Hi Magdalena: I’m sure the relationship between priest and church teachings differs widely across Christendom. Because of family circumstances, my experiences are mostly with the more orthodox end, specifically Roman and Ukrainian Catholic priests, who will defer to church authority and tradition in their sermons and pastoral work. I’m not sure we need to compare it to nursery rhyme recitation. I appreciate that it has its own type of radical transparency, though like most primitive Christians I think it flirts with the same issues as the Pharisees did in Jesus’ time.

I’d be interested how you navigate the intersection of personal revelation, church authority and the modern impulse to creativity that affects us all. Maybe a blog post? In the meantime, I’ll edit the piece above to more clearly state I’m talking about the more orthodox end of the liturgical churches.