The need for service Post Mortems
Pearl B4 Swine
Shipmate
Does your church ever get the staff together to hash out what went well, what went badly, what no one thought about doing, before the event fades from memory? I'm thinking mostly about one-off services, "special occasions" like Christmas Eve, Lessons & Carols, Ash Wed., etc.
The reason ought to be preventing similar f'ups the next time these services must be done. Usually, Christmas Eve won't be thought about before next December.
Does your place leave it to chance, that things will go smoother next year? Or do you address confusing or awkward goings-on while still fresh in mind? Would it be a waste of time? Or would it be a Good Thing that ought to make worship more meaningful and well-done?
The reason ought to be preventing similar f'ups the next time these services must be done. Usually, Christmas Eve won't be thought about before next December.
Does your place leave it to chance, that things will go smoother next year? Or do you address confusing or awkward goings-on while still fresh in mind? Would it be a waste of time? Or would it be a Good Thing that ought to make worship more meaningful and well-done?
Comments
There's a story here...
For us, even when fully staffed (i.e. when we have a minister) we don't have a team that you would call to such a meeting. As the person in charge of our candlelit service at Christmas I think it went quite well, though I kicked myself again for missing some oddities in the versions of carols printed on the service sheet.
For some reason the idea of the altar guild having multiple heads makes me imagine it as some kind of hydra.
We have these after Christmas, Lent, HW & Easter, any large-scale "specials" (confirmations for the Deanery, for example). We've had the first post-Christmas session and they'll be a brief agreement on what changes we propose for next year at the next PCC meeting.
In addition, there is always a planning meeting in January to set dates for things like concerts - ours is next week, when we'll fix final dates for carol service, Christmas Fair, Easter Oratorio, etc, etc, et
Sounds about right.
We (the Ministry Team - viz. myself, fellow-Reader, Madam Sacristan, churchwarden) discuss with Father NewPriest on an ad-hoc basis as to how things have gone, what to do next time etc., and this works well for us. Father NP has shown himself, so far, to be flexible in his approach, and prepared to listen/change.
Perhaps apt. It had been headed by one woman, but she moved last year. There’s no other person that has both the sewing and craft skills, as well as the organizational skills. Thus two. Perhaps necessity is how hydras develop.
Here's the bloody thing, though ...... musicians practice, the church is meticulously cleaned, the servers are rehearsed, and the flower arrangers go to great lengths, brass is polished and vestments and cloths are laundered ..... but the readers are always the weakest link. They stumble and mumble their way through things. It doesn't matter what is said at the meeting neither the clergy nor those in charge of readers seem willing to engage with the problem. This is a real issue when it comes to the Passions on Palm Sunday and Good Friday, and the many readings at the Easter Vigil.
Drives me nuts!!!!!
The problem with all such "post-mortems" is that folk who do their job well are quite amenable to review and constructive criticisms; it's the folk who do things badly who get "aerated" and aggressive.
The story is that when I was in my late teens and singing in the church choir in spite of multiple warnings about maintaining a safe distance from the choir member in front, two of the juniors had a go at incinerating each other. Then there is the wax problem, even with the drip cups... There is also the problem of how do you juggle a hymnal and a candle. I am also paranoid about the risk of fire, which goes back to a bad experience when I was a lay assistant in a parish, and the church burnt down.
At St Oddball's the post-mortem is usually conducted over coffee the next Sunday and usually consists of organist, reader, minister, and senior warden. The take-aways this time were:
1. Print more bulletins, no matter how pessimistic the vicar is about attendance
2. We really need to get the 1960s additions to the organ re-voiced so they can be used without making the dogs within a three mile radius howl.
3. Remember to have the reader on chalice duty.
4. We need to do something about the lighting in the pulpit.
On the whole Christmas went well because we kept it simple so that the two principle actors, as it were, the organist and the me were inside our comfort zones.
That bulletin also instructs people that when "passing the light," so to speak, the person with the lighted candle keeps it pointed up, and only the person lighting his or her candle tips the candle. Wax on the floor doesn't seem to be a problem.
Anyone who didn't sign up for the first rehearsal opportunity was reminded in person or by direct telephone call of the time and date for the second rehearsal. Anyone who still didn't come out was given their own training time by mutual arrangement. It really helped many of the Elders understand both the global reasoning for what they were doing and the practical side of it.
In fact, one time at a rehearsal, a young boy who was an excellent reader, was prompted to do the reading in the style of the minister. We first suggested he do it in a whisper and then with a funny accent and a few more ideas and then lit on the idea of doing in like Mr. Minister's Name. Well, it was hilarious. He made a great job of it - slow, at a bold volume, and with tremendous confidence.
