The priest of the parish

The Priest of the Parish is a party game for 50-150 people and one chair for each person. The chairs are arranged in rows of equal numbers (for example, ten rows of five), half of them facing the other. Each row of chairs is given a number from one to ten. The players get into teams of five and each team sits in one of the ten rows.

One person, who is running the game (who is called the Gossiper) says: "The priest of the parish has lost his considering cap. Some say this, and some say that, but I say it was team number X." That team stands up all at once and says (in unison), "Who me sir?" The team and the Gossiper have a conversation, which runs like this:

Gossiper: "The priest of the parish has lost his considering cap. Some say this, and some say that, but I say it was team number X." Team X: "Who me sir?" G: "Yes, you sir." X: "Couldn't be, sir!" G: "Then who, sir?" X: "Team number Y, sir!"

At this point, all of team Y stands up and says "Who me sir?" and so on. This continues until one of the following happens: A team doesn't stand up together, a team speaks out of unison or the wrong team stands up. When one of these happens, the team that made the mistake goes to the bottom row of chairs (in our example, row 10), and all of the teams below them move up. The whole process starts again with the Gossiper talking to a team.

The aim is to be Team 1 at the end of the game. The end of the game is when the Gossiper can't be bothered continuing any further.

Variations

A individual variation on this game that is common amongst Zimbabwean Scout troops goes something like this:

Everyone sits in a circle. One person (usually the person organising the game) is the "Priest". Players are numbered clockwise from the Priest. The first player is "Matthew", then "Mark", "Luke", and "John". The remaining players are numbered sequentially from one, except the last player (the one to the right of the Priest) who is the "Dogbox".

The aim of the game is become the Priest. Anyone who makes a mistake goes to Dogbox (and everyone moves up a position). Game play is very similar to what's described above. Each round starts with the Priest saying: "The priest of the parish has lost his thinking cap. Some say this, and some say that, but I say it was X. 1. 2. 3. Down."

Person X has to respond before the Priest reaches "Down" or they go to the Dogbox. Likewise, anyone who responds incorrectly, or out of turn, also goes to Dogbox. The correct response refrain goes like this:

X: "Who me sir?" P: "Yes, you sir!" X: "Nay, not I sir." P: "Then who sir?" X: "I say it was Y. 1. 2. 3. Down."

Whereupon the refrain is repeated between X and Y, with player Y attempting to get out player Z at the end. This is repeated indefinitely until someone makes a mistake and goes to Dogbox.

The challenges in this version of the game are remembering who you are (it might change every time someone goes to Dogbox) and answering quickly enough. There's considerable scope for strategy, particularly in moving the Priest to Dogbox.

To help new players, the chairs are sometimes labelled with their correct "number", although this does remove some of the fun that comes from complete confusion.