Normal Service....

... will be resumed shortly. We are currently extremely busy with things, but those things will be sorted in a fortnight. Coming soon to a Southampton Church Review blog near you, reviews of St Mark's Church, Archers Road, Avenue St Andrews URC, The Avenue, Swaythling Methodist Church, Burgess Road and many more, possibly including a shiny new feature, Guest blogging!

Promise.

We're off to Central Hall later.

Avenue St Andrews URC Church

Avenue St Andrew's URC Church, Southampton.

Avenue St Andrew's URC,
The Avenue (Opposite Northlands Road),
Southampton,
Hampshire,
SO17 1XQ

Communion lead by Rev. Cliff Bembridge. 1030am. Visited on 4th May 2008. 


From the Church website.
Believing worship to be central to our lives, we see our mission as continuing to grow, both as individuals and as a fellowship, to further our Christian service and witness within the community and the world.

The church has around 175 members with about 100 people attending morning services.

The Review

We arrived at the unmissable Avenue St Andrews church on the Avenue. This is a complex of victorian church, hall and modern glass extensions. The main entrance is through the modern foyer, but the church itself is another victorian barn once inside. It has pretty stained glass and some rather lovely wood carvings.

Once finding a seat amongst the interlocking padded wooden chairs, we were pleased to see NRSV bibles. Songs for this service were going to be taken from the Rejoice and Sing, the main URC songbook and Avenue Hymns and Songs, a songbook produced by the church. The songs and prayers were projected onto a screen by a data projector. All hymns were accompanied by the organ. Looking around the congregation, there were about 100 people of all ages present. 

The service opened with a call to worship lead by the minister, with said responses by the congregation and the first hymn was 261 At the Name of Jesus. We were surprised to find this sung to a different tune to the famous one.Next was a 'News for the Family' segment, with notices and the like. The highlight of this was the clever use of the pulpit to hide the flowers that were given as a thank you to the retiring church secretary. The next hymn was Be still for the presence of the Lord . The offering and dedication of gifts followed. We found this somewhat unnerving as it happenned in an interlude,  meaning that you could hear the money dropping in as people made their offerings. Interestingly, the offering was not going to the upkeep of the church, but to Set All Free, a charity set up to help end slavery. This along with the extensive buildings, the larger congregation and the number of activities advertised in the pewsheet and on noticeboards in the concourse suggest a growing and active church in a good financial situation. All speuclation of course.

After this, the children and young people left to go to their age appropriate activites, with them being sent on their way with a few words of liturgy from both the minister and the congregation. Next came two bible readings, both read by members of the congregation, one from Acts 1 v 6 - 14, and one from Luke 24 v 44 - 63. Prayers followed, and then hymn no. 601 Christ is the world's true light. Rev. Bembridge then began his sermon, interestingly using a different speaking style to the one he used when otherwise leading the service, one that was much more chatty and informal. He opened with a joke that was a variation on the famous "How many does it take to change a light bulb" routine, using different christian demnominations. Apparently it takes 10 Pentacostals, one to change it and nine to pray against the darkness, one Charismatic, as they've got their hands in the air already, and in the URC, changing the lightbulb can provoke dispute as "My grandmother gave me that lightbulb".  Rev. Bembridge spoke of how the church can be anxious about change. In Acts, after the acension, the disciples stood terrified and confused as Jesus left them with the Holy Spirit, something that would make huge changes in their lives, and ultimately in the world at large. It is easy for the church today to look with rose tinted glasses at the past, just as the disciples stood staring at the sky after Jesus ascended, looking for the past good. However the angels reminded them of what they were to do, their mission in the world. Rev. Bembridge guessed that it would only take 2 members of Avenue St. Andrews to change a lightbulb, one to change it and one to hold the ladder in the interest of health and safety. He then went on to ponder how many members of Avenue St. Andrews it would take to develop a strategy for mission and to implement that strategy, going God's work in the world with the Holy Spirit in order to change it. It is easy to be distracted by the minute trivia and details of life, and to wallow in the past, but God expects us to do both the practical and the spiritual work, with his Spirit leading us. The sermon was 11 minutes in total.

After the sermon, we sang 456 O bread to pilgrims given. This was followed by Communion, which was done in a completely new way to us. Small plates with cubes of bread were passed around the congregation, which were then eaten with suitable words all together as a congregation, before wine in the small shot glass - esque glasses was passed around and consumed much like the bread. The glasses were then placed in a little cut out in the back of the seat in front.  The final hymn was 600 Christ is the world's light.

