A New Approach To Preaching
“Preach the Gospel … use words if necessary.” – St Francis of Assisi
As you should be aware, services within the church building have now resumed, the first of which took place on Sunday 28th March. While every precaution is being taken to ensure that these services are as safe as possible in the current climate, our Staff Team are planning on making further changes to the format of in-person services from Easter Sunday onwards.
For the last few weeks, the Staff Team have explored ways in which speaking can be kept to a minimum within the church building, particularly during the services. While it is impossible to eliminate all verbal communication within the building, one issue was identified that they felt needed immediate attention – that being sermons.
It is widely felt among the Staff Team that limiting the length of a sermon is not enough at this time. In an effort to address this, the Team has explored alternative methods of communicating God’s Word in a church building setting. As such, it has been decided that all sermons in the in-person services will be delivered through mime and interpretive dance for the foreseeable future.
Last week, the Staff Team completed a Zoom-based training course, covering various performance techniques and, following Monday’s meeting, they are confident that this approach will provide an extra level of safety to the in-person services. Moreover, they believe that this also presents a new and dynamic way of sharing the Gospel.
When I spoke to Tim earlier this week, he said he was looking forward to being the first to share a sermon in this way on Easter Sunday and hoped the move would be a positive and fresh expression of church that could be carried forward into a Post-Covid era.
At least, that was my interpretation of the semaphore-like gestures that I witnessed on Zoom. In fairness, I probably should have asked him to email his comments.
Anyway, please join us on Easter Sunday at 9:30am in church, and we’ll see where this charade takes us.
What’s On?
OK, so April Fooling aside, we do hope you will join us for our services and activities over the Easter period. Here is what you have to look forward to:
Easter Weekend:
Thursday 1st April – Maundy Thursday Service 7:30pm – Online Evening Communion
Friday 2nd April – Good Friday Service 6:00pm – Online Hour At The Cross
Saturday 3rd April – Easter Messy Church – collect your activity bags from church between 10:00am and midday
Sunday 4th April – Easter Sunday 9:30am – Morning Communion at Holy Trinity (mime not included)
Sunday 4th April – Easter Sunday 11:00am – Online Morning Communion
Coming up:
Saturday 10th to Sunday 11th April – Spring Trail
Sunday 11th April – 11:00am Online Spring Trail Service
Sunday 11th April – 6:30pm Evening Worship at Holy Trinity
By Rachael Farrimond