As you likely know by now, starting Oct 1 we have a few big changes coming to our weekly Sunday morning schedule:
First, our weekly Sunday School program at St. John’s (using the Godly Play curriculum during the 9:30 am church service) will go on hiatus for a year so we may experiment with a different kind of approach to faith formation with our young people and their families, and really, the whole parish.
Next, our worship community at 9:30 AM and our new worship community at 11:15 AM – TAPESTRY – will both seek to more fully engage all generations.
At 9:30 AM this will involve all ages worshiping together for the duration of the service, with more opportunities for children and youth to serve alongside adults. It also will include an offer of “Pew Buddies” for young families so they can have help engaging their younger children in a style of worship that is oftentimes more “adult” in its focus.
At 11:15 AM (TAPESTRY), the worship style will seek to engage all ages more fully from start to finish. It will be just about 45 minutes, involve more movement, sensory stimulation, and interaction, yet still feel very much like Eucharist in the Episcopal/Anglican tradition – because that’s what it is!
These changes are coming about because, as you’ve been hearing for a while now, I’m encouraging our parish to embrace a vision of becoming more intergenerational in our life and ministry together. In my experience, St. John’s always has leaned more in this direction than many parishes – with our several generations often doing music, outreach, and community time together (Handbell Choir, Farm to Fork Outreach, and Hot Doooog Suuuundaaaay! come immediately to mind); yet worship and Christian formation/education are areas in which we’ve often maintained age-segregated spaces.
While it’s true that children, youth, and adults do have different needs and interests in these areas, it’s ALSO true that there’s a lot that we have to offer each other and a lot the Holy Spirit can create among us when we choose to worship, pray, and explore our life and faith together.
Together, we share wisdom shaped by different life experiences, insights from a wider variety of perspectives, and come to enjoy the gift of truly belonging to each other. When we always separate for worship and formation, a lot of this sharing is cut off at the knees.
I hope you will enthusiastically join in exploring how you and our entire community may grow from walking this Way of Love more fully together. As we prepare for October 1st, here are a few ways you may wish to support this effort:
1. Pray that we may be equipped with all we need for this new path to which God calls us.
2. Sign up to serve as a “Pew Buddy” with a young family at 9:30 AM. We’ll provide you with all you need to offer young families the best of our hospitality and support; and you may just make some new friends in the process. Click here to learn more!
3. Sign up to attend TAPESTRY at 11:15 perhaps once or twice a month over the next few months so that we can be assured of having a “critical mass” of humans from our various generations there each week to support the development of this new service. You may eventually choose TAPESTRY as your primary worshiping community – and you may not – but for the first 3 to 6 months, it will help us get off to a good start if you support this effort with your presence as well as your prayers. Click here to sign up!
While these new efforts are front and center for me -personally at the moment, there’s a lot more going on in our life together at St. John’s, too. For example there’s an “Arty Party” this evening celebrating the works of parishioner Suzi Hetzel’s art students with music by Karole Badgley (note name change from Marcia Klinder-Badgley). There’s a rock concert coming up at the end of the month which will also be a “food-raiser” for Tri-Area Ministries. We continue with Farm to Fork outreach through the harvest season and share meals with our neighbors twice a week through Wake Forest Community Table. Supper Clubs are starting up for the Fall, and many fellowship groups within the parish are meeting again after some time off this Summer.
Please find details here in your eNews, and if you need any help getting connected with activities or groups of interest to you, please contact Barbara in the parish office and she will be very glad to assist.
As always, this comes with Love,
Mo. Sarah+