Church

A PROFILE OF THE PARISH OF ST. PAUL
WOKINGHAM
WITH ST. NICHOLAS EMMBROOK

THE CHURCH

The Church Communities

The parish includes two worshipping communities:

St Paul's

St Paul's is a fairly traditional Anglo Catholic church with a regular worshipping congregation of approximately 120. Although a large number of these are from within the parish, a significant proportion is from the surrounding parishes.

St Nicholas'

St Nicholas', the daughter church of St Paul's has recently celebrated its 25th anniversary. It is a eucharistic community, celebrating the Eucharist each Sunday at 10.30 in Emmbrook Village Hall. While maintaining the Catholic tradition, the services are less formal than those at St Paul's.

St Paul's and St Nicholas' Population

The electoral roll of Sonning Deanery stood at 3221 at 30 June 2003. The electoral roll of the parish has remained relatively constant over the past few years and currently stands at 220.

The regular Sunday congregation averages approximately 150 (St Paul's and St Nicholas' combined), with 15 - 20 of these being children / young people. Attendance on Easter Day in 2003 was 257 and for Christmas Eve/ Christmas Day this rose to 730. A confirmation service has been held each year for many years although numbers being confirmed are low.

Occasional Offices

Occasional offices are mainly conducted at St Paul's. In 2003 there were:
49 baptisms

	11 marriages
	4 blessings of marriage
	6 funerals conducted in the church
	11 interment of ashes in the churchyard
	16 burials in the churchyard
	35 - 40 funeral services were also conducted at the crematorium

There are currently planned to be 26 baptisms and 17 weddings at St Paul's in 2004.

Worship
The Churches follow an Anglo-Catholic tradition where the central service is the Eucharist.
The normal pattern of services is:

Sunday	8:00am	Said Mass – BCP
	9:30am	Sung Parish Mass at St Paul’s – Common Worship
	10:30am	Sung Parish Mass as St Nicholas’ – Common Worship (apart from 5^th Sunday at St Nicholas when it is a non-Eucharistic family service)
	6:15pm	1^st Sunday Solemn Evensong and Benediction
		2^nd Sunday Healing Service
		3^rd Sunday Choral Evensong
	5:30pm	4^th Sunday Said Evening Prayer
	6:30pm	4^th Sunday Prayer and Praise at St Nicholas
	5:30pm	5^th Sunday Said Evening Prayer
Monday	7:15pm	Said Mass – Common Worship
Tuesday	9:30am	Said Mass – Common Worship
Wednesday	10:30am	Said Mass at St Nicholas – Common Worship
Thursday	9:30am	Said Mass – BCP
Friday	7:15am	Said Mass – Common Worship
Saturday	9:00am	Rosary Prayers
	9:30am	Said Mass

Unless otherwise stated all services are held at St Paul's. The St Nicholas' Sunday Mass and the evening Prayer and Praise are currently held in the village hall at Emmbrook. The Wednesday Mass at St Nicholas' is normally held at St Nicholas' House.

The above list is the normal pattern, but because of the difficulty finding clergy for all the services during the interregnum, many of the weekday masses have been cancelled. The Wednesday Mass at St Nicholas' is now celebrated once a month.

The Eucharist

The Eucharist is at the heart of the worship of St Paul's and St Nicholas', and is normally celebrated every day within the parish, Usually it is a said service, but it is sung at both churches on Sunday mornings and at all major festivals. Both St Paul's and St Nicholas' have servers at the sung Eucharist.

St Paul's uses liturgical vestments, incense is used at most sung services and bells are rung at the elevation of the host and the chalice.

St Paul's Choir sings at all sung Eucharists, as well as Choral Evensong, Solemn Evensong, Benediction, and other major festivals.

One or two groups of licensed lay administrators usually administer the chalice at both churches.

One change that has been proposed, is to designate one of the 9:30 services each month at St Paul's as a Family Eucharist, with a slightly more informal approach, using the nave altar rather than the high altar, and singing more modern hymns and songs.

On special festivals during the week a number of St Nicholas' congregation attend the services at St Paul's. Every Mothering Sunday St Nicholas' joins the 9.30 service at St Paul's.

