Swaythling Methodist Church, Burgess Road, Southampton

Just to note that we haven't forgotten about hte churches visited prior to this one according to the list on the right, they are merely being written up out of order.

Taken from AnneHouse.com

Swaythling Methodist Church, Burgess Road, Southampton. Visited 11th May 2008.

Swaythling Methodist Church,

284 Burgess Road,

Swaythling,

Southampton.

Holy Communion Service for Pentecost- 10:30am

The Review

On a glorious sunny day, we turned up just in time for the 1030am service. The building is a large 1930's building in the Central Hall style, in an octagon shape and a big green dome. There are lovely wall paintings in the entrance hall and on the wall above the altar. The artist Anne House was holding an exhibition in the church of her silk paintings, and these were displayed in a semi circle around the main hall. Due to this, the seats were arranged in a circle, with the altar and the lectern taking up a space in the circle. There was a small table in the middle that contained one of the art exhibits.

We were greeted in the foyer, and given a copy of the Hymns and Psalms hymnbook, and a service sheet for 'Holy Communion for Pentecost and times of renewal'. We took the only seats left in the circle next to the lectern. We should point out at this point that this review may be slightly less impartial than usual as we know the minister of this church. The Rev. Peter McNeill appeared, and opened the service.

There was a time of "News Time" when the microphone was passed to what appeared to be a well known gentleman, who gave a few notices. He asked visitors to introduce themselves and say a little about themselves, which we were happy to do, but the other visitor seemed a little embarrassed by this. The microphone was then sent round for prayer requests, and many were requested. This was a nice touch and showed how involved the church was with the local community. Looking around the congregation at this point, we noticed many of the congregation were elderly.

It was a hymn sandwhich style of service. The hymns being: 307 Lord We Believe to Us and Ours, 279 Born by the Holy Spirit's Breath, 291 I want the Spirit of Power Within, 298 Come Thou Everlasting Spirit, 300 Father of Everlasting Grace. The Hymns were fantastic examples of Wesley's, however they were a little obscure, and clearly somewhat unknown to the congragation as a whole, which lead to a somewhat mumbled performance.

The filling of the sandwhich consisted of three readings, taken from the NRSV, 1 Corinthian 12v 1 - 14, Acts 2v 1 - 16, and a reading from the book of Joel, and understandably were about Pentecost. The next bit of filling was the sermon, which was 20 of minutes long. The minister began the sermon asking why things like the Florida and Durham revival do not happen everywhere, before going on to talk about the gifts of the spirit in the mainstream churches, noting that we all have spiritual gifts. He stated revival begins in our hearts, and asked if we felt if we had the holy spirit. If the answer was no, does that mean God is lying? If yes, why are there not thousands of people joining the church every day? Why are we apparently so ineffective? We need to let God be God and do what he wants in his timing. Some of it us wanting God to do it our way, when it's not our work, it's God's work. He went on to talk about inadequacy being a standard qualification to do God's work, and that believing God is the most important aspect. The church needs to be the body of Christ to serve as God calls us to, doing it in God's strength. He then explained Ephesians 5v8, "be filled with the Spirit". The greek uses the tense the present passive imperative, meaning that the filling is now, the filling is happening to us and the filling must happen. So, we must be filled now. The next bit of hymn sandwhich filling were the intersessional prayers, lead by another member of congregation, which included all the prayer requests made during the greetings at the start, we then had the colletion followed by another hymn. After this we launched into the Methodist Worship Book, Communion for Pentecost and times of renewal. Which is a very nice bit of liturgy, and was read with enthusiasm and sincerity. Unfortunately the wine, being a Methodist Church, was not wine, and in little shot glasses. The bread was a burger roll, which is far from ideal. However, the bread and wine were passed around the circle, so we all served our neighbours, which was nice. This was followed by a blessing and dissmissal.

Post service, we wandered about looking at the wonderful artwork by Anne House, which is stunning and thoroughly recommended. There was also tea, coffee and most importantly, cake! The selection of cakes were very tasty and moist. We chatted to peter and a couple of members of the congragation who were friendly, This was one of the more welcoming churches we've visited.


Traditional/Modern: Some and some, Methodist liturgy for the communion and traditional hymns.
Formal/Informal: Fairly informal. No vestements, sat in the round, chatty style.
Solemn/Lively:Middle of the Road.

