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Ship of Fools: St Paul Lutheran, Phoenix, Arizona, USA

The Mystery WorshipperThe Mystery Worshipper Shipmate
edited November 2023 in The Mystery Worshipper
imageShip of Fools: St Paul Lutheran, Phoenix, Arizona, USA

Fine attention to liturgy, good preaching, well-chosen hymns, but something odd leaves our worshipper flummoxed

Read the full Mystery Worshipper report here


Comments

  • Nick TamenNick Tamen Shipmate
    edited November 2023
    @Amanda B Reckondwyth, you got me curious about the “circle around the font,” so I went looking around the church’s website. From there, I found their YouTube channel, which included the video of the service you attended and reported on.

    What you may not have been able to see from where you were sitting was that after they brought the offering plates forward and prepared the altar rail, the two ushers moved a small table—it looked like a card table with a white table cloth on it—from the side and placed it next to the font. It had a box on it. The people who came forward were placing something in the box. Some of those who came forward moved around the font as a way of going back to their seats without impeding others coming forward. Then the table was moved back to the side.

    I also found the bulletin online. It didn’t say anything specific about what was going on, but there was this note:
    LWML MITES
    In September the LWML mites offering was $47.65. This month’s offering will assist in meeting the $100,000 Mission Grant to expand the Orphan Grain Train’s original facility in Norfolk, VA.
    Given that most of those who came forward were women (there were also two boys, one girl and one man), I wonder if those who came forward were bringing their October LWML “mite” offerings.


  • Amanda B ReckondwythAmanda B Reckondwyth Shipmate
    That would certainly explain it. I did not notice the business about the table. I don't think an announcement to the effect that "The Lutheran Women’s Missionary League will now bring forward their mites offering" would have been out of place.

    I wonder if a new bug in the software prevented the image from being displayed in the opening post.
  • Nick TamenNick Tamen Shipmate
    Amanda B Reckondwyth wrote: »
    That would certainly explain it. I did not notice the business about the table. I don't think an announcement to the effect that "The Lutheran Women’s Missionary League will now bring forward their mites offering" would have been out of place.
    No, but there was no announcement about any offering. The offertory music simply started as soon as the pastor moved away from the pulpit, and it continued as the group of mostly women came forward. My hunch is that announcing these kinds of things isn’t done there. I think there are pros and cons to that approach. On the pro side, announcements can break the flow of a service. On the con side, those who don’t know what’s going on, don’t know what’s going on. I would think something at the appropriate place in the bulletin would serve the purpose well.

    I wonder if a new bug in the software prevented the image from being displayed in the opening post.
    Perhaps so.

  • Amanda B ReckondwythAmanda B Reckondwyth Shipmate
    Nick Tamen wrote: »
    On the pro side, announcements can break the flow of a service. On the con side, those who don’t know what’s going on, don’t know what’s going on.

    In my case it put me off to the extent that I felt alienated to the service.

    Re the missing photo -- Looking at the page code, I see that the filename of the image in this comment thread is different from the filename of the image in the actual report. That would explain why there is no image at the top of this thread -- the file in question probably doesn't exist. I no longer have edit access to the code or else I would fix it.
  • peasepease Tech Admin
    Better now? You might need to refresh the page.
  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    Nick Tamen wrote: »
    No, but there was no announcement about any offering. The offertory music simply started as soon as the pastor moved away from the pulpit, and it continued as the group of mostly women came forward. My hunch is that announcing these kinds of things isn’t done there. I think there are pros and cons to that approach. On the pro side, announcements can break the flow of a service.

    There's no announcement of the offertory hymn at St Sanity. We have the Peace and when the organist thinks that that has gone on long enough (or maybe he's had time to clear his nose, have a drink of water or whatever) he breaks into the introduction for the offertory. An announcement may help visitors, but they can see what others are doing, and it's printed in the handout order of service which they will have been given.
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