2009 Annual Report

Submitted by Linda†

         The Worship Committee consists of members who are interested in liturgy planning and those who are parts of various ministries that support our liturgy.  They serve as eyes and ears to the congregation and are always open to receiving your feedback.  A regular agenda item of the Worship Committee is to discuss any feedback the group has heard or suggestions to enrich our liturgy.  One example of feedback is that many have expressed delight in having the Christmas Pageant on Epiphany Sunday.  This is the second year the pageant was postponed, due to inclement weather, to Epiphany Sunday.  Parents have indicated that it gives them and the children something to look forward to after Christmas.  We will therefore schedule the pageant for 2010 on Epiphany Sunday in early 2011.

            The Eucharistic prayers continue to be rotated with the occasional use of prayers from Enriching Our Worship.   This is done to enlarge the understanding of the very familiar words by using some slightly different words that cause one to ponder more deeply the meaning of the familiar.  We have discussed the use of some different musical settings for Service Music and to have Kenny teach us some new hymns on occasion.  We may use a hymn in place of the traditional Doxology.  Some of these plans are the result of feedback, and some are just around our desire to enrich our worship.  We hope to have Theresa do a Godly Play story during the sermon time, so that adults can enjoy the way our children are taught.  During the year we continued to interject prayers from Intercessions for the Christian People—again to vary the forms of Prayers of the People.

            Each season was filled with the richness of our liturgical traditions.  Bishop Ahrens preached and celebrated on Palm Sunday.  On Good Friday we used the Children’s Way of the Cross with our young people as readers at each station.  In the evening on Good Friday the Way of the Cross included the Millennium Development Goals’ stations.  Easter Day was celebrated with the baptism of two little ones being welcomed into Christ’s fold.  Trinity hosted the North Central Deanery Confirmation service where Bishop Ahrens confirmed ten Trinity young adults and received one adult into the Episcopal Church along with many from other Deanery churches.  The Rite of the Catechumens was included in our late May liturgy to begin the next group of Confirmands in their preparation.

            We welcomed some new folks into our doors with a Paws in the Pews service in May and in November—services that welcomed people and their pets to worship.  Blessing of the Animals was held in October.  We again used additional periods of silence in our worship during Advent and Lent.

            I am grateful for the work and ministry of the Worship Committee—Theresa Bellacosa, Renà Giesselman, Kathy Hart, Joan Hayes, Roseann Kitching, Phyllis Lowell, Peg Pinton.  Jan Atkins joins us in January, 2010.  We look for ways to enrich while honoring the beauty of our tradition.  If you would like to join us or offer us some feedback, please contact any one of us.

Respectfully submitted,
The Rev. Linda Spiers, Rector