The Rector has discussed some ideas to make St. Marks more "user friendly". There will be an on going debate on the best ways to achieve this. [From the minutes of the PCC meeting 15 September 2004]
The process started in September 2004 continues with talks by the Revd Terry Knight. It seems change is afoot in the Parish. This is your chance to take part.

Terry Knight began by saying how at home he felt in St Marks Church, a sacred space set aside for worship.
At the beginning of Christianity there had been no plans laid down as to how a church should be designed. Early Christians worshipped where ever they could gather, public buildings, private houses, or even at the back of the synagogue.
Not until Christianity was proclaimed the official religion under Emperor Constantine were meetings held in basilicas which were really public meeting places like town halls with a variety of uses. These were invariably constructed as a simple rectangular building with a curved, arched addition to one end.
When specific places of worship were later built, they copied this basic pattern and the orthodox churches continued to do so. However western churches started to follow architectural changes in fashion, particularly with the incorporation of Roman then Gothic arches and later still the classical revivals of columns and other ornamentations. The inside layout and the contents of a church define what it is to be used for and each of these developed alongside every new form of worship. With the Reformation, which was a process beginning long before the intervention of Henry VIII, there was a radical change from an importance of sacrament to an emphasis on the WORD, and this was reinforced by the development of printing and translations of the Bible. It was also interesting to remember that the 1662 Prayer Book had in mind a particular layout of the church and a sample of that still remains today at Hayes in Middlesex.
This process of change continued through later centuries and still does so. Although we may well feel more comfortable and secure in the status quo, this can hold back our development as a worshipping community and our accessibility to others.
Revd Knight will be coming to us again on Tuesday 3rd May and will tell us how liturgy has developed in the last 50 years and how this has affected St Marks. During questions he reflected that, although our building is indeed of the 60s / 70s process of changes, it was in fact completed before that particular period of change had been completed.

Please note for your diaries Terry Knight's two visits to talk to us about re-thinking our church:
Tuesday 3rd May Ancient and Modern
Tuesday 24th May So What Now?