worship engagement group
september 2006 to march 2007
From the March 2007 Newsletter:
The worship engagement group has been meeting monthly for the last six months, working its way through the various aspects of our weekly worship here at Essex Church. Four people managed to attend every session and many more attended one or more of these evenings (seventeen came along for our evening on music and hymns in worship!) that have been quite fascinating and sometimes very funny.
One of the worksheets from the last session was headed 'Tips For Giving A Truly Terrible Sermon' and gave 45 ideas for potential preachers. Some of the gems included:
- Make it much longer than they expect and long before the end say 'in conclusion...'
- Show off your impressive vocabulary or intellect.
- Whine and moan.
- Keep them up to date with amusing stories of your children and pets.
- Go to bed late and drink too much on Saturday night.
- Spit, forget to breathe, lose your place. Panic.
Our hope was that attending this group would encourage even more members at Essex Church to get involved in worship preparation and delivery so do let me know if you would like to read something or choose prayers. The suggestion now is that a worship group, open to everyone, could meet monthly on a Sunday straight after the service for a short chat about how worship is going and to make suggestions. We would aim to have a congregation led service once a quarter.
Another initiative that has come from the Worship group was our hymn singing practice on Sunday 11th Feb. With Peter ably encouraging us from the piano we tackled new hymns and songs from various sources including the new UUA supplement to Singing The Living Tradition, Singing The Journey. Listen out for them in the months to come!
Practice Session: Sunday 11th March, 12.30 to 1.30pm - after the service we will hold a practice session for everyone who might want to get involved in worship at some stage - giving a reading, leading prayers, giving the address perhaps. Come along and experiment, try out the microphone, give one another helpful feedback and generally put some of the explorations of the Worship Engagement group into action.
Rev. Sarah Tinker
last updated: 03 Aug 2009
