From The Messenger
I am sorry to use such a pun on the immortal words of the Bob Dylan classic, but Parish Council has voted to change the Sunday morning worship schedule to 8:00 am and 10:00 am.
There are several reasons that went into the decision. There was a desire that we worship as one group. Many of us believe that more people worshiping at one service will bring a greater sense of joy to our worship. We will also be pooling our resources of volunteers thus lightening the load carried by each.
The motion that was carried by the Parish Council did two things, first it set the Sunday morning worship times at 8:00 am and 10:00 am, both normally being Celebrations of the Holy Eucharist. The second part of the motion set a trial period from September 7 to November 23, 2008. The Parish Council will review the service times again at the October meeting.
It is important for everyone to continue to be willing to share with Parish Council members what they think of the change and whether it is accomplishing the things we want it to.
The major concerns that remain outstanding are what happens to the Sunday School, the music and the Coffee Hour.
Parents, teachers and other interested parishioners are invited to a meeting on September 4 at 7:00 pm to talk about how we will organize the Sunday School this year. Registration will happen on September 14 and we will have an Ice Cream Social following the service. The Parish Council is willing to let the worship service bend to accommodate the best interests of the children of the Sunday School.
The Worship team will continue to develop the music program and to support the choirs and band. It is important for us to remember that before we criticize a hymn choice we might be criticizing someone else's favorite hymn. Music appreciation is a subjective thing, there is a need to be gentle in our approach to the music.
The Coffee hour is also an important element of our life together. It is a time of fellowship and an opportunity to get caught up with one another. And of course, it is also a time to meet new people.
The new service schedule is a wonderful opportunity for us to worship together and to come to experience and appreciate the worship.
4 comments:
I finally got a comment to work. I thought today went very well. There are certainly signs that people were awake and interested.
Planning and leading worship is not the same as experiencing it, so I relay on the commments of people who were there, and to a person it went over extremely well. Thanks for you comment Sandy.
I am reassured that this change was not to save money, nor to make money. A Church can serve as one of the last safe place for an idealist, thus I hope we can make decisions for what they mean spiritually.
By the way, I don't think your title fof post is really a pun. Bob Dylan did mean that we could no longer count on things to stay the same, that revolution was coming. Once started that revolution itself cannot represent a new static order. We must keep moving, though I prefer we keep an eye on two things, where we have been and where we are going. Blind faith that God will take care of us is a serious copout. ( I haven't used that word for decades). Let's keep it moving.
Shalom
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