Going for Growth Developments

Over the past six months, the Committees of the PCC have been hard at work taking forward many different aspects of the vision that had emerged from Going for Growth and other parts of our Vision Process. One of the key elements of that vision was the need to develop further our pattern of worship across the parish to ensure it was meeting as wide a range of requirements as possible. The Worship and Discipleship committee has been working on this for several months and its suggestions have been discussed favourably at the PCC. The first of these proposals to be implemented concerns the 1st Sunday Family Communion at St Mary’s. This is because the feedback from many families who come regularly to the 1st Sunday is that the service is very long for the younger children.

In response, we should like to introduce a shorter ‘Service of the Word’ on 8 occasions a year. That service will still contain hymns and songs, Bible readings, prayers and a sermon; but by removing the Communion element it should be possible to keep the service to about 45 minutes. Please note that there will also be a shortened Communion Service a few minutes after the end of the Family Service for any who wish to receive Communion. And on the other four 1st Sundays in the year, the service will still be a Family Communion.

With the encouragement of the PCC, we aim to begin this new arrangement on December 2nd at 10.00 a.m., the First Sunday of Advent, with the first of these ‘Word Services’. Inevitably, for the first few months we shall be learning as we go along – after all, this is new for all of us – and constructive feedback will always be welcome.

Thank you. C.S.