Yes, this is a labour intensive way of changing a culture but it worked beautifully and provided meaningful experiences for everyone.
Regarding Readers: When I've asked for a Reader meeting in early Fall to remind them of do's & don'ts, and keeping the instructions on a positive note-- not a "you're doing it wrong" lecture, Priest-in-charge always counters with "they'll quit ! We have trouble enough getting anyone to be a Reader." There are 2 or 3 who take advantage of having an audience to speak to, and invent some timely chit-chat before actually getting around to the scripture reading. Sometimes it is an explanation of the reading. And- at the end instead of a decent pause, treats "The Word of the Lord" as a mumble attached to the last phrase of the lesson.
Now Christmas Eve with the dreaded candle- lit singing of Silent Night ! We've had sudden total dark, had no adjustment to the lights at all (which was this year's way); forgetting to bring the lights up for the rest of the service, and juggling hymnal and candle. There needs to be instruction BEFORE Silent Night rolls around.
I'm opposed to a general Music and Worship committee. A waste of time, and annoying. Complainers who say things like "Can't we sing Amazing Grace more often?" or- "We have never heard some of the tunes you pick" No one can sing them". "The organ is too loud."
But, Ive strayed from my original question. Sloppy, ill-prepared services make Our Holy Blessed Lady moan and weep.
I have only once seen someone set on fire the hair of the person in front. Having seen the insurance value of our building and it's current state I'm not sure that burning it to the ground would be a complete disaster.
1. I can at least partly get over my paranoia about fire.
2. I can actually find a liturgical function for it.
The usual way it is done around here seems to be the candles are lit after communion, and everyone sings "Silent night" whilst the priest does the washing up. The problem there is that I do the washing up during the final hymn, so a hymn after communion is basically redundant, so how do I recycle this piece of sentiment tripe? So far the solution has escaped me.
I would love to be able to do post mortems with my worship team who take services when I can’t be on more than one place at a time (funny that). But every time I suggest it the one who has appointed himself the key organiser finds a reason why this is not going to work. Things will come to a head on this soon, I think. One way or another.
We used the candles throughout, and it being 9 lessons and carols communion was not an issue. Small congregation too which makes it easier. One of the churches where I grew up used to do midnight mass by candlelight, but that was achieved by having every ledge and window sill of a 14th century village church stuffed with them so no-one needed to hold them.
I'd wager that in my tribe, only the very smallest churches lack a worship committee, since for us worship falls under the oversight of minister and Session together, and Sessions tend to do most of their work by committee. I'd say if any time at all is spent on things like carping on hymn choices or the like, the committee has totally lost its way and is indeed wasting everyone's time.
That said, I've served on worship committees off and on for 40+ decades, and I've rarely heard that kind of complaining in a worship committee meeting. (And on the few occasions when I have heard it, it was tactfully shut down pretty quickly.)
Last parish was rather small for any committee but the Senior Warden and priests would review what worked, what didn't. With all due respect to every organist here, our major nag each sepcial service was the organist. He had a, let us say, a healthy ego (aka he thought everything as about the music, not the liturgy as a whole.). The mini committee would, next time the special event came around, review its notes, and the enter to battle with the organist. Since I'left there he has been released from his duties. They've hired a more collegial organist and are happy, and keeping note and using them for future planning, witout battles.
It is certainly a lot easier to manage the candlelight thing with something like Nine Lessons and Carols. We have communion on Christmas as our organist plays for both us and the Presbyterians, so we do not have the musical resources to do both Nine Lessons and Carols and the Communion, and with that choice to be made, I go with Communion. Amazingly most of the congregation agree with me. I just have the two who want to do the candle thing like they did when they were in their old parish.
I don't do worship committees. Actually, if I am given my druthers I do not do committees at all unless their is a pressing need for them. I am on too many of them at diocesan level to take kindly to replicating the tribe unnecessarily. We have a vestry committee, and that seems to be enough for the time being, and we may need a building and ground committee at some point, but that seems to be about it for the foreseeable future.
Seriously though, among my people, ministers rarely can say “I don’t do worship committees.” There are certain decisions about worship—including setting the dates and times of any services, approving celebration of the sacraments, and arrangement and appointments of the worship space—that are the province of the Session, not the minister. So, for example, if the minister wants to have a service on April Fools Eve, the Session must authorize that service or it can’t happen. Likewise, if the minister wants to install a presence light in the chancel (yes, I know of one in a Presbyterian church) or put an icon of John Knox in the sanctuary, the Session must approve that.
Granted, the minister typically has influence on how the Session chooses to go about its business, but ultimately that decision belongs to the Session. And except in small congregations, the Session and the minister are going to want to commit much of its work to committees, as the alternative can be interminable meetings with the Session acting as a committee of the whole.
