It's not just the Government that is has to decide how to 'cut the cloth to fit the suit'. Your parish church also has to do the same. In this article I will be telling you about a 'cut' affecting Dedham, but also about some 'extra cloth' being made available.
It was some 150 years ago that the service of Evening Prayer (Evensong), was re-introduced to this parish. It was not greeted with enthusiasm by all church members; many appear to have seen it as an unwelcome additional obligation upon their 'day of rest'! Over the years it has been well attended. For a long while we have been the only church in the deanery with a Sunday evening service every week. In recent years, however, attendance has slowly dwindled such that the church choir, which has been so faithful, has often out-numbered the congregation.
CHANGE TO EVENING SERVICES
The PCC has decided that, following a change in service pattern in August (when there will be only one service each Sunday, at10.30 a.m.) the regular pattern of evening services will change from this autumn. From September, Evening Prayer will be only on the first Sunday of every month. We will then be like churches in, say, Long Melford or Coggeshall, but unlike Lavenham or Ardleigh (no regular evening services).
In addition, there may be special evening services at festivals. Other weeks there will be different kinds of fellowship, not all of them in the church building, or on a Sunday. So, for example:
SUNDAY@ SIX
A fellowship for younger teenagers, which meets every Sunday during term time either at The Vicarage, or at The Croft, the home of Richard and Liz Hopkins, Tel: 322 361.
PRAYER & A PINT
A men's fellowship, in which a time of prayer will be accompanied by a glass of good beer, lager, or fruit juice, (according to taste). The first of these will be 6pm, Sunday 12 September, at the Vicarage. Hopefully, this will take place regularly, on the 2nd Sunday of each month Tel: 322 136.
GROWING LEADERS
A new study group for encouraging and training lay leadership within the local church. This will also begin in September, dates and venues to be confirmed.
Let us pray that there will be a growth in Christian fellowship in Dedham, with an increased desire to worship God together; and let us explore fresh ways of doing so.
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