Present: Tricia Carrick (TC), Hector Davie (HD), Lynne Pamplin (LP), Richard Pamplin (RP), Sam Van Leer (SV)

Comment: These notes do not correspond to the order in which topics were discussed, they are more a general summary.

Patterns of Services

The current pattern is essentially very good and well accepted:

1st and 3rd Sundays:	Eucharist
2nd Sunday:	Service of the Word
4th Sunday:	Morning Prayer
5th Sunday:	will in future be a "normal" Eucharist.

(It is too much effort with too little return to make it a "Service of the Word with Eucharist") This proposal will be put to council at its next meeting.

Orders of Service

• It takes time to produce an order of service
• Rain forests are a concern amongst our congregation
• "Visual liturgy" is a concept that we could look in to. Can we afford the beamer etc.?
• People like to know where they are in a service and a printed service sheet helps.

Service of the Word

• These services need more effort to organise as they are not taken straight from a book. It is sometimes a challenge to find musicians and actors - would be easier if we had a responsible group.
• More people should be involved in planning and running these services. How do we find people/groups?
• Strategies and guidelines would make it easier for new people to plan a service. As would support from clergy and others with experience.
• More variety would be welcomed - the services are tending to become all alike. Perhaps this could be achieved by getting more people/groups involved in planning services. In particular they could be encouraged to try new ideas for worship (within a framework).

Special Services

• Special services (e.g. Ascension Day, Good Friday) need special planning as there are usually no rotas e.g. sidespersons, readers etc. organized.

All-Age Worship

• There seems to be a wish for more all-age worship - mainly on special occasions.
• The regular services of the word are not intended to be "all-age", nor even aimed at young people. It is unclear whether they should be (who wants it?)
• Every service includes the children - it would be helpful if the JC would organize the "children's slot" each week.
• AAW takes more time and effort to prepare than a "normal" service of the word.

Music

• We have no "music leader".
• Sometimes it is unclear who is playing until the last minute.
• How to learn new songs? Suggestion: regular meeting once a month (on a Sunday after the service). This should benefit all services.
• Musicians also need to meet to practise music. A regular time might help. This should also benefit all services.

Resources

• "New Patterns for Worship" has lots of information and ideas. Sam and others have other useful books. Tricia volunteered to produce a list.
• A library of past service sheets might be useful. As might 3 or 4 outline (template) service sheets that can be edited.

Feedback

• Which styles of service best enable our congregation to worship?
• How can we get more feedback from the congregation?
• How do we share what we hear?
• People seem to like the "new" Service of the Word: attendance has been consistently higher that for Morning Prayer. And many positive comments have been heard.
• Perhaps another survey would be useful. Of course it is not representative but might give some good ideas (at the moment people have to "dare" to speak if they want to comment!)
• How can we get reasonably accurate attendance figures? People tend to vote with their feet, so attendance figures give an idea of what people appreciate.

Planning Services

Each special service, including all services of the word, should have a coordinator. These were agreed for the next few months:

29th August:	LP
12th September:	HD
10th October:	SV
31st October(Harvest):	SV to ask Balogh's housegroup
14th November:	RP

Planning Meetings

This group should meet every 3-4 months to review services held in the last 3 to 4 months and plan those coming up. The group would be open to other people too. Inform council.

Next meeting should be held at the start of November : date to be arranged.

Action Points

• Guidelines (TC, LP)
• Resources : all to email info to TC
• Report to council (TC)

TC 2004-09-01