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9:30 here now. Printing stuff for Sunday morning.
The parish council decided to undertake a parish survey about worship times, styles, content etc. I've just compiled all the responses and am printing out a bit of a report. The feedback was... robust. We're going to have fun sorting through the people who want an evening service; don't want an evening service; the people who want simpler ceremonial; richer ceremonial; less music; more old favourite hymns; more modern music; more contemporary services; creative liturgies; more preaching; shorter sermons; better inclusion and involvement of children (despite none currently attending regularly); and things to stay exactly the way they are now (only with more people please, kthnxbai).
You can please some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time...
So ... about 77 F. That is nice ...It was lovely today - about 24 or so, I think. But I'm in the south, it'll be hotter further up north.
That's about 100 F. Yep ... air-conditioning would be nice.And it'll be 35 tomorrow. Think I'll need to find something to do that involves a trip to somewhere with air conditioning!
9:30 here now. Printing stuff for Sunday morning.
The parish council decided to undertake a parish survey about worship times, styles, content etc. I've just compiled all the responses and am printing out a bit of a report. The feedback was... robust. We're going to have fun sorting through the people who want an evening service; don't want an evening service; the people who want simpler ceremonial; richer ceremonial; less music; more old favourite hymns; more modern music; more contemporary services; creative liturgies; more preaching; shorter sermons; better inclusion and involvement of children (despite none currently attending regularly); and things to stay exactly the way they are now (only with more people please, kthnxbai).
You can please some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time...
They don’t need to go if they don’t want to. Presumably one of the motives behind an evening service is to reach more people in your community.There is no diocesan support for such things, so yes, we're doing it in-house. Fortunately my husband has a lot of experience in survey design, so he was able to help with that bit.
Really it's all part of me trying to convince parish council about the merits of an evening service, but they're so terrified that if we change things we might upset people, that we had to embark on this whole great big consultation process...
Well, this is all part of the argument.
So at the moment, average Sunday attendance is sitting at about 35-40 people (nb. We are really not viable). We have two services, at 8am and 10am, which are substantially the same except 8am has no music.
It is my view, and the view of some others in the parish, that it would help us to grow if we had an evening service, perhaps in quite a different style, something which would draw people who don't find our current offering appealing.
But, it is also my view (less so that of others in the parish), that if we split our current attendance across three services, we might well end up with a situation where no service ever has more than a dozen or so people in attendance (at least, before we see any real growth). And that that is bad for the parish in all sorts of ways; you dilute the sense of community, lose a sense of critical mass, etc etc.
So what I would like to do is have one morning service - let's split the difference and say 9am, although I'm open to negotiation about the time - and one evening service at, let's say 7pm.
And this is why everyone is so angsty, because if we do anything that might change morning services, we might upset someone. What frustrates me about this is that if we do nothing to morning services we might be closing our doors inside ten years...
It's a bit of a no-win situation, I think, but that's being a vicar for you!
An evening service need not be any extra work for anyone but me, honestly. I could do a simple Taize style evening prayer or Eucharist (or the like) without needing musicians. (I mean, great if you have them and they're willing, but if not it's not the end of the world).
Will anyone actually leave if we went to one morning service...? Well, that's the million dollar question. My guess is probably not, but my wardens/PC aren't willing to take the risk.
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