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 2019

The Committee has met regularly through 2018, continuing its regular review and planning of all the services across the year, the weekly routine, the major festivals and the special services. Some key points noted in our meetings have been:
• The previous Rector’s reflections on developments in worship during her time with us.
• Discussions relating to the arrangements for worship as we returned to the church, particularly managing the Holy Week and Easter services before the whole building was fully available.
• The particular success of Messy Church on Good Friday and the need to adapt Good Friday timings to enable it to be held in church rather than the Porch Room.
• Trying to re-establish “Experience” events, as the School values them very much.
• Continued difficulty in staffing Junior Church.
• Prayer vigils have continued successfully through the year.

Otherwise it has mainly been a matter of sustaining existing work while we awaited the arrival of a new Rector. We look forward to working with Father Howard to take forward the way we worship together and provide new opportunities for others to experience and develop their spirituality.