I Go To An Anglican Church

In the Anglican church a Vicar often wears special clothes when taking a service. Our Vicar sometimes wears a white collar around his neck to show that he is the Vicar. In the church, he sometimes wears traditional clothes called a cassock, surplus and scarf. At different times of the year and for different festivals, a special coloured scarf is worn.

When he takes our Family Service, which is once a month, our Vicar wears an ordinary shirt and trousers. This is because the service is more relaxed and is held in our village hall. Lots of young people and new people come to this service. We often have puppets and sketches acted out by our members. We try to make the Family Service as welcoming as possible.

Our Vicar is helped by a team of Lay Readers. These are members of the congregation who have been especially trained. Lay Readers lead and preach, run youth activities, take funerals, visit, run various church groups etc, as well as sometimes acting as chaplains to hospitals, prisons etc. Many of them do this whilst holding down a full time 'day job'.

At our church we want to encourage young people to learn about God, Jesus and the Bible, so we employ a youth worker. She is called Michelle, and she is 23 years old. Michelle works with young people of all ages, as well as going into the school to take assemblies. Michelle is paid for this job. The money comes from the members of the church. Like most churches, many people in the Anglican Church give a regular amount of money for the work of the church.

This is not the only way money is raised. If you go to our church services, you will notice that a plate or bag is passed around at the end of the service. This is known as the collection plate. Our Vicar always says, "If you are a visitor to our church, don't feel that you have to put any money on the plate!" We don't want people to feel that they have to give money if they are not members.