Since Sunday 26 April 2015 two of our weekly congregations have begun to worship in the new church and community centre auditorium.
10.30am
The 10.30 service now begins with everyone – all ages – worshiping together in the main auditorium. After the first 20 minutes the children and young people go to their groups in the Old School Rooms as before. (The changeover is a lot quicker now – because the dividing walls are already assembled and teaching and craft materials already in position.) The grown-ups stay in the auditorium for more worship, teaching and prayer together.
The service finishes at about 11.50am as before, when we can all share coffee, tea and biscuits in the coffee shop.
6.30pm
The evening congregation also now gathers in the new auditorium at 6.30pm for our most informal weekly celebration as a church.
The church building
The 9.00am service will continue to meet in the church building every week. And our monthly service of Evensong is also staying in the church building. Prayers, baptisms, weddings, funerals and all kinds of other services will continue in the church building as well.
Journeying together
For the first few weeks there will be extra people welcoming, signposting and making sure we all know what is happening during our services in the new space. We will be discovering together what works really well and what needs to change a little to make the best use of the new facilities.
Some of us relish the opportunity to try something new. Others find change more challenging. We will all need to take extra care of each other during this transition. And there will be opportunities to feedback about our experience of worshiping together in the new building.
We begin this exciting new phase of life at St Michael’s remembering that the church is not the building. It’s us – God’s people. Wherever we gather to worship, each one of us is a vital part of the body of Christ.