Other Services

Most of the major festivals are observed including the Easter Triduum, Corpus Christi, major saints, and Festivals of Our Lady.

There are also regular services that involve a high level of lay leadership. The Healing Service (in the evening of the second Sunday) is run mainly by the healing team, and consists of a short service of singing, prayers and bible readings, followed by individual prayers, listening, and when a priest is present, anointing with oil. The Prayer and Praise service (held on the fourth Sunday in Emmbrook Village Hall), is usually lay led and uses more modern songs and music accompanied by a small music group, as well as prayers and meditations, The format of this service allows a certain amount of variation, from Taize to multimedia 'alternative' worship.

Outside the general pattern of services, St Paul's has also played host to the 'Rock Mass' on more than one occasion. This is a lively, high energy Eucharist with a large (and loud) worship group, lights, smoke, and lots of action.

St Nicholas' most recent community priest introduced on an occasional basis (fifth Sundays) a community Prayer and Praise service as a means of outreach. This service replaces the normal mass. Members of the congregation who wish to receive communion on those days can do so at one of the services at St Paul's.

Music

Traditional music plays an important part of the services and St Paul's has a robed choir to lead the congregational singing and to provide other choral pieces. St Paul's is very fortunate to also have an excellent organist who plays at all the sung services, as well as playing occasional recitals. A new Director of Music has recently been appointed.

At St Paul's the commonly used hymn book is the New English Hymnal, while at St Nicholas they use Hymns Old and New, and Hymns Ancient and Modern - New Standard.

Church Teams

Administration - A Parish Administrator is employed four mornings a week to handle the day-to-day running of the parish including general enquiries, mail, bookings (including the Parish Rooms), the weekly newsletter (Pews News), parish email, etc. The parish owns a computer, laser printer, and two photocopiers.

Sidespeople - The list of sidespeople is approved each year by the PCC, and work to a rota to provide a welcome to anyone entering the church for a service, giving out hymnbooks, showing newcomers to their place, and taking the collection during the service.

Readers/Intercessors - A rota is drawn up annually to provide readers and intercessors for all the Sung Eucharist services. Both groups are provided with help and guidance in speaking in church. For the intercessors they are also given guidelines for providing the prayers. At St Nicholas' the intercessions usually include a specific area of Emmbrook. Leaflets are distributed the week before asking if residents have particular concerns that can be mentioned in the intercessions.

Choir - The Choir is organised by the Director of Music, who also helps to choose music for the services. The Choir has a very wide repertoire from early music through classical to more modern music including some Taize. The membership is increasing under the guidance of the new Director of Music, with currently 17 men, women, and children.
In addition to leading most of the congregational singing, they also provide anthems and psalms during the Mass. During Advent, Christmas, and Holy Week the Choir sings for many special services, such as Nine Lessons and Carols, Veneration of the Cross, and Tenebrae.

Servers - Servers are provided on a rota system for all sung Eucharist services. At St Paul's the serving team normally consists of MC, Crucifer, Thurifer, and two Acolytes who are all robed. At St Nicholas' it is usually an unrobed MC and server. The teams at St Paul's are a mix of adults and children, led by a head server. At St Nicholas' the servers are all young people.

Bellringers - St Paul's has a team of bellringers under the guidance of a tower captain. They are eager to resume ringing at services, as soon as the peal of eight bells is restored following the earlier lightning strike and fire.

Sacristy - The parish has a Sacristan with a team of about ten assistants. The sacristy team is responsible on a weekly basis for preparing on a Saturday afternoon for services on Sunday. They prepare the altar, the elements and lay out the vestments. They also prepare by putting out the service books, chairs for the servers and changing the altar frontals when necessary. Members of the team repair the vestments as necessary and two members of the congregation have taken responsibility for washing and ironing the sacred linen.

Verger - The verger or his deputy is present at most sung Eucharist services, as well as weddings and funerals to lead out the Choir, control levels for the sound system, organise people for carrying the water, wine and bread in the offertory procession, and to help out generally during the service. The verger is a voluntary position. He is also a very popular guide for the various groups of school children who visit the church.