Here’s The Church Here’s The Steeple 2.0

[PressureFan]

How do you do the second half of the Here’s the Church, Here’s the Steeple finger rhyme?
The rhyme is;
“Here is the minister going upstairs,
And here is the minister saying his prayers.”

Martin Gardner writes of it in his Encyclopedia of Impromptu Magic, page 201. He says it is “a finger action too complex to describe”.
I think I’ve figured it out from his brief description but I’d love to see it from someone who actually knows it.
Also, what is the “rhymed sermon on potato peeling” he says often follows?

Somebody must know these. I’m looking in your direction Q. Kumber!

Thanks for the help,
PressureFan

[Q. Kumber]

https://www.wikihow.com/Create-a-Church ... ur-Fingers

I'm not familiar withe the potato peeling sermon.

[PressureFan]

Q, thank you for the reply!

I don’t see the method Martin describes. He writes: “It begins with the little fingers linked, one palm up, the other down.” I read this to mean the hands must be back to back.

Here’s my interpretation;
https://youtu.be/rke7fwyQDE4
I’ve shown my handling to many people over the years and they are always more intrigued that there is a second part than they are of the demonstration.

I can recite every silly rhyme and song I ever heard as a kid. Someone must remember this bit Martin mentions;
“At this point, British children often have the minister deliver a rhymed sermon on potato peeling.”

Here’s my bit as Kracko the Magician.
https://youtu.be/mM8gBfNeKX8
I'm double jointed, a trait I inherited from my parents. My Mother had quadruple joints and my Father had none.

[Smurf]

In my experience, the rhyme ends with see all the people. My uncle taught me an addition. When I reached the "see all the people" section, he grabbed my interlocked fingers and squeezed them together causing a verbal "AAAAAHHH!" or something similar. As this occurs, he states, "And now you can hear the people sing!"

[Jack Shalom]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzJosGCcFOU

[PressureFan]

Jack, thank you for that. I haven’t seen it before and I should have, I’ve looked over the years. It's a better looking, easier, and logical version than what I imagine from Martin’s description. The fingers walking action are easier and more illustrative.

[Bill Mullins]

Also, what is the “rhymed sermon on potato peeling” he says often follows?

Gardner refers to the Oxford Dictionary of Mother Goose Rhymes. The following is taken from The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes, which I suspect is a alternate edition of the same book.

Here is the church, and here is the steeple
Open the door and here are the people.
Here is the parson going upstairs,
And here he is a-saying his prayers.

Finger-game. As the words are repeated the fingers are interlocked with knuckles outwards, the two little fingers are raised to represent a steeple, and the hands turned inside out to reveal a congregation of digits. As the parson 'goes upstairs' the crossed hands are placed back to back, the fingers being intertwined one by one. Finally, the palms are brought together and the thumb appears in a pulpit of the knotted hands. School-children then make the parson deliver an oration on potato peeling :

Dearly beloved brethren, is it not a sin.
When you peel potatoes to throw away the skin?
For the skin feeds pigs, and pigs feed you.
Dearly beloved brethren, is this not true?

Both the above verses are common today. Newell (1883) collected the first two lines of the text verse in the U.S.A. Similar finger-games are known in other countries.

[PressureFan]

Thank you Bill! Wonderful! Those instructions are perfect. I assume I have them right.
The oration on potato peeling. What fun silliness. Thanks again.

[PressureFan]

Here's a more accurate version:
https://youtu.be/9gprrqXyUr8

[El Mystico]

When he was very young, my nephew, who some of you will know, did this, but accidentally intertwined his fingers above his hands, rather than underneath. So when he 'opened the doors' it was 'WHERE are the people?' He closed up his hands, 'Oh, they're all on the roof.'

[Q. Kumber]

When he was very young, my nephew, who some of you will know, did this, but accidentally intertwined his fingers above his hands, rather than underneath. So when he 'opened the doors' it was 'WHERE are the people?' He closed up his hands, 'Oh, they're all on the roof.'

I never took him to be particularly religious

[PressureFan]

Maybe it was a Frisbyterian church. They believe that when you die your soul goes up on the roof and you can't get it back down. -old joke.