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fresh expressions of church

group is their ecclesial community. This will also be true for people

attending traditional midweek Eucharists. Increasingly clergy are

accepting this situation, and are learning not to regret it, but to build

upon it.

A story

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A priest inherited a Wednesday morning Eucharist, drawing

only ten people. However, it began to grow, and some of

those attending never came on Sunday. The priest confronted

his prejudices:

`While I was fighting a rearguard action to keep Sunday

special, the Holy Spirit had danced ahead of me and was

blessing Wednesday. Here, without my properly realizing it,

was a church plant . . . that not only provided a place for a

new worshipping community to develop, but also had within it

people who felt so comfortable and nourished . . . that they

were getting on with evangelizing their networks and bringing

people to faith.'

Having realized where the Spirit was at work, he put more

resources into preaching, some singing and providing

refreshments. Once a month they went to the vicarage for a

nurturing house group. By the time he moved on, the original

ten attenders had become 30, a third of whom never came

on Sunday.

new Sunday multiple congregations

The idea of multiple congregations on a Sunday has been rejuvenated in

the last few years. Churches that are no longer able to fit their growing

congregations into one service have explored this route, as have those 

who deliberately want to widen the variety of worship that is offered, in

order to connect with a more diverse range of people.

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These are attempts

to establish multiple congregations, not simply multiple services. Multiple

congregations are where the same building is used at different times on

Sunday (or on different days of the week) by separate groups, who are 

part of the one church in that place, but who function for worship, support,

leadership and mission as distinct congregations.

church planting understanding can help

Whether a multiple or midweek meeting is `church' depends in part on how

those who go to it view it. Do the people who attend consider it to be their

main way of going to and being church? If people who attend see that time

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