, so when I got back my cover had expired. Or so I was told.
When I pressed the link button, a week after I was told the cover had expired, I got a pop-up screen warning me the link was unsafe from a still active McAfee.
Why do I think it will involve phoning people pretending to be their bank/ Microsoft/ parcel-holding delivery service etc?
It probably involves posting messages saying "A couple of hours work a day will earn you between £100 and £600!"
It's like the old envelope stuffing scam.
What do they think I am, an MP?
Shame they were to my work email, and got caught by the spam filters....
After seeing the ad several times per visit, I had had enough. I started deleting the ad every time it came up. After two days, they are finally cleared off.
I do get adverts on my YouTube page about Foreign Women looking for Love, though...
The only spam I get regularly informs me that my MccAffee account has been susspended, and is no longer active. I think it must come from Gollum...
The scam apparently progresses through several phone calls before the sting (some kind of demand for a payment of some kind before the 'share' sale goes through). It fell over in our case as Dad has learned a 'you better write to me in person by post' response, which so far has protected him.
My wife used to teach in a very multicultural inner city school. In her class of 25-30 children, despite having children from more than a dozen different countries, she managed to have two boys called Jack, whose surnames did not differ until the fourth letter.