Door (and area warden for old section of building)

This involves coming early—around 9:55am, and saying hello to people with welcoming word or two. People will still arrive after the service starts. You don't have to stand at the door the whole time but if the place is crowded, assist people in finding a seat by pointing out some options. Part way through the service, after most of the later arrivals have come, and before the children go out, take the fluoro notebook sitting in the Baptist Hymnbook shelf and make a quick headcount of the numbers there. If Zoom is operating, ask the Zoom technician how many connections there are.

You’re also the point of contact for the Accessibility mobile phone (on the wall next to the light switches). This is provided for those who need help getting into the auditorium and will only be used occasionally. I’m thinking we can put a wee sign on the outside stairs before the service starts with the number on it to help with this). It can also be used to call 111 in an emergency.

As part of our health and safety requirements, we have allocated the role of area warden to the door greeter. Video instructions are here for you to familiarise yourself with.

1. Grab the armband and instruction card hanging above the fire alarm switch.

2. Guide people out of sanctuary. You will then sweep the space after they've gone. (Upstairs should be locked so no need to check there)

3. Once all are evacuated report to building warden up by main alarm panel by the ramp on Mt Eden Road.

Opening Liturgy

Duration: 1–2 mins

This will be chosen and led by the service curator. Traditionally we light a candle at the start and explain it as a symbol of God's presence with us.

We will then have a more formal opening liturgy or prayer.

The ‘collect’ from the Common Lectionary is a great resource. You can also use the following prayer if you like:

(Me inoi tatou) Let's pray,

He hōnore, he korōria ki te Atua

He maungārongo ki te whenua

He whakaaro pai ki ngā tāngata katoa

Honour and glory to God

Peace on Earth

Goodwill to all people

Bring our people together

To be part of the better way

Of wisdom and righteousness

Justice and mercy

As we submit ourselves to your love.

Kia tina!

TINA! Haumi e! Hui e!

TĀIKI E!

Amene.

Song led worship

Duration: 5–15 mins

This is congregational singing, not listening to recorded music. They could be songs written by people in the congregation, traditional hymns, Iona songs, Taize chants, or songs and choruses gleaned from other sources. (Some people worry that it’s not okay to lead us in Hillsong or Parachute songs etc. It is okay. Just bear in mind you may need to teach them first and if you’re not sure how a song will connect with the congregation, just check it out with a few people).

An alternative to leading congregational singing could be for you to sing to us—either a solo performance, or get a group together to learn a choral/gospel/whatever piece. It’s best if songs are accompanied by a musician or two, but not always strictly necessary if we’re really familiar with them.

Non-singing worship

Duration: 5–15 mins

This is a time to focus our hearts and thoughts on God. It is good to avoid too many words in this slot, but it is often helpful for our reflection or activity to be accompanied by a music track. It doesn't have to be introspective—the activity or ritual you invite us into could be making or doing something, or talking to each other.

Some ideas:

• read a few Bible verses, or a short poem, and invite us to reflect on it

• teach or lead us in a traditional form of Christian meditation, such as Centering Prayer, Lectio Divina, Ignation meditation, etc.

• Kinaesthetic: make available objects or symbols to hold and reflect on (shells, leaves, stones, a visual installation, etc.

• lead us in a guided meditation: where you speak from time to time to prompt a visualisation, or reflection, or where you data-project quotes or verses with pauses for reflection (Selah)

• Visual aids: pass round postcards, photos, images of icons or mandalas for us to use in our meditation

• Actions: maybe include some kind of activity, such as lighting a candle, making a cairn of rocks, drinking or pouring water or moving around the space to meditate on different stimulus

• writing: pass out paper and guide us to write prayers, psalms, poems... etc

Psalm

Duration: 5–10 mins

This is a slot where you guide us in a creative response to, or engagement with a psalm, or an excerpt from a Psalm. The idea is for this slot to be reasonably active/interactive, and as far as possible structured so that children can join in. It’s also preferable for there to be very little talking—the response to the psalm is not your theological reflections, but our creative involvement. The psalm you choose should be projected or printed out. Some options here are:

• get us to sing/chant, call the psalm, maybe while moving, maybe from different parts of the space, divide it up into parts

• create an activity that uses the imagery from the psalm—invite us to draw, paint, physicalise that imagery

• invite us to re-write the psalm using our own language, and personal context

• choose a song that draws on the psalm and lead us in it

• invite us to talk together about our response to the psalm

Notices/Sharing community needs

Duration: 5–10 mins

This is a short slot where we hear people’s needs, prayer requests, concerns. It’s not the notices slot, which is a more general information slot about upcoming events etc., but more a sharing of things that are on our minds and hearts that we would like others to know and pray about…whether glad or sad. This sharing may not be verbalised—it could take the form of writing things down and posting them on a wall or noticeboard or the prayer tree or some other thing.

