Why do we sing hymns

Ruth led a cafe style service at Trinity. About 60 people sat round tables at the front, and the other chairs were pushed back to make room.

Rather than a sermon Ruth posed the question 'Why do we sing hymns.' The people round the tables came up with the reasons they could think of, and then these were written on a flip board and compared with the list Ruth had devised. Reasons included:

• Participation (we enjoy singing together and harmonising as many voices)
• A means of devotion / to praise God
• Memorable (and make up memories)
• Emotion (have different moods)
• Tunes complement and reinforce the words
• Reinforce the message( Ruth said the first hymn she usually chooses is the one after the sermon to echo the message)
• Tradition (hymns in our hymn book date from all ages of Christendom and some are still being written)
• ...

Praying under the EU General Data Protection Regulation

Revd Alan Grist led the service this morning and did the miraculous in running though the service with communion in 55 minutes. Nothing was omitted. There was a children's talk, four hymns, different sorts of prayers, two bible reading, a collection, and a time for silence. The phrase that stuck with me from the sermon was don't be self-centred be Christ-centred. The communion was Christ-centred.

The service was followed fifteen minutes later by a church meeting with minutes from the last meeting and an agenda. It has been found that more people take part, and help make important decisions, if the church business meeting follows the Sunday church service.

We discussed the proposed improvements to the Conduit Centre, and other topics, but what did take time was the discussion of the prayer book and box. In the end the church meeting took 90 minutes.

The recent introduction of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)  led to the prayer book being withdrawn, and replaced by a locked prayer box . People could post prayers for people into the box and they would be prayed for anonymously in the main service. Subsequently the Friday prayer Group, comprising a small group, would open the box and pray for the people by name. (Just praying for Fred or Fred Blogs, particularly if it is for Fred Blogs' prostate condition is a data breach in the new world of GDPR if it has not got the express consent of Fred Blogs wanting the congregation to know of his prostate condition.)

The problem with the box is that there are some people who want their loved one to be prayed for by name, and there are people who need to know what they are praying for.

It was proposed in the meeting that the prayer book be re-introduced but that the person suggesting the name would sign it themselves to say they had got the assent of the person to be prayed for publicly.

The conclusion, after a lot of opinions were given, was that Trinity would bring back the prayer book with signed assent for people who want to be prayed for by name, and the prayer box for those for those whose permission has not yet been gained.

Family worship and baptism

There was supposed to be more than one baptism this morning but an accident to one child meant that one of the families could not be there. Deacon Selina led the service.

Two of the songs were sung along to videos. Both were jolly:

• Down the mountain the river flows 
• A man had been an invalid for 38 years with the chorus the bubbling pool of Bethesda.

The service introduction encapsulated what the service was about ... small acts of love and kindness can accumulate like water. Drops of water, small by themselves, but when released into a pool, become a stream and then a river

Selina told the story of the boy throwing starfish back into the sea, one at a time, saving one life at a time. It made a difference to that one even though there were millions swept up.