The group meets once every three months. Our most recent meeting was on 11th September 2024, and we were delighted to welcome Rev’d Simon Leigh 2024 to his first meeting of the group. As usual we discussed general arrangements for worship, as well as future events – through to the end of February 2025 this time. As a general pattern, Simon hopes to lead morning worship at the Mint on the first and third Sundays in each month, though there will always be some exceptions. Simon also hopes to lead some of the evening communion services, though these services are also an opportunity for us to share worship with the ministers of other churches in our circuit – we look forward to welcoming Rev’d Donna Leigh to lead one of them soon.
The group discussed several topics that came up at recent Church Council meetings, or in conversations with members of the congregation. They included our current practice for taking collections (collection baskets being passed around at communion services only), and of printing service sheets. The group felt these should be discussed at the November General Church Meeting, so that everyone could have a chance to contribute their views; in both cases, however, the group did see advantages in our present practice. In particular, the printed notices sheets allow us to make known the names of those for whom prayer is requested. The group also heard that some people find it difficult to hear across the tables during discussions in café-style worship. To help with this, some smaller tables will be set out for such services in future. The general issue of audibility within the Worship centre remains a
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matter of concern, and is under regular discussion within both the Worship Consultation group and the audio-visual team. Another matter that concerns many members of the congregation is the arrangements for Communion: these have now stabilised into an alternation of distribution to pews and gathering at the front of the church. A note will be put in the printed orders of service, and on the projection screens, to let the congregation know which arrangement will be used in each communion service.
We decided at our May meeting that we should continue to record numbers attending services, and this time we looked at some preliminary analysis of the figures for attendance at morning worship. They show a slight increasing trend since the end of the pandemic lockdowns. Numbers attending online remain stable. We were also pleased to hear from Han that new families have joined our Korean congregation over the summer.
There is a table of key dates at the end of this report, but here are some highlights. In the current quarter, they include our Harvest Festival on 29th September, with a choir item and a simple lunch afterwards, a money collection for All We Can, and a collection of (non-perishable) food items for Exeter Food Bank; the annual rededication service for Pastoral Visitors and Young Church leaders on 17th November; and a united service of City Centre congregations on 24th November, which will be held at South Street Baptist Church. Advent and Christmas arrangements include All Age Worship on 8th December, a Carol Service on the evening of 15th December, a Crib Service at 4pm on Christmas Eve, and a short family-friendly service at 10.30am on Christmas Day. Our Covenant service will be held on 5th January. In early February, we hope to welcome Louise Lawrence, Professor of New Testament Interpretation at the University of Exeter, to speak in one of our services.
Sunday mornings are not the only opportunities for worship that the Mint offers. New Life Worship is planned to continue at 4pm on the fourth Sunday of the month (except for December), and an ecumenical Forest Church initiative, led by the Mint, will be launched during the autumn, to be held in the afternoon of the first Sunday of each month. Evening Communion services will normally be held on the third Sunday of each month, but in December the service will be on the 8th rather than the 15th because of the Carol Service.
Looking further ahead, Ash Wednesday is on 5th March and Easter Sunday is 20th April. On 27th April the Eco-Church group will lead a service celebrating Earth Day, which falls on 22nd April, and on 18th May we will again have a camp service at Churchill Farm, Buckfastleigh. We hope to have our Church Anniversary on 8th June, when the preacher will be Rev’d David Speirs, who was a member at the Mint while a postgraduate student and is now the Superintendent minister of the Northamption circuit.
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As always, the full minutes of the group meeting are available to any member of the congregation, and if you would like to see them, please let one of us know. The next meeting of the group is planned for 4th December 2024. If you have views on any of the points raised in this report, or indeed on any aspect of the Mint’s worshipping life, please let us know before that meeting: it’s very helpful to have comments from the congregation, and the group always welcomes and discusses any that come forward.
Stephen Lea (stephen@leafamily.org.uk), Chair
Bronwen Lea (bron@leafamily.org.uk), Secretary