Great: Sitting in the round, the community news time, the art in the background, and the sermon. Awesome selection of cake with the refreshments.

Not so great: No - one except the minister seemed to know the words to the hymns.

Access: One step to the front door, but we're fairly confident there is wheelchair access at the side.

This review was written by the Younger one.

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.

St James Road Methodist Church

Once more an evening service, no real excuse this week. Normal service should resume for Easter. Also slow to appear, 'cause I'm rubbish.

St James Road Methodist Church

ST. James Road,
SOUTHAMPTON,
SO15 5HE

Evening Worship

No church website and the District and Circuit websites appear to be broken.

The bumpf given out by the by the Church describes "Lenten Series including the Sacrament of Holy Communion led by Rev Stuart Bell and Mr David Craggs"


The Review
We arrived in good time, which must be a first. We wandered in the back door into "the link", a hallway/lounge type building joining the church and the centre. There were a number of people stood about talking casually and two stood by the door to the main church giving out service sheets who shook our hands and greeted us friendly manner, as did another steward stood in "the link". We wandered into the main church and too a seat near the back on a wooden pew with a soft cushion stretching its length. Once sat we looked through the books in the pew accompanied by the organist playing a quiet number. The books were the "Methodist Worship Book" (also in large print), "Methodist Hymns & Psalms", "Songs of Fellowship" & NIV Bibles.

The Building was yet another victorian barn, big and airy, and better looking than most. It was large enough to fit several hundred, though for this evening service there were only 40 or so. Enquires later revealed a morning congregation of 150 or so. The service started with a few words of welcome then sang the first hymn 'Ride On, Ride On In Majesty' and the service continued straight out of the Methodist Worship Book, with the hymns 'I Am a New Creation' 'Come Sinners to the Gospel Feast' 'Now Let Us From This Table Rise'

The Liturgy was read in a fashion that made it have real meaning, which is not always the case, and was nice to hear. The Sermon was preached from the second Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians chapter 5 verse 10 to chapter 6 verse 2, by David Craggs, was twelve minutes long. I'd love to explain it, but I must confess I very quickly stopped paying attention, not that I have the best attention span but I can normally manage 12 minutes. According to the older one it was based on five 'C's: Consciousness, Paul was conscious he would be judged, Compulsion, Paul was compelled by Christ's love, Conviction, Paul and ourselves should be convinced Jesus died for all, Creation, those in Christ are new creations, Commitment, God is committed to us therefore he reconciled the world to himself through Jesus, Crisis, we should live with an urgency to spread the gospel.

A really nice and welcoming touch was that during the peace David Craggs asked our names, and then during communion he offered us the wine with our names. The Communion Bread was a very good loaf of bread, possibly homemade, which made a pleasant change. However due to this being a Methodist Church the wine was not wine but rather similar to Ribena.

After the service a very friendly lady came to speak to us and offered to provide us with literature about the Church and its activities and introduced us to the minister. Whilst we were talking to the minister another steward came over and offered to fetch drinks for us. Good tea and coffee with lovely homemade biscuits. We had a very interesting discussion with the minister about life in Southampton, and he spoke to us encouraging us to come to the morning service, with is reported to be more lively, and attended by about 150 people.

Judging by literature and other things the church seems to be doing well, running lunches, a girl's brigade, badminton and bowls clubs, a women's group, a walking group and a bible study group.


Traditional/Modern: Fairly traditional in a Methodist sort of way, but not particularly.
Formal/Informal: Not very formal, with the minister in just a clerical shirt and jacket but fully instructional liturgy.
Solemn/Lively: Just on the solemn side of middling.

Great: Very Friendly people, nice liturgy.

Not so great: The service left us with no felling of transendence. Ribena.

Access: Ramps at the entrances, leading to full accessibility.

This review was written by the Younger.

Bitterne Park United Reform Church

Apols for the severe delay, I've had a terribly busy week and felt pretty rubbish. Sorry.

Bitterne Park United Reform Church
Cobden Avenue,
Bitterne Park,
SO18 1FZ

10:30 Morning service, Mothering Sunday.

No website from which to give a self description, nor is anything said of it on the URC national site, save the address and contact details.

The Review
Before I start I should point out that as this is/was Mothering Sunday the service was slightly out of the ordinary. As most churches get extra people, they tend to try to do something a little unusual, to attempt to get them to come more often.

