[Magdalen] Crazy Sunday schedule

Tue Dec 22 17:44:10 UTC 2015

I have for 19 years been incumbent ofa group of 8 parishes. I have an 
associate priest on two Sundays per month and churchwardens lead morning 
prayer thre times perm month.
The normal pattern of services is:
First Sunday of the month
8am HC (said) - Church Broughton *
9.30am Mattins  - Boylestone (churchwarden)
11.00am HC - Sutton (retired priest or me)
11.15am HC (me or Retired priest) - Longford
11.00am Mattins - Trusley (Churchwarden)
3.00p.m. Evensong - Dalbury *
7.00p.m. Evensong - Long Lane *

Second Sunday of the month
8.30am HC (said) - Long Lane *
9.30a. HC - Church Broughton *
11.00am HC - Radbourne *
11.00a.m. Mattins - Sutton (churchwarden)
11.00am HC - Trusley *
5.00pm HC - Boylestone *
6.30p.m. Evensong - Longford*

Third Sunday of the month
8.00a.m. HC (said) Sutton *
9.30a.m. HC Church Broughton (associate priest)
9.30am Mattins  - Boylestone (churchwarden)
10.00am Informal Family Service - Longford *
11.00a.m. HC Dalbury *
12noon HC Trusley (said) *
2.30p.m. (winter) or 7.00p.m. (summer) Evensong - Long Lane

Fourth Sunday of the month
8.00a.m. HC (said) Church Broughton *
9.30a.m. HC (said) - Longford (associate priest)
9.30a.m. HC - Boylestone *
11.00a.m. HC - Long Lane (associate priest)
11.00a.m. Informal Family Service - Sutton *
3.00p.m. (winter) 6.30p.m. (summer) - Evensong - Radbourne *
6.45p.m. Evensong - Trusley * in winter - churchwarden in summer

Fifth Sunday of the month
10.30am United service for all 8 parishes and 2 local Methodist churches 
- HC * if in an Anglican church or  Methodist morning service if in 
Methodist church - the host officiates and the visiting minister preaches
If the service has been in the Methodist church, then there is said HC* 
in one of the parish churches at 6.30p.m.

Services marked with * are normally taken by me

This programme of services works for me - and after most services I have 
time to stop and chate with the congregation. All congregations are 
aware that there could be a late start if I am delayed, but this rarely 
happens. Some of the congregations are very small - to be expected as 
our population is small.
Christmas can get hectic! I have led 6 parish carol services so far and 
have a 7th this evening. My associate priest has led one. I have also 
been involved in 8 nativity play performances (5 for our 3 church 
schools) together with 2 school carol services. Then I will officate at 
a 5p.m. informal Crib Service and 10pm HC & 11.30pm HC on Christmas Eve 
and 9.45am HC & 11a.m. HC on Christmas Day. Others will officiate at 
other 10p.m. & 11.30p.m. HC on Christmas Eve and 10.15am HC on Christmas 
Day.

I know that there will be a need to make adjustments to this schedule 
before I retire in about 18 months time but I have been very happy with 
it. No doubt if I had a wife and/or children I would see things 
differently. I do feel it to a great privilege to minister to all these 
small communities. The 8 churches spread over an area about 10 miles 
diameter. 6 of the churches are at least partly medieval, one  was 
totally rebuilt 300 years ago and one built from scratch just over 125 
years ago. The tiniest congregation  (All Saints', Dalbury) can proudly 
claim the distinction of having in its church the oldest panel of 
stained glass anywhere in Britain (dating from the early 12th or late 
11th century).

....
....
God bless

Michael Bishop
rev at michaelbishop.name

Rector of St John the Baptist, Boylestone; St Michael & All Anghels, Church Broughton; All Saints, Dalbury; St Chad, Longford; Christ Church, Long Lane;
St Michael, Sutton-on-the-Hill; All Saints', Trusley

