Holy Trinity Utrecht Chaplaincy CHAPLAINS REPORT MAY 2019

Holy Trinity Utrecht Chaplaincy CHAPLAIN’S REPORT MAY 2019 TO THE PRESENT

To the glory of God! 1. Changes in our congregation: – baptisms, confirmation, marriage, funerals 2. Worship 3. Learning/Fellowship 4. Pastoral Care 5. Outreach 6. Our mission going forward

Baptisms! In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit! Thijmen Kuijper (30 June); Vera Van Velsen (3 July in the Lek River); Pauline Walters (1 Sept); Elin Verbiest (8 Sept); Lauren Dill (14 Sept); Hanna Houdijk and Abigail Houdijk (6 Oct full immersion); Chiara Wong (3 Nov); Abigail Keukniet (1 December). Annemarie Lenthe Boneschanscher (30 December)

Confirmation! …to daily increase in the Holy Spirit more and more… Confirmation services in May and then October were cancelled due to corona virus travel restrictions. These candidates await a service, we hope, in early 2021: Adelchi Hankins Josephine Schonewille Marieke Sybrandi Niels Tacoma

Funerals May they rest in peace and rise in glory… Marian Richardson (Zwolle) (24 June 19); Others in our congregation have lost Toon Zwart (3 Sept 2019); loved ones: Anneke Wevers-Le Poole Joke Zwart (14 Nov 2019); Suzette Fink-Jensen (21 Nov 2019); Annemarie Boneschanscher (30 Jan 20); recently Simon Urqhart’s step-father; Tommy Thomas (Zwolle) (28 Feb 2020); Judy Miller’s father, and Sheila Joop Wevers (31 March 2020); Kooijman’s mother. Hans Oerlemans (6 April 2020); Ton Postma (11 April 2020). (Gijs and Petra Cremer Eindhoven’s mother); Adriana van den Berge-de Jong (Maria Koppenol’s mother) and very Let us pray…

2. Worship Pre-corona worship statistics Coronatide worship statistics Other coronatide initiatives Music – Choir and Worship Band

Easter 2 Easter 3 Easter 4 Easter 5 Ascension 1 Pentecost Trinity 1 Trinity 2 Trinity 3 Trinity 4 Trinity 5 Trinity 6 Trinity 7 Trinity 8 Trinity 9 Trinity 10 Trinity 11 Trinity 12 Trinity 13 Trinity 14 Harvest St Mike Angel Trinity 17 Trinity 18 Trinity 19 Trinity 20 Trinity 21 Trinity 22 Trinity 23 Advent 1 Advent 2 Advent 3 Advent 4 Christmas 1 Epiphany Eve Ephany 1 Epiphany 2 Epiphany 3 Presentation Septuagesima Sexagesima Quinquagesima Lent 1 Lent 2 2019 -2020 Sunday Attendance at HTU pre-corona 400 350 300 To the glory of God 250 200 150 100 50 0 9 am Holy Communion 10: 30 am Holy Communion 2: 30 pm Evensong + Total Sunday Attendance

Average Sunday attendance (excluding feast days) 180 Before All Saints Amersfoort (ASA) Number in of persons 160 After ASA founded 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 Year 2015 Year 2016 10: 30 am HC Year 2017 All services Year 2018 9 am HC Year 2019

And then there was Corona! • We did not miss a Sunday. From 22 March to 3 May we had live-stream 10: 30 am services with only 2 or 3 people in attendance • In the week of 3 May we were given permission by the Bishop to have services if allowed by the state – Netherlands allowed up to 30 people, spaced 1. 5 m apart – C of E recommends spacing of 2 m. • Our church can hold 5 places for single persons and 5 places for couples/families. That typically means 15 to 22 people on a Sunday. • We have continued with hybrid services: “in person” and “Live-Streaming”.

nt 4 Su 5 nd ay Ea st Ea er st er Ea 1 st er Ea 2 st er Ea 3 st er Ea 4 As ste ce r 5 ns io Pe n 1 nt ec os t Tr in i Tr ty in ity Tr 1 in ity Tr 2 in ity Tr 3 in ity Tr 4 in ity Tr 5 in ity Tr 6 in ity Tr 7 in ity Tr 8 in it Tr y 9 in ity Tr 10 in ity Tr 11 in ity Tr 12 in ity Tr 13 in ity 14 H St ar v M ik est e An Tr gel in ity Tr 17 in ity 1 St 8 Lu ke lm Pa nt Le Le Number of Participants 450 Number of Participants by Live-Stream and Afterwards 400 350 300 250 200 150 100 50 0 Peak Concurrent Viewers Total Views to Present Unique Viewers

What does this mean about Live-Streaming? Peak Concurrent visitors (highest number visiting while live-streaming) - Numbers declined from 72 to 39 in the first 10 weeks (partly we reopened for attendance in person in May) but has stabilized at around 35 on Sundays since June - 35 households – some households have 4 watching, some couples – so about 70 people on average or more - Plus 15 -20 attending in person – so probably around 90 on Sunday Total views afterwards: has stabilizing at around 125 views per video - This represents about 80 unique viewers (some view more than once) and so about 45 viewers/households after the live stream, so actually more are participating in some way in our services than pre-corona

Do people stay participating virtually throughout the service? Yes. A typical Youtube chart looks like this:

Ea 5 4 ay nd Su nt nt Le s Ea ter st e Ea r 1 st e Ea r 2 st e Ea r 3 st e Ea r 4 s As t ce er 5 ns i Pe on nt 1 ec os Tr t in Tr ity in ity Tr 1 in ity Tr 2 in ity Tr 3 in ity Tr 4 in ity Tr 5 in ity Tr 6 in ity Tr 7 in ity Tr 8 in i Tr ty 9 in ity Tr 10 in ity Tr 11 in ity Tr 12 in ity Tr 13 in ity 14 H St ar v M ik est e An Tr ge l in ity Tr 17 in ity 1 St 8 Lu ke lm Pa Le Time (minutes : seconds) Viewing Time of the Live-Stream and Upload 4: 48 28: 48 24: 00 0: 00 19: 12 14: 24 9: 36 4: 48 0: 00 Audience Retention - Average viewing time (during+after) Average Viewing time after upload

Average Viewing Time of HTU Services on the Internet Average time after the video is published – about 8 minutes Average combined(live stream and after published) – about 20 minutes Average during the live stream – about an hour

Conclusions: Most people who are participating virtually watch to the end. Live-streaming services and making the services available afterwards has been and continues to be worthwhile. Some prefer live-stream to attending in person for health reasons or because of the current restraints in corporate worship. We have seen about 130 different people at the services since May.

Other coronatide worship initiatives: 7 pm Wednesday Night Holy Communion (from May) (only a few come so no invitation is needed) 11 am Thursday Holy Communion (from May) (for 70+ and otherwise vulnerable – no invitation needed) Zoom Morning and Evening Prayer (stopped last week) Possible worship in larger church when permitted (Nine Lessons and Carols, other Christmas services? )

Music - Choir Director and Organist Henk Korff resigned in February Freek Dill involved in developing a profile for new Choir Director and Organist – consulting choir, the Council, the Chaplain Advertisements went out in July Interviews held in August (Kit, Simon, Beth and I were involved) Freek Elbers has been appointed and choir rehearsals have begun Choir Rehearsals and Corona Current situation – providing pre-recorded music, preparing for Xmas

Music – Worship Band led by Brian Fink-Jensen continues to provide pre- recorded music for use at All Age worship We have restarted Prayer and Praise services last Sunday – now it is on the 3 rd Sunday of the month at 5 pm Brian and Christianne have given us notice that this is their last year with us – they’ve given us lots of notice so we can prepare

3. Learning/Fellowship Reports: Children, Youth, Students, Bible Studies, and Women’s Group Utrecht Lectures (Sept 2019) – Hans Boersma Christian Classics Study Group – 2019 and early 2020 Prophesy Course (Spring 2019) Road to Maturity: New Wine (Autumn 2019 -20) Alpha Marriage Preparation Course (Jan-Mar 2020) (planning for 2021) Vocations: Ordained Ministry: Thomas, Wim, Erik, Nathan, Fred, Daleen, Marieke (preaching, reading, altar serving, on Council, MES) As Lay Ministers: Tim, Marten (preaching)

New learning/fellowship coronatide initiatives: Daily meditations (25 March - 22 May) (DP + Daleen Bakker) Online Godly Play (since Sept) – thanks to Madeleine de Boer! Midweek coffee (tried and stopped as little interest) Sunday Coffee Hour - by Zoom, now also in person outside after service Trinity Tidings (restarted recently) Postmas idea to include personal updates Recover Newsletter? Recover Online CCSG, other study groups?

4. Pastoral Care Chaplain – ongoing visits, Home Communion, telephone Pastoral Assistants (Daniëlle Los & Harry Barrowclough) Coronatide initiatives Daniëlle Los (is coordinating special care during the pandemic), and also involves the Prayer Ministry Team Local Contacts (contacting but restrained by Data Protection Laws)

5. Outreach Charitable Givings Committee (report included) Helping us to better connect with the charities that we support each month Very grateful for their work and hope they continue in this work of love Student Ministry (new students at HTU and in support of Marieke at IFES) New: Use of the Parsonage by students for midweek study New: Sudanese congregation (initiative of Fr Jos Strengholt – now on hold because of the pandemic)

6. Furthering our mission Mission Subcommittee – draft report (pre-corona) Our mission is dependent of three things: What are Holy Trinity Utrecht’s particular gifts to offer? Incredible diversity What are opportunities for mission for our Chaplaincy? Students, refugees, other, churches – Zwolle/Groningen/Deventer? + What are the current bottlenecks to growth? Church building; ordained ministry Coronatide initiatives – please suggest ideas! For Worship, Learning/Fellowship, Pastoral Care, Outreach

Personal Level First year Married! New responsibility! New support! Thank you Daniëlle! Finished Inburgeringsexam – thank you John and Mieps! Last 6 months most stressful time in my ministry to date online presence - huge learning curve! details, details… Keeping things going in changing circumstances Doing things safely (the consequences of failure could be catastrophic) – so being fully present, conflicts on safety but I’m coming out of it…

Prayer of Thanksgiving Almighty God, Father of all mercies, we your unworthy servants do give you most humble and hearty thanks for all your goodness and loving-kindness to us and to all people; We bless you for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life; but above all for your inestimable love in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ, for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory. And we beseech you, give us that due sense of all your mercies, that our hearts may be unfeignedly thankful, and that we show forth your praise, not only with our lips, but in our lives; by giving up ourselves to your service, and by walking before you in holiness and righteousness all our days; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with you and the Holy Spirit be all honour and glory, world without end. Amen.