After service, we had a very nice cup of tea and coffee in proper china from a tea service, but there were no biscuits or the like. We hung about looking lost for a bt, and were just about to leave when a lady came to speak to us.

Traditional/Modern:Fairly traditional. 
Formal/Informal:Middling wth robed minister.
Solemn/Lively:Fairly solemn.

Great: The way in which the work of the church secretary was clearly appreciated by church, the mix of ages in the larger congregation. 

Not so great: Only one person introducing themselves after the service. It seemed a little on the short side.

Access: Wheelchair friendly main doors.

This review was written by the Older

The Church of the Ascension, Bitterne Park

The Church of the Ascension, Bitterne Park. 

The Church of the Ascension,
Thorold Road, Bitterne Park,
Southampton.

 
Sun 16th 9:30 a.m. Parish Communion - Easter Sunday

 
From the Church website:
9.30 Parish Communion

On the first Sunday of each month, an all age service replaces the 9.30 Parish Communion, all other Sundays there is a Sunday Club and a Creche for younger members of our congregation
On the fourth Sunday the Parish Communion includes the Ministry of Healing with Laying on of Hands.


The Review

The intrepid duo were late again, though this time it was due to a friend tagging along with us and being hard to rouse in time for a 9:30am service. We entered through the main doors, walking past a beautiful mosaic in the entrance hall. Once inside the main church, we were bemused to see the entire congregation processing through the church toward the back of the building. A server (who we were later introduced to as Sam) and another member of the congregation beckoned us in with welcoming smiles. It turns out the church were going to bless their new bells before the service started, which the vicar, Rev. Sarah Chapman, duly did.  We all then walked through the main part of the church 
and took seats in the sanctuary which was marked by a painted carved stone screen.

A short note here on the decor of the church. Another victorian barn, with white walls and beautiful modern stained glass windows. The one in the bell tower shows the 'Grace Dieu' a ship sailed by a crew of Christians, and over the main altar,
 a variation on a rose window. This had images in the colour of the rainbow radiating out from
 a central image of a majestic Christ. It was lovely to gaze upon this during such a joyous service. 
The other windows illustrate hymns by Isaac Watts, a Southampton native. The arches in the 
aisles and the decoration over the main and lady chapel altars were painted much like the screen in 
lovely deep shades of blue red and green with gold detailing.  Even the organ had painted pipes!

We followed the standard liturgy for Easter Day of the CofE, with the 'F' Eucharistic prayer. There were plenty of Easter Alleuias and lots of congregation participation. There were no pew bibles, and the hymns were from Sing Glory and Junior Praise books. Two of the hymns were accompanied by the organ, and the rest by piano and drums, lead by a singer on a microphone, and sometimes joined by some sort of brass or wind instrument, either a sax or a trumpet. The reason I can't tell you is that the worship group was situated on the dais the other side of the screen behind where we were sat. I merely glimpsed an instrument case as we left for coffee! The hymns for Easter Sunday were 408 Jesus Christ is Risen Today, Alleluia, 112 Glory, Glory in the Highest, 420 All Heavens Declare, the Glory of the Risen Lord, 398 Alleluia Alleluia, hearts to heaven and voices raise, and He has Risen, When the Life flowed from his body.

The sermon was given by the curate, Rev. Paul Bradbury. He seemed a bit nervous to begin with, but soon relaxed into speaking making a few jokes. We were really impressed with his style of preaching which was very personal and well referenced with real world and theological anecdotes from the Archbishop of Canterbury and other modern theologians. He also had a very pleasant voice to listen to. The sermon was 15 - 20mins long I think, but I was so interested in it I didn't write down the actual time. The main gist was a that the bodily ressurection of Christ has siginificance for us in that we can use it right now today. It's "Steak on the plate while we wait, rather than just pie in the sky when we die" We should work to honour Jesus with the knowledge that what we do here on earth is not in vain. The curate is apparently doing one thing a week to try and fight injustices in the world.

The prayers were lead by the Thompson family, with the parents also being involved in the worship group. Both the parents and the children read really well and emphatically.  The worship group also played during the communion, including one of our favourite worship songs, 'Once Again'. We were especially pleased to see the welcome of the Junior Church after the communion where the vicar welcomed them up the front to tell us all what they had been upto whilst we had the service. They did this enthuiastically and it seemed like this was a regular thing as even on of the tinies was ok with speaking in the microphone to give the vicar an easter egg! There was a well appointed children's area in the main church. During the last song, all the congregation were given tambourines and percussion instruments if they wanted one and encouraged to make a joyful noise which we did followed by some spontaneous applause and whooping! We also sang 'Thine Be the Glory' to appease one of the servers according to the Vicar, otherwise she'd have a mutiny on her hands next week!

