When I arrived at the church I serve there was but one service on a Sunday morning (two on the first Sunday) and that was it. The evenings were kept free for more important things (like the TV?). Nowhere was that stalwart services (and spelling mistake) 'Evensnog' to be found and people apparently just didn't come out to an evening service.
Then we decided to try something different on a Sunday evening. We added Taizé services, one of the members brought reflective prayer sessions into the building (and excellent they were too). Add to this Compline (which the people loved) and healing services, café church and other things and suddenly Sunday evenings were happening.
Let's be honest about this, happening in small numbers, but still they were happening. We were being Church and for some, this was their only opportunity to be so.
The reality is that if we do the services then the people will come. Slowly at first, but it gets better . . .
1 comment:
Evensong is my favourite service. I go every week. It is not very well attended, sadly, though the faithful few still love it. Compline is much harder to find, although I do know of one church which has a monthly service, run by the choir (the incumbent is youngish, and I don't think he knew much about it).
Evensong was at one time the most popular service and the churches were packed. Mattins and Evensong were the regular pattern when I was a child, with a less frequent Eucharist. How sad that these are all but lost.
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