An open Church Meeting last week voted to retain, with some revision our current Sunday morning programme of two different Services.
A show of hands indicated that there was overwhelming support for what up until now has been an experiment to be made permanent. There were, however, still some quite serious concerns about the final third of our second Service, the “So What” section.
After a lively open mic session in which a whole raft of different opinions and feelings were expressed Graham and Shona promised to carry out further work on this particular part of the Service in order to make the break from worship to debate and socialisation more fluid.
So that means that from here on in there will be two Services every Sunday morning; except of course when marathons, triathlons etc. disrupt things. The first of these has a focus on prayer and reflection and begins at 9.30am in the Music Room. The only exceptions being the third Sunday of each month when instead of an early Service breakfast is served.
The second Service, with a 10.45am start follows a more familiar pattern: half an hour or so of worship, praise and followed by a time of teaching, preaching and prayer. Then at around 11.45 we are invited to help ourselves to tea or coffee and continue either individually or in small groups to unpack any issues the previous hour may have presented us with. Of course during the final hour of the second Service our children and young people will be in their own groups.
Again, the only exception to this routine is on the third Sunday of each month when this second Service will provide an opportunity for us all to gather around the Lord’s table for Communion.
Following the debate MBC Members took part in a Deacon’s election at which Michael Grayson (pictured above) was elected to serve on the Leadership Team.