Two week's ago our District Church Council met with leaders of the Guiding and Scouting organisations that are associated with St Paul's and which meet in our church for their weekly sessions. We wanted to explore the ways that we could better support each other and to understand why the numbers of children coming to our "Parade" services had steadily fallen in the last three years.
There are several reasons, ranging from the alternative activities (football, swimming etc.) that the children are involved with on Sunday mornings, to the problem of groups not meeting in the preceding week due to holidays.
We decided to reduce the number of Parade services to five a year: Mothering Sunday, June, Harvest, Remembrance and the Christmas Toy service. All of these are well supported and it helps clarify expectations to know that we won't have a Parade on the other months.
The good news is that overall attendance at the "Parade" services is good. It's clear that many people enjoy being in a church service which lasts under an hour, in which all ages are present, and which includes opportunity for laughter as well as reverence. In the months that don't have a "Parade" service, we'll therefore have an "All Together Church" service instead. This will retain much of the flavour of the "Parade" service but without the flags and uniforms. We hope to see this service continue to grow and for our worship and learning across the generations to develop.