We arrived at the church at 10:29 by by watch, but clearly late by their time as the service had begun. We were greeted in the lobby by a church elder, who handed over a copy of Mission Praise and a service sheet, while explaining that the service had just begun and we could go in when the first hymn began shortly. This was a first for both myself and the older one, but made surprising sense as we were not the only late arrivals. We all walked in as the first hymn (Bind us together Lord) began, and didn't disturb anyone.

There were at least sixty people, a lot of whom were older. There were a few families, but no young adults that we could see. The Building was another Victorian barn in style (though I've no idea how old the building actually is), with huge wooden beams and again nicely decorated. The church is cross shaped with altar, organ, pulpit, etc. in the top of the cross, the left hand side containing the music group and the right a small side chapel. The service sheet contained the order of service for the morning and evening services. (Apparently the evening service, 18:30, is more informal, and fortnightly.) There were also prayer requests, thanks to the musicians and flower arrangers, and a brief explanation of this weeks services and next. Mission praise is a popular hymn book, containing a huge variety of hymns of all ages and styles.

The Music for the service was lead by the youth music group, a selection of children and teenagers, of varied ability, but over all quite good for a youth music group. After the hymn was a short time of prayer, then a reading for Isaiah, followed by a short “explanation” of Mothering Sunday. After this every lady in the congregation was given a small bunch of daffodils, which seemed a major impovment on the usual very short lonely daffodil and a bit of old heather combo we were anticipating. The service continued with a pattern of hymn then short talk, including a reading from Ephesians 6:1-4). The talks were interesting and amusing and the minister seemed to know his congrgation very well, personalising the ancedotes to suit. The music was quite good; 'Make me a Channel of Your peace', 'Come let us sing', 'Come on and celebrate', 'Lord, the light of Your love (Shine Jesus, Shine.)'. The grace was said at the end, then the service ended.

We were spoken to by two of the church "elders" one of whom was rather talkative and we spoke for some time, explaining about the church, the evening services and how it was a little unusual this week, being Mothering Sunday.This probably explains why it felt a little bland as it was trying to appeal to a wide range of people. We spoke to the minister on the way out, who was rather busy, presumably the extra congregation for the day, but he was friendly and interested and invited us back. The older one found it interesting how people didn't seem to linger after the service, but rather rushed out the door. This could be attributed to people going home to Mother's Day lunches, but other churches we've been to on Mothering Sundays still had coffee after the service.

Traditional/Modern: The setting was a "proper" traditional church, and the songs were definitely hymns, but not that traditional.
Formal/Informal: No real liturgy, except the odd snippet of prayer with responses and the atmosphere was fairly relaxed.
Solemn/Lively: So-so, the talky bits were fairly cheerful and lively, the songs less so.

Great: Minister seemed to know everyone, and was friendly. The mini-sermons were very very entertaining

Not so great: Hard to say, as was not a usual service. However, the service was very middle of everything. Somehow, not that exciting, though its hard to put a finger on what was lacking.

Access: Steps to the front door, but we believe there was a side entrance.

This review was written by the Younger with edits by the older one.

This Week

The older one was ill. No church was visited, not a good start really.

Well, this weeks church will be up next week then.

This would be easier if Sundays happened more often.

St. Denys' - St. Denys

St Denys Church
Dundee Road
Southampton
SO17 2ND

11.00 am SALT service.

From the church's website:
The 11 am service aims to be a family friendly service spanning the whole age range, and a significant contribution to it comes from those who work with our young people and children. The other name for this service is SALT which stands for Sharing And Learning Together, and is based on our belief that children, young people and adults are all lifelong learners in the Christian faith.

The Review
Righto then, off we trundled of a beautiful Sunday morning to St. Denys' Church and wandered in to the main entrance of the church centre and looked a bit lost, basically 'cause we were. We asked someone also wandering in for directions to the service, which we were informed was in the main hall at the end of the long corridor.

At this point it's worth mentioning why we were in the hall. It turns out the (incredibly beautiful) church building is not used as its too expensive to heat and needs some repair work. If I were a rich man...*The Older one dances about in a musical theatre fashion*

The Hall contained a wooden altar, with large painted wall hangings, flowing down from the ceiling behind it. Next to the altar was a simple wood lectern and a keyboard. We wandered in and the lady who'd directed us before pointed out the hymn books ("the source" - the older one had a flick through and reports it encompasses old hymns, modern worship songs and all points between) and the notice sheet for the week. We took a seat on the second row fairly comfortable plastic chairs, ones seen in schools throughout the land. The place had about 60 seats, but the whole first row was empty, so about 50 people.

