Revision of the Pattern of Services in Itchen Valley Parish by Revd Alex Pease
Its been really difficult. Some of us have had to give up some things which we love and which we have enjoyed for decades. But, as I suggested in my ‘From the Rectory’ article last month, we have had to make some changes in the services in Itchen Valley now that we have a part time, rather than a full time priest. The Parochial Church Council decided on Monday 14thMay a revised pattern of services for Itchen Valley Parish.
We have had a number of constraints in putting together the revised pattern of services. Firstly, it was agreed at the time that we prepared the Parish Profile (the basis upon which your new Rector has been appointed) that there would now be only two services per Sunday rather than three in the Parish. Secondly, there is a canon law requirement that there is a communion service held in each Parish every Sunday.
Thirdly, we have focused our more modern worship in Easton. This is because a lot of church going families with young children live there. Also settling on one church for this type of worship means that we can manage (and possibly invest in) the sound system so that the Band can perform at its best. Fourthly, our Valley Worship service needs to be at Easton so that we can have our Village Football on the recreation field afterwards. I recognise that some in Easton would prefer that we retained a traditional service there, so we have kept the Parish Communion at Easton on the fifth Sunday.
The reduction to two services per month means that there will either be a BCP Holy Communion service at 8am each Sunday or a 6pm Evensong service in the Parish, but not both as before. Our 10am service will either be a modern service with the Band (All Age Worship on the first Sunday of the month and Valley Worship on the third Sunday of the month) or a Parish Communion.
So the pattern of services now looks like this:
| 1stSunday | 2nd Sunday | 3rdSunday | 4th Sunday | 5th Sunday |
| BCP Martyr Worthy | BCP Itchen Abbas | BCP Avington | ||
| All Age Service Easton | Parish Communion Itchen Abbas | Valley Worship Easton | Parish Communion Martyr Worthy | Parish Communion Easton |
| Evensong Martyr Worthy | Evensong Avington |
We will have a different arrangement for our annual Patronal Services in each village and we will be reviewing the whole programme in 12 months time.
Alex Pease
Rector