A friend of mine described on facebook how, during these summer holidays, she tried to find out when services were in church whilst on her holiday. She couldn’t. She names the place. I want to make a similar point – I will be mostly more general: I was in holiday in Tasmania. The point of this post is not to name and shame particular churches in Tasmania. The point of this post is for you to use what is written here to review and reflect on your own context wherever you may be. This is not about Tasmania. This is about you, in whatever country you are reading this. Imagine yourself a visitor, a holidaymaker, in the area where you go to church – a non-churched visitor or holidaymaker if you like. How easy or how difficult is it for you to get to a church service?
Many of the church buildings were locked. I would say most were. Roman Catholic church buildings are more likely to be open than others [Striking exceptions to follow]. And when open, there would mostly be people coming in to pray. Or just to be. Whatever happened to the Anglican tradition expressed in the Book of Common Prayer: “And the Curate [we would now say Rector, or Vicar, or Priest in Charge] that ministereth in every Parish-church or Chapel, being at home, and not being otherwise reasonably hindered, shall say the same in the Parish-church or Chapel where he ministereth, and shall cause a bell to be tolled thereunto a convenient time before he begin, that the people may come to hear God’s Word, and to pray with him.” Twice daily, this vision has it, clergy and people would gather to hear God’s Word and to pray. In the church building.
Finding out Sunday service times – even for someone committed to going to church – is embarrassingly difficult – sometimes nigh on impossible. The 20th century invention of the Internet has often not reached the church. Google Maps has gifted the churches that people can easily locate the church building, but, whilst other organisations have quickly taken up Google Maps’ opportunity to add information (opening times, descriptions, website), is your church information complete and up to date on Google Maps?
Often there is no website for the church. Or if there is one, it is out of date – I found one that didn’t even have 2019 Christmas information on it. Others, if I found a site, had nothing after Christmas Day 2019. Other sites were essentially directed to regulars, not visitors, holidaymakers, or newcomers. How hard is it to find your church site, and to find information on your site? Imagine yourself a visitor. Remember, no one driving into your township will know to search for your church’s name, Saint Ethelred. The Tasmanian Anglican diocesan website looks really attractive, but “Find a Church” NEVER gave a church’s website – even when I know a particular church had a good site! Church Information only gave phone numbers and sometimes an email address. [Kudos to those who did reply to me using these media that old people still use].
To be continued…
Another observation is that churches have become Sunday shops. It’s not open on any other days , some Catholic Churches in Auckland is the only exception I have seen yet in NZ. Churches should be open to those who like to pray. I agree with the points in the article, it’s difficult to find out churches and it’s timings in an area.
Thanks, Shiju. And when you say, “Sunday shops”, some are only open for an hour or so. And maybe only once or a couple of times a month! That needs further reflection: huge investment for a very small, ageing group of people for an hour occasionally… Blessings.
Dear Father, I agree those are some socio economic reasons I overlooked in hindsight. As a believer I would love churches which are open every day, but I agree to your point, it could be a financial obligation to the community who supports it and may not be practical.
Kia Ora Bosco
I had a message from my Mum on Christmas Eve asking where she, as a visitor, might go to church on Christmas Day in Auckland. I tried the website of the two parishes I knew that are closest to my brother’s house and, lo and behold, an angel of the Lord did not appear to tell me the times of the Christmas Day services! Ah ha, I thought, surely they’ll have advertised on Facebook… but no, they hadn’t. It was then suggested to me, by a friend, to look on the Diocesan website. One of the parishes did have Christmas service times advertised on there but the other still didn’t! The thing is, it’s great to have this info on the Dio site… but how many non-church goers would think to look there? My mum is a semi regular churchgoer and couldn’t find anything. I am a very regular churchgoer and I still struggled to find the information of what, surely, is an essential time of the year to be publishing service times! Are we there to hear the people knocking (both metaphorically and literally) at our door?
Thanks, Alice, for your strong reinforcing of my point. Furthermore, most non-churchgoers wouldn’t know what a diocese is, and many churchgoers even would struggle to find a diocesan website. Blessings.
While it’s not perfect, and churches don’t always make the most of it, it sounds like you need a version of our English Anglican “A Church Near You”, which is generally quite good and provided by the national church – https://www.achurchnearyou.com
Thanks, Doug! That is great. On twitter, I’ve just been pointed to masstimes.org. Blessings.