All-Age Worship
Annual All-Saints Season Memorial Service
Annual Pre-Christmas Candle Service
Christingle Services
Holy Eucharist/Communion
Mattins
All-Age Worship
If you like a chat, discussion and a drink and biscuit? If you have young children who don’t enjoy sitting still for a long time? If you’re aged between 1 month and 80 years? If you enjoy something a little more informal? If you only have 40 minutes to spare then All Age worship is the service for you.
We meet at St Cynfarch’s (Hope Parish Church) on the second Sunday of each month at 11am, and at Emmanuel on the first Sunday of the month at 4pm.
Each service consists of a combination of talking and reading, through this we focus on our life experience and then link that directly to a passage from the Bible. Everyone is involved in the discussion; this is done by chatting firstly with your neighbour and then sharing any ideas with the whole group if people wish to do so. Music is played on CDs or keyboard and is used to sing to or just to listen to.
We aim for a comfortable atmosphere where children can play while you have a chance to speak your thoughts, ask questions and listen to others.
Annual All-Saints Season Memorial Service
This service is held at St Cynfarch’s on a Sunday evening close to All Saints Day (November 1st) and is especially for people from the area who have lost a loved one during the past year. The Rector invites personally the families of those whose funerals have been held at either Church during the preceding year, and notice of the service is given well in advance so that anyone else who wishes to can attend. Many families find comfort in this opportunity to reflect and remember a loved one some time after the stress surrounding the funeral itself, and to meet in fellowship other families and members of the congregation.
Annual Pre-Christmas Candle Service
Each year, in early to mid December, we hold a simple service which provides a quiet space for reflection and remembrance and the opportunity to light a candle in memory of loved ones.
Many of us look back fondly to Christmases past and miss those no longer with us; some have family and friends far away or who are perhaps too ill to join them. For some of us the Christmas season becomes very hectic and we feel the need for a quiet space for reflection.
Whatever the reason for attending, everyone is warmly welcome to this service which lasts approximately 40 minutes, and tea and coffee is available afterwards. The date for the 2008 service will be posted during the autumn.
Our annual Christingle service which takes place on Christmas Eve has proved so popular with families that in 2007 we decided to hold two services to avoid both disappointment and over-crowding. One was held at 3.00pm and the other one at 5.00pm, and since both services were fully attended it is anticipated that a similar pattern will be followed in 2008 – due notice will be given.
We celebrate the Christmas story using the old Moravian custom of decorated oranges: the orange represents the earth, the sweets stuck into the organges represent the fruits of the earth, and the candle placed in the orange represents Christ, the Light of the World.
Our main service is that of Holy Eucharist, where we remember Jesus sharing a meal with his followers shortly before his death and asking them to on doing this in remembrance of him. The heart of the service is the sharing of bread in the form of sanctified wafers, and of wine, representing the sacrifice Jesus made of his body and blood.
Members of all denominations who normally take communion in their own churches are welcome to join us in taking communion.
Our Communion services vary in style, and includes the 8am said Communion, Choral Communion with traditional language and modern language with familiar musical settings – something for all preferences! See “Our Regular Pattern of Worship” for more information.
Mattins
Mattins is the old service of Morning Service and is not a communion service. It can be a short, said service, but at St Cynfarch’s we take the opportunity, whenever there is a fifth Sunday in the month, to keep alive the tradition of singing the psalms and anthems. The Anglican church has a great tradition of church music and we hope we are helping to keep this tradition alive.