Parish of Leatherhead - Worship Review 2004

Canon David Eaton writes in the September 2004 magazine:

We have in the first part of this year had a period of change and experimentation in worship, following a consultation a year ago at Westhumble. I am grateful to everyone who has made a contribution and to those who have spoken with me or written in. It is right that from time to time, but not too often, we should sit back and consider church life and worship and try new ways and ideas.

I accept some things have worked, but others have not. The responsibility for deciding on worship lies with the Church Council and Incumbent acting together but within the guidelines laid down by General Synod for The Church of England as a whole.

If I didn't know it before, it is clear to me that the range of tastes in worship is large in this parish. We are probably not different in that sense to many other parishes. There is consensus, but at the polarities quite different preferences. The difficult task the Church Council faced has been to strike the right balance. It is impossible to please everyone and a mistake to try. But in a mixed community with a range of congregational tastes some diversity is desirable.

A guiding principle for the overall pattern of worship has been to see the 10.30am Family Communion Service as the core Sunday service. This is the largest congregation of the day. Communion is the central service of the church (universally as well as locally) and acts as a hub to which other services relate. But in addition these other services can offer a different style in worship which some within the church family will especially value.

It is this balance of core and diversity, which the Council decided to adopt in fixing our pattern of worship for the foreseeable future. The details are laid out in this link - Revised pattern of Worship 2004.

In the morning, Prayer Book Said Communion continues, as now, at 8am. At 10.30am on the first Sunday of each month our All Age Family Service will take place. On other Sundays at 10.30am Family Communion (Common Worship, Order One) will be held, as now.

But in addition we will begin this Autumn to hold a Family Service in the Parish Church Hall at the same time on all Sundays, except the first. Sunday Club will provide suitable children's activities to serve both services. Those who wish, both adults and children, may join the Communion Service in church to receive Communion, as now. In this way we are able to offer an informal Act of Worship suitable for all ages in the Hall and a more formal Communion Service in church. It is important that communion remains accessible to children and their parents. We continue to nurture children through the 'Communion before Confirmation' programme. For those who attend the Family Service and then come to church, the Family Service acts as a kind of alternative Ministry of the Word.

This new Family Service arrangement will itself be something of an experiment to begin with. I am grateful to Revd Briony Martin for being willing to head-up a planning group, and to Chris and Janine Stagg and other leaders and helpers in Sunday Club for their support. There are necessarily practicalities, which can be quite demanding in a arrangement of this kind. But it means we can offer a broader range of worship on a Sunday morning, meeting the needs of old hands, familiar with church life and worship, but also of others who wish to be part of church life and prefer a more informal approach.

Churches used quite regularly to offer both Sung Eucharist and Matins on a Sunday morning. Family Communion and Family Service is the modern equivalent, where family means the Church family, including young families with children. The evening service congregation on most Sundays of the month has roughly halved over 10 years. For this reason it has been right to try a different pattern during this period of experiment.

What has emerged is a varied pattern of worship. I think I can honestly say I find each service valuable in its own way. I encourage everyone to accept variation as richness and to enjoy the diversity. The alternative is to focus on one form only to the exclusion of those who find that form uncongenial.

There is now an enormous range of music available to use in worship. Formal Anglican worship draws extensively from a classical repertoire and there is great virtue in that. There are many other forms of musical tradition and these now also form music for worship. Each has its place. A variety of evening services enable us to include music across a wider range than has been the case before.

I hope that the pattern as now fixed will commend itself and make church life and worship accessible to all.