After the service we retired to Church House to have tea and coffee in the hall there whilst the children took part in an easter egg hunt. The tea and coffee was fairly traded and very good, and the biscuits very high quality, though not very festival appropriate being Christmas tree shaped! The aforementioned Sam came and talked to us about the church and life in Southampton and filled us in on some of the plans the church has for the future, including screening off the sanctuary and  taking the pews out of the main body of the church to make a community hall, levelling off the stairways in the entrance to make to make it more accessible, and having a cafe onsite. 
We could have talked for hours but eventually had to leave to go to Easter lunches!

Traditional/Modern: A real mix of both traditional and modern styles of worship incorporating traditional liturgy, modern prayers, hymns on the organ, worship songs and tambourines. Worked surprisingly well.
Formal/Informal: Middling. Servers and priests in albs etc, but more informal preaching and leading styles.
Solemn/Lively: Fairly lively which was great for Easter Sunday.

Great: The mix of worship styles, the on target and interesting preaching,
the welcome given the to junior church when they joined the main service.

Not so great: 9:30am... when?

Access: Wheelchair access via the side door, but main entrance has stairs into church.

This review was written by the Older one.

Above Bar Church

Due to a family commitment in the morning, today the Church Searchers are off to an evening service.


Above Bar Church
69 Above Bar Street
Southampton
SO14 7FE.

Evening Service

From the Church website:

Evening Service

Starts at 6:30pm and normally lasts around 90 minutes. As in the morning there is a mixture of styles of worship and bible based teaching.

There are no creche or children's activities at this service.

Refreshments are served after the service.

The Review
Somehow we've done it again. The service we attended this evening is not representative of a normal evening service at ABC, as they had a special guest speaker, Gary Habermas giving a special apologetic style talk on resurrection. Fortunately one of the Intrepid Duo has been to a few other evening services here and advise on how much of tonight was usual practice.

We parked up in Southampton Guildhall car park about 6:15pm. Above Bar Church is quite unusual as its a purpose built modern church on the upper floors of a building on the main shopping street in Southampton. We entered using the Above Bar Street entrance, had our hands shaken by a steward, climbed a couple of flights stairs and came to the lounge and information desk. Following the lead of others entering we went into the main auditorium and were allocated a seat by another steward. The main auditorium is octagonal with a warm wood ceiling, a dais with a large central projector screen, and a balcony along the left and back sides. The organist appeared to be hanging in mid air on the left, the music group was on the left of the dais below the organist, and a simple wooden altar sat opposite the music group on the right. An open bible and two candle holders were displayed on the altar.

There were wooden pews with padding radiating out from the dais, and the seating immediately in front of it were movable wooden chairs. The place was for want of a better word, absolutely packed. Our estimate was 250 to 300 people. There was a wide age range present, from teenagers to pensioners, though no obvious young children. The 9:15 am service is advertised as being for families, and we were told that at that service and the 11am service are very busy, though the balcony is not opened. Apparently there used to be one morning service but this was split due to the high numbers. There were quite a few latecomers as well! The large congregation tonight could probably be attributed to the guest speaker. NIV bibles and Mission praise hymn books were place in the pew backs, though the songbooks were not used, the hymn lyrics being projected onto the screens.

There was no formal liturgy as such. The basic format of the service was 3 worship songs, notices, prayers, bible reading, 3 more worship songs, Gary Habermas' speech, closing prayer, and closing song. There was a chap called Ben leading the service and the minister John Risbridger lead the worship, gave the notices and closed the service with prayer. He also lead the question and answer session after the service. The first set of prayers were for areas of conflict around the world such as Gaza, Somalia and Kenya, and the second set were for the congregation, that they would learn from what had been said tonight. The bible readings were not always identified, though one was definitely from 1 Corinthians, which fitted with what was said in the talk.

