Dear Friends,
This month is a good opportunity to update you about the responses to the questionnaire that we circulated earlier in the year. I was incredibly heartened by the response – 80% replies from our churches and communities, which is a great result! Thank you. Now we are working through the process of Ask, Listen, Do.
1. What do we want to celebrate about the churches?
It seems there is much to celebrate, especially the faithfulness of the worshipping community, inclusive worship and a commitment to praying for others. We are seen as a warm, caring, and welcoming community with a diversity of worship traditions and expectations. The things that people find important are our strong musical tradition, and the peace and tranquillity of our buildings.
We have a keen and committed team that works well together and there is a strong sense of unity across the four churches. All our churches are open and visible, and there is a strong desire for us to be at the heart of our communities.
We are pleased to have regular involvement in the primary school and pre- school, and our coffee mornings and Tea and Chat are providing important opportunities for people to gather and chat. Many people mentioned our beautiful church buildings, and the importance of their tradition and history.
2. What things would we like the churches to develop?
There was a request for increased clergy presence in the community, and greater integration between the churches and their local communities. This included links with Thurston Sixth, the development of our online presence, links with other local Christians and activities/events to appeal to all ages.
There were practical suggestions about improving our spaces to include kitchen and toilet facilities, and the use of social media to maximise community engagement and keep people informed. There were a lot of requests for more informal services, non – communion services and the introduction of Sermon series on a particular theme. There was an emphasis on the need for strong pastoral support, particularly for the sick, the housebound and the lonely.
3 What might stop us achieving them?
We acknowledge, and others are aware of, the challenges we face – the huge burden that our churches place on us financially, and the amount of work that is needed to maintain them; a lack of volunteers to take on key roles, and a need to explore ways of doing church differently to involve more people.
4 What skills/gifts can you offer to help make them happen?
We are aware of the many different needs in our community, and there is so much more that we could be doing, and would like to be doing. Jesus once said ‘the harvest is plentiful and the labourers are few’, and we will need to draw on a wider pool of people to work with us to make it happen. Over the coming year we will be developing small task groups to tackle different aspects of church life, (more about that next time!) We will also be looking at how we can work with other organisations in the villages so that the needs of our communities can be met. In the meantime, thank you for your continuing interest in, and support for our churches, and for taking the time to respond to the questionnaire.
Blessings, Julia
