|
September 7, 2023
Dear sisters and brothers,
This summer was special. Your resilience, faithfulness, and enthusiastic sense of adventure was a blessing. It’s not too common to find a church community so willing to try new things, to be stretched spiritually, and to step outside of comfort zones. I don’t think the positive response was out of novelty, either. The Spirit was moving this summer, revealing to us a spiritual hunger in worship.
It’s why your feedback has been so important before making any decisions about worship going forward. Briefly, here are some of the trends from your responses to our feedback form:
- Overwhelmingly, we had fun, feeling like it brought us closer together and enjoying the more relaxed change of pace and even the clergy’s blunders.
- Many of us tried a new service time and enjoyed the change.
- Moving the early service to 8 a.m. was universally appreciated.
- Most of us appreciated Eucharist on Sunday evenings and hoped it would continue, finding the time and day convenient when traveling, working, or active on the weekends and finding the creative and varied content engaging. There was a real desire that these become a regular part of our worship life.
- Those who serve in worship at the 5 p.m. (a small group on frequent rotation) were generally grateful for the Sunday evening time as it freed up their Saturdays.
- A few of us really missed the Saturday evening time as it is an important part of our weekly worship life.
- Attendance in worship was up across all three services … in the summer!
So what’s next?
I think it’s clear the 8 a.m. service time is here to stay. To accommodate a full hour of Christian Formation beginning at 9 a.m., the 10 a.m. service will move to 10:15 a.m. beginning this Sunday, Sept. 10.
For the evening service, balancing the unexpected popularity and meaningfulness of Sunday evening for so many with the dedicated group who value Saturday night is vitally important.
So, going forward, and for now, we will continue both in some capacity and pay attention to the movement of the Spirit in our worship. Unfortunately, we can’t have both services every single weekend. We just don’t have the volunteers or staff to make that happen.
As a result, we will have a Sunday evening service every single week, and, in addition, we will have a Saturday evening service monthly on the fourth weekend. Mindful of the folks who still miss the old Saturday service, we will initially try holding that service in the small, intimate space of the chapel.
We will try this new worship rhythm and re-evaluate after Easter to see what, if any, changes we are being called to make.
Below is a schedule of our Saturday and Sunday evening services. You will see regular Allelu!-led services as well as contemplative, traditional, seasonal, and creative worship opportunities.
By now, I hope you’ve heard me say it. As a parish, I believe in building on our strengths. This summer became a strength for us, and I’ve been praying about how the revelation of that strength might make us stronger as a parish. I invite your prayers as well.
If you have concerns or questions, please call me or come see me. I want to hear from you! And please take a moment to check out the schedule at the end of this email.
With gratitude,
| 
