With the turn of the year upon us and the time for counting the days, looking back and forward, it occurred to me that not everyone may know what a day in the life of All Saints Parish Church looks like.
Here's an example of the church's day from a recent Tuesday in November.
It's 9am in the Lady Chapel, the smaller space with its own altar in the south-east corner of the church. Pale wintry sunlight is beginning to filter through the stained glass windows. Members of the clergy team, staff and pastoral care teams, are gathering to pray together; as we do every morning in various configurations of attendance depending on who's around at 9am that day. We use a short service from the Church of England's Daily Prayer which includes some set prayers, and bible readings for the day. We ask for the help and wisdom of the Holy Spirit as we prepare for the day's work and meetings. We pray together for Wokingham and the parish; on a monthly schedule for different streets, and for other organisations local and global ; praying for other parishes and dioceses, for any of the issues of the day; remembering too particular needs.
By 9.30am all but one of the group has left to go on to their day's work; one of the clergy remains to lead the next event; which is the 9.30am service of Holy Communion held every Tuesday. About a dozen parishioners gather for this service; after which they enjoy fellowship over tea and coffee in the Cornerstone. This group includes some who for a variety of reasons are not able to attend church on Sundays;perhaps they need help with transport getting to church, which is more readily available in the week; or they find the main Sunday services too long or over-powering. There are lots of reasons why a mid-week service, even those of similar traditional style to Sunday services, are helpful to some.
Just as the service is ending at about 10am, two members of the Home Communion team - a team drawn from those church members who are authorised lay ministers of the Eucharist - are busy in the clergy vestry. They are picking up vessels and service booklets as they prepare to go out to one of the local residential care homes. There they lead a short communion service for residents, distributing elements of bread and wine consecrated at the Parish Communion service on the previous Sunday morning. Perhaps this day they will be called upon to visit several of the residents in their rooms who are too poorly to get to the service in the common-room; and there they may discover anxious relations and visitors, whom they will offer to pray with, or simply listen to their stories and concerns.
Meanwhile back at the church it's a funeral about to start. Mourners are congregating outside the porch in the midday sunshine waiting for the hearse to arrive before they come in to church. One of our acting vergers has prepared the church for the funeral; set out the service sheets on pews at the front ready for the bereaved family, and is now ready to welcome the other members of the congregation as they begin to come in. Richard, our Director of Music, and the member of the clergy team who is leading this service are in the vestry conferring over the music. After the service in church the coffin is carried out into the churchyard for the burial.
In The Cornerstone the Rector and our youth leader Kat have been discussing plans for the following Sunday's service of All Together Communion. Jo, our Parish Administrator is in the Parish Office multi-tasking; collecting together the notices for the Sunday pew leaflet that have come to her on emails, answerphone messages, and scraps of paper; answering queries on the phone about burial plots, or talking nervous new mothers through the process of organising the baptism of their first baby; printing a service leaflet for a forthcoming special service; and selling tickets for one of the concerts in the music programme.
In the afternoon our Associate Priest, Anna, is joined in The Cornerstone by our youth leader Kat and other members of the "Messy Church" team to get ready for the next twice-monthly "Messy Church" session. Some are in the kitchen preparing the food and drinks whilst others are laying out the various craft tables ready for the activities. As schools close for the day, mothers, or other carers, and their children begin to come in for the session, when there will be afternoon tea, crafts, a bible story and songs.
After" Messy Church" and the tidy-up, it's 5pm and some of the clergy team, those who are available, gather in the Lady Chapel once again; now for Evening Prayer, using the Daily Prayer format. They are joined by two parishioners who attend quite often. Each Tuesday evening the prayers which are left on the church prayer cross by the West Door are prayed through.
These are just some of the activities of worship and work in God's service that happened at the church, or in nearby residential care homes, on that one day in November.
But "All Saints Church" is not only a building; it is also a Christian community of over three hundred people. Each one of us has the story to tell of own day - of worship and of work in God's service!
Rev'd. Canon David Hodgson, Rector
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