Diocese of Derby, England

On 22/12/2015 16:57, Grace Cangialosi wrote:
> Yes, the alternating services between buildings had occurred to me, but right now there's too much animosity between the congregations. When they do combine services, there are folks who won't come. That's something the interim will need to work on.
> And you're right--the Diocese can't impose a solution. As long as the churches aren't receiving diocesan aid, they can keep the doors open.
>
>> On Dec 22, 2015, at 11:36 AM, "Charles Wohlers" <charles.wohlers at verizon.net> wrote:
>>
>> Reminds me of the situation in Brandon, VT, where my wife Lee was interim for ~2 years. It was a better situation than you describe, however, and may show you a direction to go in.
>>
>> There are also two churches, also about 5 miles apart. One is a largish standard stone gothic building located in downtown Brandon (pop. ~4500); the other is a very cute carpenter gothic wooden church in "suburban" Forest Dale - a much smaller community. Forest Dale originally existed thanks to iron mining & smelting and the church was built by the owner for his workers (a common arrangement, as you probably know). The parishes both date from the 1830's or 1840's or so, and have always had a common rector. When Lee arrived (2006), they still had separate vestries but had long since worshipped together, alternating between the two buildings. Her predecessor, BTW, also had a long tenure - 20 years. While Lee was there the parishes finally merged officially, and now the worship schedule is Forest Dale in the winter, Brandon in the summer. (The Forest Dale church is smaller and so cheaper to heat). There has long been talk of closing one of the buildings, but - which one? One is centrally located but expensive to maintain, while the other is out-of-the-way but cheaper to maintain.
>>
>> So - combining the two parishes with services alternating between them is one possibility, but, as you know, is easy in theory but can be very difficult to accomplish. My personal experience tells me that any desire to merge needs to originate with the parishes, and not with the Diocese.
>>
>> Lee was also interim at two parishes in Fall River, with a schedule similar to what you describe (but only two services, not three). And these were only a mile or so apart, in a city. The parish with the early service always felt a bit cheated, as the priest had to run off to the other service. They also had a common priest for some years. They eventually merged and sold one of the buildings.
>>
>> Just my experience -
>>
>> Chad Wohlers
>> East Bridgewater, MA USA
>> chadwohl at satucket.com
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message----- From: Grace Cangialosi
>> Sent: Tuesday, December 22, 2015 12:51 AM
>> To: Magdalen
>> Subject: [Magdalen] Crazy Sunday schedule
>>
>> Yesterday I supplied over the mountain in two small churches whose rector left about three months ago. He was in seminary with me, and he had served those two churches for 24 years, though he had been looking to leave for several years.
>> The churches were two of the thirty missions established here in the Blue Ridge by Archdeacon Neve at the beginning of the 20th century. I served two of them from 1991-2000. There are only about six still open, and the two where I was yesterday are the only ones with parish status.
>>
>> I supplied early last summer for a combined service there, but I'd never done the whole Sunday schedule until yesterday. I cannot imagine putting up with it for 24 years!  The two churches are about five miles apart, and there are three services. The 8:00 service is at Grace; there's no music, because they don't have an organist. It's their main service, and twice a month they have breakfast afterwards.
>> The 9:30 service is up the road at St. Stephen and the Good Shepherd. They do have an organist, so there's music. Nothing after the service, and anyway, I had to leave right after the service to go back to Grace for the 11:00 service. There's no opportunity for fellowship with the 9:30 congregation because of the tight schedule. Still no music at 11, though they did ask if we could sing one of the hymns listed in the bulletin for 9:30. So we did two a cappella. There was one little boy who came with his grandparents; he was the only child I saw all morning. There was nothing after that service, either. Each church has its own budget and vestry, and they barely speak to one another. One church did its best to make the former rector's life miserable. He was never paid diocesan  scale.
>>
>> Obviously he didn't do anything to change all that, and they basically called the shots for his entire tenure.  All three services were Rite II, but I was astonished to learn that they've never had Lay Eucharistic Ministers in the service. In fact, they looked at me as if I had two heads when I asked about it! At one service a retired priest asked if I'd like him to help administer the chalice, and I was glad to take him up on it.  They had also never had a lay person do the Prayers of the People! A woman came to me before the last service and asked if she could read aloud the names from the prayer list, since they hadn't done that in a long time.
>>
>> The total attendance for the three services was about 43. They've been told they will need to have an interim, and they can't start the search process for awhile, because there will need to be some changes. I just can't imagine someone wanting to go there under the present circumstances. There is a lovely rectory across from Grace Church, but there's no garage, so it's always obvious whether the rector is at home or away.
>>
>> Folks were very nice to me and said they hoped I'd come back, but I'm not sure about that. They've apparently bein given the
>> name of a possible interim, but I think she lives a couple of hours away. It's a little over an hour for me, but I know the road over the mountain like the back of my hand. Having three services in and of itself isn't too bad--lots of bigger churches do that. It's the running back and forth that's exhausting. They did give me the option--said they leave the choice of having the third service up to the supply priest. If s/he doesn't want to do the third service, it's just cancelled. The senior warden said they usually only have 8-10 people at that service. There were 12 yesterday.
>>
>> I know there are lots of little churches like this, including the two I served before, which are struggling with mostly lay leadership and  monthly visits from  a priest, but I don't see much future for them unless there is a totally new model. Working ecumenically with other churches in the area would be a possibility, but for many folks that's almost unthinkable.
>>
>> I guess the question is whether they should be closed or continue to limp along until folks die off. There is no growth potential in that rural area.