Questions from the survey and the APCM 

Why have you changed the logo?  Can we have the old logo back please?

The old logo has not been taken out of use altogether – we are using it more as a ‘seal’ on official documents.  For example, baptism certificates and godparents’ certificates all have the logo, which is a beautiful piece of line drawing.  We’re also hoping to have it etched on a pane of glass as part of the reordering project so we can keep it permanently.

Unfortunately the old design doesn’t work too well on screens and mobile devices and tends to disappear at a distance. So we talked about this at PCC and then designed the new logo. It took the team (Frank, Miriam, Lindiwe and myself) a long time, lots of conversations and the help of a graphic designer before we came up with the current design. The principle behind it is that it reflects part of the building (the arch over the cross) and also incorporates two key Christian symbols, the rainbow and the cross, which are the symbols of the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. The rainbow is also a symbol of peace and inclusion, which reflects our values as a church, and the whole is colourful and easy to recognise.  It will form part of our branding going forward. 

Can we have some input into the reordering plans?

The plans have been approved by the DAC and gone forward to the Diocesan Advisory Committee for faculty discussions. They can’t, therefore, be changed at this stage, though if there are any questions about the plans we’re happy to answer them. 

Can we do anything about the sound system?

The sound system is a problem and we appreciate this. The handheld mike is quite weak and the speakers are badly positioned, and the whole system is too old to upgrade and needs replacement. The lavalier microphone has no ‘off’ switch and Anne has to keep unplugging it. The loop system does not work and I apologise to all those who would wish to use this. 

We have had a professional sound engineer in to quote us for a new system, along with audio-visual equipment. However, we don’t want to buy a new system at this stage for two reasons. Firstly, we need to keep our reordering capital together as much as possible, so when we are applying for funding we can demonstrate we have already raised a decent sum and we can apply for matched funding. Secondly, the reordering will change both the layout and the acoustics. We will have a proper sound desk with the new system, rather than the box in the Vestry, and this needs a space in the church. We need to position the speakers in the best places. The Church of the Ascension is difficult to engineer for sound as there is a lot of reverberation and it is felt that careful positioning of a number of small speakers around the room, rather than just two as now, would be better for people generally. 

A new sound system is a key part of the Ascension transformation plans. 

We don’t seem to promote our third world activity as much as we used to.  Why is this?

Apologies if we are giving this impression, but we have actually tried to raise the profile of the Majority World Appeal by giving it a permanent noticeboard rather than the temporary fixture we had before. We also now include links in the newsletter to the causes every week.  Part of our vision is ‘The Church of the Ascension focuses on social action for justice.’  Justice and social action are vital both in the UK and overseas and we see no distinction between these. Both are equally important and equally worthy. We continue to support Christian Aid Week as well as our Majority World charities each year. We also support Amnesty’s human rights work, through hosting the book sales and by doing their publicity printing and writing letters of support. We have a speaker from Tear Fund coming in September who will talk about climate change, one of the most important issues facing all of us, but which will disproportionately affect people who are already impoverished.  

We now use the term ‘majority world’ rather than ‘third world’.

We only promote new things, we don’t promote the work that’s gone on for a long time. For example, we’re always talking about Messy Church, Open Table and Diddy Disciples and we don’t talk about Young People’s Church (Sunday School)

It’s natural to need to promote new activities more.  People know about existing services that have happened for many years already. Infrequent activities like Messy Church and Open Table need a lot of publicity.  We do include all existing services in our leaflets and list all our services on the noticeboard and in the newsletter. The clergy attend both services and activities as much as possible, like Start the Month. As Happy Sunday is usually fully attended we don’t spend a lot of publicity effort on it, but we do try to time the announcement so people are able to book up. Anne will add any church activity to the calendar and include it in the newsletter if you email her with full details. If it would help to 

Can we have a worship committee that meets in the evenings? The weekly meeting is in the daytime which excludes people in paid work.

Actually the majority of people attending the meeting have been in paid work, just not conventional hours. The weekly meeting is also representative of the congregation, with a mix of retired people, people in work and a student. We have single people, married people and parents, and the meeting varies from week to week – only the clergy are expected to attend every week.  However, we do appreciate that some people would like to be able to attend this and can’t, and once a month I will move the weekly meeting to an evening and see how that goes. 

At the end of the day, the member of the clergy who is responsible for an act of worship is the curator and has the final say on liturgy, but we do listen to the congregation and respond. Clergy have many years of training in the creative direction of worship - it is not as easy as it looks!  It is important that worship is distinctive rather than a mishmash of styles and this is one reason you may have a strong preference for one service rather than another. We do try to keep a theme and style coherent through a service, so choir Sunday is slightly more formal than other Sundays and all-age worship is more accessible throughout.

