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I once asked a congregation, ‘what is the bravest thing
you’ve ever done?’
The answers ranged from bungee jumping to forgiving
someone. Later I discovered that one of the young mums present had
whispered to the person beside her; ‘bringing my children to church!’
My first reaction was to smile, but as those words began
to sink in, I began to see them as an indictment on how we ‘do’ church.
For carers of the under fives particularly, a church service can be a
frustrating, embarrassing, agonising, unfulfilling waste of a Sunday
morning.
All-age services are notoriously difficult to get right.
They’re messy and costly, because they involve compromise. Often we
tend to go for the lowest common denominator, and end up patronising
everyone! But there is I believe a real value in coming together in all
our ages and stages.
Sometimes we refer to our children as the ‘church of tomorrow’, but
really that’s nonsense; our children are the church of today.
We don’t often take that very seriously though; we tend to either
marginalise or patronise them. Jesus had very different ideas; he
famously took a child and held them up as an example to the adults of
how to come to God; in
other words ‘let this little one be your teacher’.
Children have so much to teach us. About trust, and wonder and
questions and play; aspects of the Kingdom of God in fact which we
adults tend to lose or forget.
As
part of our commitment to people of all ages and all stages, both
churches (St Mary’s and St Andrew’s) will this year dare to ask
ourselves serious questions about how we ‘do’ church; particularly how
inclusive or exclusive we are.
St
Andrew’s has tried for some years to bridge the generational gap and
offer a monthly service for people of all ages called Sunday Praise.
Its ethos has been to offer a non-communion service with contemporary
hymns, simpler language and interactive teaching for a whole range of
ages. Because of the new service timings however Sunday Praise has got
pushed later to midday, which has proved problematic particularly for
young families. We’ve decided therefore to retire Sunday Praise, but
incorporate its ethos into our second Sunday service. Beginning in
March, every second Sunday will be an all-age service with simpler
liturgy, child friendly talks and creative ways of praying together.
During communion, there will be an area for small children and carers to
retire to if it all gets too much!
I
don’t have to tell you that this will be a steep learning curve for us
all! But I do believe it is an essential part of creating a more
inclusive church; a church where Jesus himself and the children he
valued so highly might find themselves well and truly at home
Every Blessing Alan
Priest in charge Hertford St Andrew & Hertingfordbury St
Mary
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