The music group as far as we could see over the heads of the congregation included, bass and electric guitar, organ, piano, flute, violin, drums and keyboard. There were also three female singers and the minister, who provided other percussion on shakers at appropriate moments. The worship was very lively, uplifting and energetic. There was a mix of older and newer worship songs played by the whole music group, and the old favourite Thine Be The Glory played by the organist alone. If you're interested in that kind of thing, the songs were; Our God is an Awesome God , Let Everything That , How Great is our God, Jesus Hope of the Nations, There is a New Song in my Mouth, and In Christ Alone.Our only criticisms of the music was that it was rather loud and we felt that the bass was turned up a bit too much. The Older one likes to be able to hear themselves among the crowd into to make sure they sing in tune! We also noticed that 3 microphones were hanging from the ceiling over the congregation amplifying the singing and making the whole worship experience even louder. Whilst useful in encouraging the shy to sing, (louder congregation noise provides shy with cover they need in order to feel comfortable singing), it could also be taken as a bit of congregation manipulation, artificially enhancing the experience to increase the transcendental atmosphere. That said, it was still pretty awesome worshipping with so many people, and the change of pace that came with the traditional rendering of Thine Be the Glory worked surprisingly well. We've never heard it sung so loudly! It sounded amazing!

Now, onto the talk by Gary Habermas. Distinguished Research Professor and Chair, Department of Philosophy and Theology at Liberty University, Lynchberg, VA, USA, he somewhat eloquently put forward an apologetic argument using the writings of Paul for resurrection. Though the clarity of his actual words were hampered a little by the PA system and his accent, through basing his argument on the writings of Paul that critical scholars view to be written by him, rather than on the less trusted Gospel reports he was highly convincing on most levels. He used historiography and history to illustrate how Paul's eyewitness testimony of a Risen Jesus, approx five years after the crucifixion is very rare in ancient history, where it is far more common to work with biographies written of people hundreds of years after their lives. He also pointed out how Paul spoke with others who had met Jesus, specifically Peter, John and James, about whether he was right about Jesus. These four men were eventually martyred for their beliefs, and Habermas pointed out that this must mean that they believed in Jesus' divinity to a great extent. The basic premise overall was that because Paul was such an early witness to the risen Jesus, the resurrection was quite likely and that people who didn't believe in it could not come up with a viable reason what else could have happened to cause such reports. This talk lasted 40 mins, which is the longest we've heard yet. We were both a little fidgety by the end.

There was a question and answer session afterwards where one very brave non-christian student took on Habermas on the historical basis of his argument, saying that history could be misinterpreted over time and that he could not believe in the resurrection due to it not being able to be recreated by science. Habermas countered by stating how science relied on history for evidence, which didn't seem to answer the chaps question. Another member of the congregation, this time a christian, played devil's advocate and pointed out that science can be done in a vacuum of knowledge, without relying on the ideas/evidence found by others in history, though this would take a lot of time and resources. Habermas didn't really seem to have an answer to this, going back to how people accept the happening of the 1066 Norman invasion and the content of Churchill's speeches based on eyewitnesses. Habermas had the Intrepid Duo until he used the Turin Shroud as scientific evidence for resurrection, admittedly as something that doesn't seem explainable by science (i.e. how do you print an xray on fabric given it's age) though there seemed to be an implication of it being somewhat divine. If he had stuck with his argument about Near Death experiences, something slightly more scientifically documented, he would have seemed much more credible.

We stayed for the hot drinks after the service, but due to the large numbers no one came to speak to us. Also the tea was rather weak, though the coffee was good. In order to get some more information we presented ourselves to the information desk (as newcomers were directed in the service) and were given lots of leaflets about the church. There are a huge range of activities going on from small groups, children, youth and student ministries, Korean services, prayer and audio ministries, prayer meetings, and a Fair Trade cafe open to the public on Saturday morning. Clearly a thriving church.

The Short Version
Traditional/Modern: Rather modern.
Formal/Informal: Fairly informal. Informal dress and no set liturgy, but the layout of the building and the style of leadership was slightly more formal and 'churchy'.
Solemn/Lively: Very Lively! Jokes in the talk and people clapping and charismatic arm waving during the worship. No praying in tongues though.

Great: The chance to worship with lots of other people in a lively and happy fashion. The speaker was very interesting, even if we did not agree with everything he said and, obviously he is not a usual feature.

Not so great: We didn't feel very welcomed as just another couple of faces in the crowd. The older one also felt that at 40 mins, Gary Haberman's talk was a bit long!

Access: The Above Bar entrance has stairs, there is a side entrance on Ogle Road, the main entrance has a lift to all floors.

This review was written by the Older one, with edits by the Younger one.

St Michael and All Angels, Bassett.

