 |
|
|
Observation 1
Church One Observation Report
26th June 2005
This was the first of our official observations. (The previous week the team had used Church One to do a 'dry run' to see whether the proposed method of observation was workable). Church One is my home church, and it was for that reason that I chose to do my first observation there, as I was guaranteed at least a warm welcome, and I am familiar with the worship pattern there.
I positioned the research team around the church, taking care to position two researchers in good view of where the young people always sit when they return from Sunday School.
Church One has three Sunday School groups catering for children age 3-18, and a crèche for the under 3's. These groups start at 9.15am, a quarter of an hour before the service begins. The Sunday School groups come into church during the communion hymns, and join the queue to receive communion or a blessing as appropriate. The majority of the young people are in church for the final hymn only, giving them very little opportunity to learn any of the music usually sung in church (or anything else to do with the celebration of the liturgy, for that matter). There is occasional singing in Sunday School, but what is sung there is not what is sung at the regular parish Eucharist.
There were two teenagers (confirmed the previous week) who opted to stay for the entire service and participated in the sung worship throughout. All the other teenagers, many of whom are confirmed, went to their 'Seekers' group in the church cottage.
Church One does have a choir, shared with another church that is part of the joint benefice, but the choir was not singing at this service, and in any event has no junior members who belong to the church.
Back to Top
|
|
|
|