After a minute or two of kerfuffle and such the Vicar (Rev. Kelvin Randall) said " Hello everybody, it must be time to start now." Notices were given, and there were quite a few, including that none the music group were available this week, so we had recordings to accompany our singing. We proceeded to sing "Great is Thy faithfulness" a 1920's hymn of a traditional style. Next we were given a task, the children were to build a wall of boxes using a chain of people to pass the boxes to the wall. Meanwhile the rest of the congregation were split in two groups and had a brief outline of the events of Nehemiah rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem to put in order. After this was complete, the Vicar put on the music for the lively and modern "Be bold, be strong", which was sung with gusto and followed by a short prayer. Then the children left, and the Vicar read Matthew 21 v33-46.

A member of the congregation stood up and delivered an excellent 24 minute sermon on God being "the Boss", like the vineyard owner of the parable and in charge of your life, we are tenants of his earth and we must produce good fruit. She was called Sarah we think, and made amusing use of business jargon! After the sermon we sang "My Jesus, I love Thee." a more traditional style hymn and another more modern song, that neither of us can remember. There was a time of prayer then a time for any of the congregation to share something they were thankful for they with everyone, then we sang the final hymn the stirring "And Can It Be that I Should Gain". The older one reckons this was one of the best bits of the service, especially when the recorded music ran out, and we had to sing the last verse acapella. The collection was taken during this hymn, a short collect said together followed and we were dismissed with the offer of refreshments at the back.

After returning the hymn book we collected some very acceptable tea and coffee and stood about looking lost. Almost immediately members of the congregation (and, later, the Vicar) came and spoke to us, and very friendly and interesting, the older one having a fascinating conversation about the Vicar's shoes. We spoke at length and were shown around the Church. Though we were not invited to lunch we were told that the first Sunday of the month they have both their services combined, after which they have a meal together.

One of things that really stood out for the younger one was how calm and peaceful the service felt, especially for a family service. It was occasionally interrupted by a squawk of a baby, but that only added to the feeling of togetherness, especially the giggling baby during the prayers.

Even though it was a small church, there seems to be a thriving community. The notice sheet has information on a number of cell group meetings, prayer meetings and so on. They maintain a link with a church in Busoga, Uganda as well.

The Short Version

Traditional/Modern: A real mix of both, traditional and modern songs and worship styles all in one service.
Formal/Informal: Very informal, vicar in dog collar and jumper (and funky shoes!), and interactive tasks.
Solemn/Lively: Fairly lively, though quite laid back about it.

Great: Very friendly & welcoming, with a mixture of worship styles. A fairly small church were everyone noticed we were new and spoke to us.

Not so great: It was a shame there was no-one to lead the music and both of us were mildly disappointed about the main church building not being used,(not that they can really help that).

All in all, a lovely welcoming church. Highly recommended. We'll be coming back to try the 9:30am!

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

The First Post

Salutations.

The nature of this blog, I suspect, is somewhat self explanatory in principle yet rather lacking in detail. So allow me to enlighten you, somewhat, on the inner workings. We, the Intrepid Duo, travel to a different church in Southampton and wander in, looking lost, just before service time. We are both looking for a new church, as our old one has ceased to fulfill, so we are genuine and would be doing this anyhow. However in a moment of genius/insanity the older one decided that we could record our exploits in the form of a weblog, to share with others and also remind ourselves.

As the first visit is tomorrow we are busy thinking up marking criteria, clearly the reviews will be strongly subjective, especially on matters such as the sermon's content, the choice of music, or quality of communion wine. The number of invites to lunch after and length of the sermon are easily quantified, while the warmth of welcome and comfort of pew are to a lesser extent.

The Intrepid Duo between us have been about a bit church-wise, but not so much in Southampton. The older one has a middle of the road anglican starting point tempered with a large dollop of highly charismatic evangelical house church. I myself have a young childhood of middle-high traditional anglican a large gap and then a sprinkling of this and that. Our last church was a low, fairly evangelical Anglican jobby. We have no idea what our ideal church is, hence trying them all.

Oh, and yes we are totally ripping off inspired by the Mystery Worshipper of Ship of Fools.