Liturgical confession prayer

Duration: 1–4 mins

On the Sundays where we don’t have the full confession slot, we will use a short written prayer that will be either led, or spoken by the congregation responsively or in unison. If you want to write, lead or contribute to this slot, you are welcome, but it is not ‘rostered’ as such.

Prayer of Confession

Duration: 5–10 mins

This is an extended period to reflect on where we are at in our connection with God and the world, the regret and remorse that we carry from our life and interactions with others, the ways in which we choose against our best values and hopes, and the ways in which we reject or neglect our calling as followers of Christ. It is also a time for affirmation—affirming our faith together, confessing our shared belief and hope, and affirming God’s welcome and forgiveness for all.

Some ideas for what we might do in this slot:

• writing confessions and burning/shredding/nailing or otherwise offloading them

• a reading or reflection on some aspect of the Christian life, followed by time for silent reflection or prayer

• music: listening to a track that speaks of confession and forgiveness (it’s most helpful if you can provide the words for projectipon), or singing the traditional ‘kyrie eleison’ or the Jesus prayer (Arthur has created a version of this).

• film or video: show an excerpt of a movie/documentary/news item that leads us to reflect on some aspect of our relationship to God/others/the world, and lead us in prayer

• washing: invite us to reflect on some aspect of confession and then to wash hands/feet (similarly drinking water, or floating something on water can be a way of releasing prayer)

• drawing: use symbols (with pen and paper, or tracing in sand or dirt or ash) to represent confession, and either destroy or display them

• shared confession: care needs to be taken here, and participation (as always) needs to be stressed as optional, but it can be helpful and powerful for people to have their confession voiced aloud: a way of doing this could be for people to write confessions which are collected and read out.

• some version of the post secret phenomenon (see http://postsecret.blogspot.com)

Hot Text

Duration: 3–7mins

This has been divided into two options—biblical, and contemporary. Hot text involves reading out a portion of text (no more than about 3 mins long) and then (this bit’s optional) telling us about its significance to you: why you chose it (or wrote it), and what it means to you.

• Biblical hot text is a reading from the Bible—any translation.

• Contemporary hot text is a reading of a passage of any writing (poetry/prose) since the Bible, that speaks to you of God, and has spiritual meaning for you. This could also include songs or video as 'text'.

• Can be a "show and tell" type of thing

Speaking/Learning/Exploring

Duration: 10–20 mins

This slot will be taken by me as a default, but is open to all Citysiders and to invited guests. It will usually take the form of a sermon, but could also include discussion, or other form of address. The main thing is the opportunity for us to reflect on someone’s prepared, developed ideas about some aspect of the Bible, Christian theology and practice, and current issues, life experience etc.

Storytelling

Duration: 5–10 mins each

This is non-rostered participation—hearing what’s going on for people. It could take the form of ‘bar stool’—impromptu sharing of stuff that’s happened during the week, or it could be a prepared in advance ‘interview’ with someone in the congregation, where we get to know them better by hearing about their story, their work, their interests etc. Or, if someone wanted to read a children’s story, it could go in this slot. If you have ideas for this slot, or a story to tell, or someone’s story that you want to hear, let me know. It will be up to the service curator what form this slot takes. But do come along to these services prepared to contribute.

Prayers for others (and ourselves)

Duration: 5–10 mins

This could include intercession, prayers for ourselves, others, the world, or contemplative prayer—depending on the leader.

There is a digital format of this element. People in the services can log into http://cityside.org.nz/pfo and input their own anonymous prayer requests. this will show up in the the web page which can be on the main screen or the TVs: PFO Reader. The reader of these prayers goes to http://internal.cityside.org.nz/pfo/pforeader.php to see a formatted list that contains more than the last ten prayers. Once a prayer is read, a candle is lit.

Examples of what you could do in this time are:

• candle lighting: put sand trays around the space, invite people to reflect on some prayer needs and to light candles—either silently, or naming things aloud for the rest of the congregation. (Similarly, for lighting incense)

• group prayer: divide people up into small groups to pray for a particular situation, or each other

• writing prayers: pass around writing materials and invite people to write prayers, psalms, laments, praises: maybe give some guidance about a possible form or structure we could use. These could then be read aloud, or assembled into a booklet, or hung on the wall.

• kinaesthetic prayers: have plasticine to mould, or something to pass round the congregation as we pray

• collage prayers: cutting things out of newspapers, sticking them on a board, hanging prayers from a string across the room.

• liturgical prayer: you could write, find, or ask me for some written prayers that could be read responsively by the congregation

• sung prayer: we could identify prayer needs and then sing a repetitive chant such as ‘o Lord hear my prayer’

• themed prayer: we could pray verbally around a particular theme, such as ‘war/disaster’ or ‘illness’, or ‘work’.

• prayer swapping: people could write prayer needs down, swap with another person, and pray for them, then swap again, and so on, until we have prayed for several different people’s concerns.

• painting

• planting seeds

Zoom (now replaced by simple Youtube stream)

Producing the Zoom service entails:

• simply liaising with the zoom tech.