On June, 8th I wrote of the changes required to right-size the financial plans of St. Andrews. Below is a change being implemented for a lot of the same reasons.

As you can expect there will be other changes that track the realization we can no longer just follow normal operating modes into the future. One aspect of worship that needs a tweak is the way communion has been staffed. For those of you that pay attention, a full communion required ten Elder/Deacon/Servers. Full communions are observed in March, June, October and December in any given year. The dates move a bit in response to the calendar year but remain relatively static. I’d like to demonstrate how we can reduce the servers from ten to just seven without affecting the service or efficiency. It will as well maintain the solemn decorum of these proceedings. 

Back in the day, we had a very large Session of almost 30 Elders at any given time. Scheduling was relatively easy – well scheduling is never easy but you get my point, I hope. Today we have roughly 20 some Deacon/Elders to choose from with the same four full communions and four intinction communions. Even allowing additional servers from non-commissioned members of the congregation has not been enough to fill the roster for communions. Note Session informally revised the requirement from only Elders to allow Deacons and longtime congregational members some time ago.

Trying as we might, finding sufficient servers for any particular service remained daunting. Some of you have commented on why the flurry of activity at the last minute…now you know. Life has changed dramatically since the day of 30 Elders. The number of servers at full communions needs to be reduced. Intinction services require much fewer servers (between 0 and 6) to complete and will remain unchanged.

So the diagram shown arranges the same full communion with just seven servers. You may have never seen the communion roster depicted and I’d like to allow all to see the mechanics of it. There are two servers on the dais assisting Rev. Scott and the five remaining each serve an aisle as shown. Easy pea’sy  we have created a solution to scheduling issues (hopefully).  

Comments, suggestions, and advice are always  appreciated – give me a ring sometime!  Rob, COS