Our church is SMALL!! Like 10-15 attendance at Sunday service small! That said, there are interesting aspects of being in a small church community, and one of those is attending worship and fellowship on Sunday morning. I tend to be the first one there (about 9am), to ensure things are cleaned up and put back in place in the parish hall, as we have several 12 Step groups meet during the week, and we are not in the building much ourselves after Wednesday morning Bible study. Usually our clergy arrive next by about 9:30am, followed by everyone else up until we start the service at 10am. And whoever is there gets out the coffee and tea water and sets us for the treats, which are brought in by whoever signs up for that week. Others ready the flowers for the old altar and our other stands—as many as four vases full, most always brought in from someone’s garden or bushes.
Early fellowship time happens, and can even delay the start of the service a bit, but no one generally cares. This particular day we had two of our older women members attend (who have both been fighting cancer for years), and it is always great to visit with them as much as we can. Note, we are all older (or as young, as we feel we are!) Another of our regulars had her 5-6 year old granddaughter visiting her, and brought her along (it’s a treat when we have young children with us). She got to ring our large bell to tell the neighbors the service was starting. And, our one family with a teenager was back from two weeks of vacation, so they read the two lectionary readings for the day.
Our music is from the Church of Canada hymnal, which is newer than our own 1982 Episcopal hymnal, so it has a few more newer songs from more laid back, folk type genre and also more inclusive language with many of our recognizable favorite hymns. Our 90 year old organist does a great job playing our simple but effective organ when he can be there. Today’s hymns/songs: God, We Praise You for the Morning; Like the Murmur of the Dove’s Song; Breath on Me, Breath of God; and In Christ There is No East or West. Our Gloria song is a simple version of This is the Day That the Lord Has Made, and our Sanctus hymn is the fairly familiar version of Holy, Holy, Holy.
We use various Prayers of the People and Eucharistic Prayers, depending on the season of the church year calendar. Our worship bulletin is printed up so it can be reused for an entire season, and contains the entire service in larger type, so the Prayer books are not really needed. (This helps with visitors, who always wonder what we’re doing—so at least they only have a worship bulletin, a lectionary of the readings, and a hymnal to manage.) We are all encouraged to really participate fully in the service--with great voices or weak ones—we are all worshiping and celebrating God together! This Sunday, I gave the sermon, discussing the Old Testament reading about Joseph as a teen and how he became so hated by his older brothers to the point they sold him to Midianites heading for Egypt. The soap opera this family line of Jews acted out is something that we all can wonder about, and then believe we all should be able to do better, as families, and also just as society living together. (10 minutes max!)
We say the Nicene Creed and then move quickly to the Prayers. For this Pentecost season, we are using a PoP version that we found somewhere that we like and has all of us participate in reading, and we bring up those people by name aloud we remember for prayers at each type of issue. We say the short version of the Confession, are blessed by the priest, and then we greet each other warmly, some hugs, some handshakes and try to keep the fellowship to a dull roar. I gave the short announcements, which consisted of asking we not have a Bishop’s Committee in August (just provide the latest finances report), remind all that our schools supplies drive is on and to get out there and buy things they can use (we ask the schools for their lists), and also that our annual church picnic is in three weeks (at the church—we don’t challenge Mother Nature!). Rev. Sarah Monroe will be presiding and preaching that day, and we are to also supply the food for her Chaplains on the Harbor homeless ministry dinner for that Sunday night.
On to the bringing forward the gifts of our money, bread and wine, with the granddaughter getting to do this for us (with direction). The Doxology is still sung (old tradition!) and then the Eucharistic Prayer for our Pentecost season is C (the so-called Star Trek version), which allows us to participate more than normal, and then we all come up for communion. A short post communion, a blessing from the priest, the final hymn and the deacon’s words, which we respond to and say multiple Amens! Under one hour, and I feel is an uplifting time for all.
Fellowship this Sunday brought us treats of some kind of lemon tart and a chocolate cake too, and fresh blueberries. Most everyone sat around the one large circular table we always seem to use and discussed various things they are doing, including lots about gardening and food and travel and the county fair. Three of us sat on the side and discussed the usual sports teams, with a special talk about the upcoming high school football season and the changes to the district 4 teams and the new league. Somewhere in this the reader board was agreed to be changed, and was handled (it now says “JOYFUL JOYFUL WE ADORE THEE”). And the money was counted quickly and dealt with.
We clean up, and hustle off to our many Sunday things we are doing, and another Sunday of worship and fellowship is complete at about noon.
Jim
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