Can you give us more advance notice of changes?

Too much discussion of minor changes is often inconclusive. All changes tend to be resisted at first, before becoming the new norm, and so worship can become sterile and bland if we respond to every concern. However, we will try to listen to everyone’s views and to discuss things as far as we can – and if you really hate something, we are prepared to change it again! 

The Ascension is a diverse congregation and most things that have provoked objections have also provoked positive comments, and vice versa. Some of that diversity needs to be reflected in our worship. 

There is a difference between permanent changes and swapping things around, trying new prayers and so on, which tend to be experimental and temporary. If you find something is surprising one week, it may well not be like that forever. We are a liberal church that aims to be forward-thinking and at times that means changing up our worship. The clergy will always listen to feedback with interest.

We’d like more people to come to church

So would we!  What we can do is continue to worship faithfully, to build a church that is centred around prayer, to support the clergy as they continue their work and to ensure that we are a welcoming and hospitable church. The single most effective means of evangelism is personal invitation. No leaflet or event can ever substitute for this, and if you think back to your first invitation to church, it probably wasn’t from a vicar but from a friend, a teacher, a colleague or a parent. Please consider whom you might invite, and which would be a good service to bring them to.  

Please also remember that the church has been in decline for some years now, and rebuilding it means changing things. If we continue to do exactly what we have done in the past, the church will not grow and thrive – ‘if you continue to do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always got.’  The Church of the Ascension is well-placed to thrive: liberal, inclusive modern churches are doing well nationally.  Our programme of Fresh Expressions – the Ark, Messy Church and Open Table – is also important for growth. 

We’d like more communication

The question here is what type of communication, and there may be a follow-up survey about this. The clergy already produce a newsletter, a pewsheet with notices, tweets, run a Facebook page, run meetup and whatsapp groups, run a weekly leadership meeting, run PCC meeting and reordering meetings, and attend social functions such as Start the Month. Some of the electronic communication does languish and it would be helpful to have more people involved. In 2018 we did try to set up a communications team but could not get much interest, but I will restart this soon and hopefully we can do more here.  If you would like ‘more communication’, please let the Vicar know what would be helpful to you.

It is difficult to see how more communication will be beneficial unless it is through new channels, and it may be that means we don’t have time to keep other things going. We’ve also been asked by some people not to use the sermon slot or newsletter for business, but to keep them spiritually-focused.

One thing that may help would be more informal social events at the Vicarage. The fireworks party was well-attended (especially by Holy Trinity people) and was a good chance to sit and talk. Unfortunately the building works have made the Vicarage unusable for social events for four months now, but hopefully they are coming to an end and I will be opening up my home occasionally in the near future.

How long should a sermon be?

The responses to this question varied wildly and it appears we should vary the length considerably to keep everyone happy! There was particular appreciation given for sermons in a teaching style, such as the Vicar’s recent one on the Lord’s Prayer or Margaret’s sermons, and we will try to incorporate more of these. Do please bear in mind that some of our preachers are in training and it is unrealistic to expect the same standards from everyone. If you have feedback for a preacher please pass it to the Vicar and she will collate it and pass it on (or accept it with gratitude, if it is for her personally). 

Sermons have to be comprehensible to both the new Christian and someone who came to faith fifty years ago, to people of all ages and educational backgrounds, and to people who may not have English as their first language. We cannot, therefore, make all sermons teaching sermons, some at least must be simpler and shorter.

Why can’t we get an organist?

The reasons why we can’t get an organist are not entirely clear, but we are in an area with lots of churches and lots of opportunities. We are looking for a high standard of organist while not having a great deal to offer in terms of finance or career development. This is a continuing problem and we will discuss it again at PCC. There is a national shortage of church organists so bear with us, and if you happen to meet an organist in need of a church, please let us know! In the meantime, Mary works hard to ensure we always have an organist to play and this is much appreciated.

We’d like more music

Having more voluntaries (bits of music during transitions in the service, such as after communion) and more reflective music was a request with which the Vicar agrees. We will be introducing the Agnus Dei on Choir Sundays. Adding in lots of voluntaries is difficult for two reasons: one, the organist and the vicar are not within line of sight, so timing this precisely is difficult, and two, we don’t have a permanent organist so developing a routine is impossible. We will consider if we can introduce more voluntaries on all-age Sundays to help smooth the service a little.