St Mary Redcliffe A Year at Redcliffe Magazine 2022

Worship
eclectic, with ‘something for everyone’. We
have one of the finest church organs in the
UK – a real heritage instrument.
Looking to the future, I think the past two
years have led to deeper thought about
future areas of development and what our
priorities may be.
Recruitment to all the choirs will remain a
big priority – we have spaces for more boys,
girls and adults. A successful Chorister
Recruitment Day was held on a Sunday
afternoon in September 2021 where we
hoped to swell our numbers further,
but strangely, this didn’t really pay huge
dividends, although it was fun.
perhaps needs different methods than were
used a few years ago. Are we nurturing
choristers enough in faith? We have an
open door policy, where choir families are
not expected to be committed churchgoers
in order for their child to enrol.
There aren’t really any quick solutions
here, especially when the church is busy
with so many different projects. The social
aspect of the choir, which we were able to
develop remotely in lockdowns, is definitely
something to ensure we invest enough time
in the future. There’s plenty to think about!
Andrew Kirk
Director of Music & Organist
One area for development is how our
church and choir might respond to the
increased busyness of Sundays with its
competing elements as a family day, Sunday
sports and other leisure activities. We have
already made some adjustments to the choir
schedule – now almost unrecognisable
from the pattern I inherited in 2003. Should
or could we be looking at more weekday
offerings of sung worship? Attendance at
after school weekday practices is usually
very high, less so on Sundays, so a logical
step forward might be to offer Compline or
other services, not necessarily every week,
but perhaps on a seasonal basis.
There are almost 40 children aged 7-16
involved in our music programme. I believe
there is further scope for working together
with Children’s Church, of which our
choristers are of course a part. We had begun
to take some steps towards this before the
pandemic. Time is limited for choristers,
so encouraging them to explore their faith
further through baptism or confirmation
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