Early Worship
Every Sunday at 9.00am 
If you’re looking for a short but meaningful service with hymns, teaching and time for reflection, this service could be for you!
We use an authorised Church of England format, in modern language yet with traditional elements like the Lord’s Prayer, Confession and Gloria. Eucharist is on the first and third Sunday of the month and at major Festivals such as Christmas and Easter, with a Service of The Word at other times.
The service lasts for 25-30 minutes, has a welcoming, friendly atmosphere, and plenty of time to meet people and chat after the service. It's suitable for families, those who want a simpler service than our Parish Mass at 10.30am and for anyone wanting an early service on a Sunday!
From time to time we also run workshops aimed at our younger (and older!) members of the congregation at important church seasons like Advent and Lent. This gives us the opportunity to explore the stories and traditions of these seasons, do some craft work, and enjoy games and refreshments together.
See below for Early Worship services happening in the next few weeks, more information on the service itself, and what we've been up to recently!
We look forward to welcoming you very soon!
Early Worship Services
December 2024 & January 2025 at 9.00am (unless otherwise stated below)
December
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Sunday 1st - Advent Sunday |
Eucharist |
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Sunday 8th |
Service of The Word |
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Sunday 15th |
Eucharist |
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Sunday 22nd |
Service of The Word |
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Tuesday 24th December - Christmas Eve |
The Christmas Story - arrive at 4.30pm for festive refreshments; service at 5.00pm - see poster, below |
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Sunday 29th |
Eucharist |
January
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Sunday 5th - Epiphany |
Eucharist |
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Sunday 12th |
Service of The Word |
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Sunday 19th |
Eucharist |
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Sunday 26th |
Service of The Word |
Christmas at All Saints
Our Early Worship Service - a shorter service and relaxed atmosphere - suitable for everyone!
The pattern of Early Worship is regular: Eucharist on the 1st and 3rd Sundays and Festival Sundays, and Service of The Word on other Sundays.
The congregation varies quite a bit – sometimes 8 or 9, and sometimes up to 20. Sometimes it's just adults - old and young - and sometime there are children of all ages, as well as teenagers. This style of the service suits a wide variety of people – those visiting, those who come regularly, those who bring friends or relatives, and those who just happen to turn up. On one occasion we had four generations of the same family.
EVERYONE is, of course, most welcome!
The changing demographics of our congregation
Mirroring the fall in the national birth rate, that of Bristol, and particularly Clifton has seen quite a sharp decline particularly as the local house prices have risen. Indeed, only just over 11 per cent of the population of our Parish have dependent children, which tallies with the current national figure of a 13 per cent drop in the number of children of primary school age.
So the Early Worship service needs to cater for the whole age spectrum!
Conversely the parish has a disproportionately large population of people in their late teens and early twenties. This is because of the number of students in student accommodation within this part of Bristol. It would be great to make every effort to engage with younger people who do come into church.
How many of us can name the wonderful students who this year have been singing in the choir? It's so important for us all - at Early Worship or Parish Mass - to engage with them, and indeed anyone new, or occasional visitors of all ages, who join us in our worship.
So do please come along to Early Worship one Sunday
"Taste and see that the Lord is good"
Ps 34:8
Early Worship throughout the Year
What we've been up to recently.......
You can see some photos of our Early Worship Easter Service and the Blessing of the Easter Garden, below. However, before Easter, there were several Word services introducing different ways of worshipping – one Sunday it was a Taizé service, and another was a short Lectio Divina – the latter being in keeping with the Church Lent programme. Mothering Sunday included refreshments, on being the Bristol tradition of Mothering Buns. But the highlight of the year so far was our Easter Saturday service and Blessing of the Easter Garden, with hot-cross buns and Easter eggs afterwards, of course………
Now, our focus has gone right back to the core beliefs of our faith using the Church of England’s publication The Pilgrim Way. This is a new Guide to the Christian faith.
We began by learning about the five letters that spell the Greek word for fish: icthus. Each is the first letter one of the earliest creeds spelling the declaration: Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Saviour. The fish was used by early Christians as a symbol of their faith, and members of the congregation have contributed their own fish drawings to make the Early Worship logo, as below.
The CofE 'The Pilgrim Way' website highlights the key Christian core beliefs, which is our current teaching.
Faith and Calling - the Pilgrim Way
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The Apostles’ Creed
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The Beatitudes
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The Lord’s Prayer
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The Eucharist
Easter: April 2024
Christmas 2023
Easter: April 2023
The Early Worship Good Friday service this year was followed by hot cross buns and an Easter Egg Hunt in our beautiful All Saints Gardens, with beautiful weather to match!
A beautiful Easter Garden was created this year in the peaceful environment of the Richard Chapel - a fitting location to enable prayer and reflection. Congregation members contributed glass jars, foliage, posies and stones to create a path and the empty tomb, and on Easter Saturday placed their flowers within the ‘Garden’.
Harvest Festival, 25th September 2022
The Early Worship congregation's contribution to the ASC pop-up Food Point
Advent Sunday, 27th November 2022
The Early Worship group spent time finding out more about the season of Advent, by making something beautiful to take home and having some social time with one another. The croissants and coffee are essential fuel for thinking, singing and making things and were much appreciated.
The group started with a reminder of the meaning of the season of Advent; a time of penance, reflection, preparation and waiting for Christmas. They moved onto an Advent song, complete with actions, to the tune of Edelweiss (more details available on request!!), and finished by creating ‘stained glass’ lanterns and Christmas decorations to take home. It was lovely to see people of different ages helping one another, making and deepening friendships and being creative together.