St Michael & All Angels
Bassett Avenue
Southampton
Hampshire
SO16 7FB

10am Extended Communion

From the Church Website:

St. Michael’s has the largest congregation of the three churches in the parish. It has a broadening age-profile, with several families. It has an active Sunday School, and a Youth group. It also has a strong choral tradition and a large choir. It is a fairly large, traditional Anglican church, with a middle-to-high style of worship (including pointed psalms and all the trimmings), this worship being strongly Eucharistic.

Whilst the services may be seen as quite traditional, the atmosphere is friendly and relaxed, especially at the 10am service which families generally come to.

The Review
After waking up rather late and rushing to the church, we arrived at St Michael and All Angels, Basset at exactly the same time as the choir. Or rather, we entered the building through the side door at the same time as they processed in. The choir was rather sizable, at least 20 people, with some young teenagers, all the way to pensioners.

The Church - according the reader speaking to us after the service - is "a bit of a Victorian barn". It has white painted plaster walls, stone ribs on the ceiling meeting in gold roses, and coloured plaques with gold symbols clearly relating to ecclesiastical matters. There Were magnificent stain glass windows at the front and back of the church, but plain windows down the side alowing in a lot of light. We sat at the back as is best when you're sneaking in late, and counted about 40 people in the congregation including a few small children. There was a wide age range who scattered themselves about the church in a sparse fashion on the rather creaky pews.

The service was an 'Extended Communion ' service based on Order One of the the Church of England's Book of Common Worship. Apparently, according to the younger one who read the House of Bishop's guidlines on the Rite of extended communion, the bread and wine are consecrated in one church and taken to another where a cut down service is used, because there is no Priest present. The cut down service does not have the words of consecration. The service was lead by one of the parish's five readers, Malcom Harper, who also gave the sermon.

The basic structure was as follows greeting, notices, confession, the collect, the sermon, intercessions, sharing the peace, the Eucharistic prayer, communion and the closing blessing. These were interspersed with hymns from the BBC Songs of Prayer hymn books. The younger one also spotted another set of hymn books, little red ones which must the the AMR's mentioned on the notice sheet for another service. Google tells us this is Ancient and Modern (Revised.) The aforementioned choir were fantastic. We're not sure which piece they sang during the communion but it was rather beautiful. The only problem with such a great choir is that the congregation becomes a bit of an audience. Especially in this case when the choirstall are behind a wooden screen, albeit a very beautiful one. We sang 210 Jesus Where'er Thy People Meet,
146 How Sweet The Name of Jesus Sounds, 93 Take Up Thy Cross the Saviour Said, and 142 Guide Me O Great Redeemer. It was only during this last hymn that the congregation seemed to really join in, but that's probably because it is quite a famous one, where as the others were a bit more obscure. The readings were Exodus 17:1-7, based on the Israelites quarreling over lack of water, Romans 5:1-11 on hope not disappointing, and John 4:5-42 where Jesus spoke with the Samaritan woman at the well. The sermon brought together the different bible readings focusing on the idea of God transcending the everyday and providing us with the spiritual water we need in everyday life. It lasted approximately 10 minutes.

The children who had been in the Sunday School for the majority of the service came in around half way through, and ranged in age from tinies to younger teens and slipped quietly into their seats and joined in with the rest of the service. There was a Children's corner with toys and book adjacent to the Lady chapel if they had felt they needed entertainment.

After the service, we returned our hymnbooks and service sheets and spoke for a while to the reader about the Church before retiring to the church hall for tea and coffee. The tea and coffee were rather good with the coffee being real coffee prepared in a cafetiere. The biscuits were also rather yummy, both of us going for shortbread rounds with chocolate chips. One lady introduced herself, asked about us, and filled us in on a bit more about the church. When she moved on, we stood around looking lost a bit longer to no avail before heading home.

Upon the reader's recommendation, we also attended Evensong at 6:30pm. Again this was a wonderful showcase for the talents of the excellent choir and organist. The musical aspect of the church really is the main feature of this church.


The Short Version

Traditional/Modern: As traditional as you can get before moving into smells and bells territory.
Formal/Informal: Fairly formal liturgy, though most of the congregation were dressed down and the atmosphere was fairly relaxed.
Solemn/Lively: Solemn and dignified.

Great: The Music and the decor of the building.

Not so great: The lack of audience participation for want of a better word. The Choral evensong did feel rather like a concert, albeit a very very good concert. A few issues with the PA system.

**NEW** Access: Side door is wheelchair friendly.

Overall a standard (from our experience) fairly high Anglican service, with very professional and talented choir and organist.

This review was written by the older one, with edits from the younger one.