Worship, Prayer & Spirituality

Group members:
Margaret Sheather - Chairman
Reverend Sandy Emery
Linda Jarvis
Colin Brookes
Paul Boon
Mandy Jutsum
Pearl Foster
Julian Elloway
Simon Ritter
 
 
The role of the Group is:
• to make sure that there are plenty of ways for people to come to worship God, whatever their age or situation
 
• to promote and support an active prayer life for the church together and for individuals
 
• to think about how we can help people, whether they already come to church or not, explore their sense of the spiritual
 
• To plan, organise and review the regular services that go on around the year in the parish.
This is our way of taking forward the Parish's mission to accept and share the generosity of God's love.
 
Achievements to date:
We've been working on some new things over the last year.
 'Messy Church' has come to Minchinhampton! This is a chance for children and adults together to find out more about God through creative play activities, short informal worship and a meal together. It's a great way for families to find out more about Christianity together in an easygoing and fun atmosphere. Watch out for the sign at the Holy Trinity gate for the next session.
 
 'Meditative Space' offered people who just want some quiet time to reflect in God's presence a chance to do this together, picking a theme once a quarter as a focus for our thoughts.
 
♪ Music plays an important part in our main Sunday worship and on special occasions and we have been supporting the recruitment of child choristers and choral scholars into the church choir.
 
Margaret Sheather - 16 December 2012

Annual Report - April 2018

The Committee has met regularly through 2017, continuing its regular review and planning of all the services across the year: the weekly routine, major festivals and special services. Some key points noted in our meetings have been:

  • discussions relating to the arrangements for worship during the re-ordering work, both to anticipate what might be possible and respond to events as they unfolded; as chair I contributed to discussions about the storage of all the various contents of the church
  • the creation by Julian Elloway of a card to guide people through Evensong, as this congregation had grown over the previous year
  • Bishop Robert’s leadership through Holy Week and Easter had been greatly appreciated and he had also very much enjoyed the week with us.
  • difficulty in running further “Experience” events as some of the regular contributors had stood down and were not immediately replaced
  • Wednesday Cuppa’s thriving position has led some people to become more involved in church life generally
  • Prayer vigils have continued successfully through the year.
  • Some proposed developments in worship, arising from the benefice Vision Day in 2016, were discussed at the start of the years, but were affected by the Rector’s sickness absence so have not yet been pursued. This also related to the need to review the work and composition of the committee as necessary to take forward any new aspects. The current year will, in any event, see us sharing in starting to work out the way to use the new space created by the re-ordering, pending the arrival of a new incumbent.

I’m grateful to all the committee members for their lively and thoughtful contributions to our discussions, and their commitment to ensuring our worship is varied and welcoming to all.

Margaret Sheather, Chair