I don't think I would know how to handle a parish that was very committee orientated. They do exist, but you are unlikely to run across one in the sort of small town environment to which I prefer to minister. The odd time I ran into them when I was being trained, they always seem to be very large, somewhat political churches. Not in the party sense, but in terms of the way things get done - i.e. the sort of place that lives and dies by Robert's Rules. Size brings its challenges, and I have always preferred to minister in churches in the 50 to 150 member bracket than those in the 150 to 500. My senior warden pushes a more consensus approach with which I am basically in sympathy, but I find it too cumbersome in some respects - i.e. when the decision involves a roof leak, rather than an intellectual concept.
Episcopal: rule by Bishops
Congregational: rule by congregational meeting
Presbyterian: rule by committee
Our church has an informal Monday night coffee meeting at which any elder can provide feedback on the service, and at which elders are given an outline of the minister's diary for the week, and prayer requests for his work.
It's an excellent scheme, but I haven't been for ages. Generally, I only go if the North East Man is going too, and vice versa. If either of us has missed the service (he's away a lot with work) we don't go. Plus, I don't go if I've missed the sermon, due to being on Sunday School rota. And I don't go if I've another evening committed to a church committee that week, because it can end up feeling like I'm never away from the place.
Perhaps I should make a New Year's Resolution to go at least once a month.
Some years ago now, my mother, who had experienced candle light on Christmas Eve, asked to donate the candles and the minister went along with it. This church had wall sconces with real candles on a pop-up spring that made them pretty efficient at staying put and not dripping or anything. These were used for any evening services and especially at Christmas with the chuch lights on just enough for reading the bulletin and hymn books. In any case, that year that the candles were used, I asked the four pre-teen and teenage daughters of one family to be the ones to bring the light from the communion table to the congregation. Their mother had a slow moving terminal illness. I just thought that of all of the families, theirs was the one that deserved to have a warm moment, especially for the mother and the daughters to remember. While it might be too emotional for some, and while a person could say that it had the possibility of distracting people from the point of the service, it was a truly memorable time of what some call "thin space" and the essence of an evening anticipating and celebrating the birth of a child who would grow up to be the Saviour was embodied in the action that those girls took. I guess what I am saying is, that all of the reasons not to use candles can be worked out and that it is an opportunity where people are both ready and expecting to have an experience of Christ being present.
When I am in a place where candles, or more recently, penlights, are used, it reminds me of that feeling that night. If you have never felt it, you don't know it and can only hear it described. But if you participate in it, you will be reminded of it when you come close to it again.
And yes, I am completely in favour of committees so that one person can explain to the others how they experienced the service and any changes that were made or need to be made can be recorded in a collective memory and not in that of a lone ranger who may or may not be there next year.
I would add that in practice they end up being hybrids. Technically my tribe is Episcopal, but in practice it is more like "bishop-in-presbytery" thanks to the synodical structures we inherited from the parent organisation who in turn created them back in the 1780s. The bishop does not have much autonomy, though he can, with good cause overrule certain decision made by the Standing Committee, but not the Diocesan Council. There is also a limited right of veto, which in our diocese works as follows. The bishop can veto, but if the synod is really determined they can vote to over ride the veto, but they need a two-thirds vote to do it.
Someone has to make the prophora (and remember to bring it), somone has to have the troparia and kontakia at their fingertips (and in the right tone), likewise the Matins Canon. For Theophany the large vessel for the Blessing of the Waters, for Palm Sunday the fragrant bunches tied with ribbons, enough for everyone and spares, for Pascha the red candles (with drip trays) and the red & white carnations to take home, the cushion for the priest's knees at the Pentecost Vespers, the trikiri and dikiri if the Bishop is visiting, etc. etc.
So many surprises and so little monotony - that's what contributes to making Orthodox worship glorious.
Rule by Vicar's wife and her BBF is the danger here. Says he feeling henpecked.
True, but there's nothing to post-mortem, in the sense of "what worked and what could we do differently." The services are glorious, but not mix-and-match.
The Law of the Medes and the Persians applies...
(And maybe what attracts people to their only service of the year is precisely the divergent, unusual twinkle).
An opportunity not by any means to be despised, or rejected.
(This may, in all fairness, lead to the question as to why they don't come to any other service!)
I'm told that a number of churches now have their 'Midnight Mass', or 'First Mass/Eucharist/Communion of Christmas' at a somewhat earlier time - 8pm or thereabouts - on Christmas Eve. Without wishing to go off on too much of a tangent, I wonder if those churches have found this earlier time to suit people better - not just the 'regular' churchgoers, but the occasionals, too?