Message from the Rector
Ow sos ger,
I am writing this letter at the end of the day and am now reflecting back over the activities that filled my time, and demanded my energy and focus. The morning was spent catching up with emails and then attending to the preparation for Sunday services. It is this coming Sunday when I shall be baptising Eve. Eve has recently joined the Church and has such a strong sense that God is calling her to be baptised and part of the family at the Church.
At midday I was at Grampound with Creed School where I was scheduled to meet with their worship team to plan their next collective worship, we usually do this during the childrens lunch break. But today we had two very special guests Bishop David and Lee Moscato. Both Bishop David and Lee sat down with their lunches and listened to the children as they shared stories of their experience of leading worship both at school and at the church, also their other leadership opportunities within the school environment. It was a wonderfully affirming experience for the children and for the headteacher, Miss Jane.
This afternoon was spent in part discussing some of the administrative burden that is placed on churches and seeking ways to reduce some of this load. Across the parishes we cannot yet afford an assistant, however, we can invest in a software package that will help reduce the duplication of actions currently practised by myself, church wardens and others at odd times such as rota management. I am hopeful that in time this will help improve some of our planning and preparation for all services and perhaps even communication across the Parishes.
After that, I wrote several more emails and made some phone calls, before having a quick supper and then attending a taster session online called Ember days. This is a one day course that is designed for churches experiencing great change. On the call there were several diocese represented. It was interesting to learn of the many different challenges we each face within ministry.
One of the challenges we face across the Upper Fal Parishes is our ability to reach out to different age groups and to know how we can present the Gospel in a fresh and engaging way so that people want to know more, our next challenge is how we as a church then create a welcoming space for people to come and not have to be fearful about making a mistake like standing up when everyone is sat down, or not knowing what to do next. I sometimes talk about the barriers that prevent people from accessing faith or from belonging to a worshipping community... working with schools and creating a bridge between church and school is one of the ways we can start breaking down some of these barriers.
In the new school year I am hoping that we will be able to offer our local schools opportunities to come into church for a different experience than they might otherwise have.
So far, we have 3-4 people who have offered to be part of a school - church focus group, I would love for there to be a few more. This way making the events we put on less burdensome on just a few. People who want to join this focus group will need to be safely recruited so that schools can have every confidence in us as we take safeguarding seriously across our churches. Not everybody will be suited to this kind of ministry, please can I ask you to pray for this group as we seek to develop this ministry across the Upper Fal Parishes. And if you are interested in this group please contact me asap as we shall shortly be meeting together,
Gras ha kres,
Caroline
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