Welcoming and caring at 11 o’clock | Oxford Quaker Forty-Three Newsletter

Anne Watson

To all who attend 11:00 meeting for worship on Sundays. The meeting house lobby is alive with humanity before the meeting; people who attended 9.30 meeting for worship are popping in and out meeting and chatting, children arrive and disappear upstairs for their meeting, office staff are answering queries and checking supplies, and in the midst of all this are the fresh arrivals for 11:00 meeting: some regulars, some returners, some new people, some passers-by.

Welcomers are needed to ensure that those on their way to meeting, maybe for the first time, are really and truly welcome amidst this joyful mix. Then, after worship, that coffee and tea are served to them and tidied away.

Currently, there are too few people doing this work. There are two welcomers who also worship at 11 o’clock, and one friend who commits to staying to serve refreshments after her own worship at 9.30. People who have worshipped at 9.30 are friendly towards those who come into the building, that is not the same as being welcomed by people with whom they will then worship.

Office staff are often willingly helping with refreshments and clearing away but their main job is security, not serving the worshippers.

The 9.30 meeting has 11 people on their welcoming and refreshment rota. This means each of them is on duty about once every two months and they also cover the 10.30 meeting on the first Sunday of the month. For 11 o’clock meeting welcomers and servers are only needed 3 or 4 Sundays each month. Can we find enough people to commit to doing this work once every two months? I am sure we can.

Please contact me:

annewatson1089@gmail.com.

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Forty-Three Newsletter • Number 532 • August 2023
Oxford Friends Meeting
43 St Giles, Oxford OX1 3LW

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