For anyone visiting the church website – no login needed
Richhill Methodist Church · Covers plugin version 5.85.5
The rota is at: https://richhill.glenmeth.church
The Sunday Rota page shows who is serving at each service. Anyone can view it – you do not need an account or a password.
Finding your way around
At the top of the rota you’ll find a few controls to help you find what you need:
- Table / Cards – switch between a full table and a card layout. Cards are usually easier on a phone. Whichever you pick is remembered for next time you visit, on this device.
- Search – find where someone is serving. It matches what is shown on screen, so if you are seeing initials you’ll need to search the initials (“RR” rather than “Richard”). See “Names and privacy” below.
- All areas – choose which columns to show. Tick as many as you like; leave them all unticked for the full rota.
- Sets – at the top of that list, ready-made groups of columns (e.g. “Tech team” = Sound, Slides, Stream). Ticking a set adds its columns to whatever you have already chosen.
- All slots – show only morning (AM), evening (PM), or one-off Events.
- All dates – narrow the list to a month or a quarter. Choosing a start also sets an end to match, and moving the end later covers a range (e.g. October to January). Tick “Custom dates” instead for an exact from/to range rather than whole months.
- Services at a changed time – show only morning or evening services running at an unusual time, such as a 09:30 Christmas Day service. Events aren’t listed here because they always have their own time – use the slot filter for those.
- Print – always prints as a table, one row per service, whichever layout the screen is showing. Your filters are applied, so filter first if you only want part of the rota. The printed page is stamped with the date and time it was printed.
Worth knowing: The public rota normally lists only upcoming services – past ones drop off automatically. There is nothing on the page to bring them back, though whoever set the page up can choose to include them.
Worth knowing: The rota page always shows a “Last updated” line near the top, so you can tell at a glance whether you are looking at a fresh copy.
Services and events at other times
Most services run at the usual morning and evening times, so no time is shown. Where a service is at a different time – Christmas Day, for example – the time appears next to AM or PM, like “AM 09:30–10:30”.
You may also see entries marked “Event”. These are one-off occasions that don’t follow the usual pattern – an afternoon or midweek gathering, say – and always show their own start and finish time. They can fall on any day, not just a Sunday.
Where a whole team is on together, the rota may simply say “All Prayer Team” rather than listing everyone. If someone else is helping too, they are shown alongside it. Some groups also show their own chosen name above the list – e.g. “Welcome Team A” – when whoever looks after the rota has chosen to show it; most groups don’t, and that’s just as normal.
A greyed-out “N/A” means that column genuinely is not needed for that service – not that nobody was found for it. A written column such as Theme or Service Notes may instead say “No Service” in plain text, meaning the whole service isn’t happening that day.
Names and privacy
To protect people’s privacy, the public rota normally shows initials rather than full names.
Some columns may not appear here at all. Whoever looks after the rota can keep a column off the public page while still using it themselves – internal notes, for instance. Nothing is missing or broken if the page shows fewer columns than you expected.
- If you are on the rota yourself and signed in to the church website, you see full names – and can search by full name. A website account on its own is not enough: someone who signs in but is not on the rota sees exactly what any visitor sees.
- If the church has set up a reveal password, you can enter it on the page to show full names. It lasts for that view only – reload the page or come back later and you will need to enter it again. Search will match full names while they are showing.
- Service notes are hidden from the public view by default, since they sometimes mention people by name. An administrator can choose to show them, using the Public rota setting for that column on the Areas page.
Worth knowing: Because search looks at what’s on screen, initials are all you can search for until full names are showing. Searching “RR” works; searching “Richard” will not.
Note: If you’d like your own name shown differently, speak to whoever looks after the rota at church – it isn’t something you can change from this page. There is currently no way to hide just your name from this public page while staying on the rota itself: asking to come off the public rota means being taken off the rota entirely, since the two aren’t separate today.
If you are on the rota
Some churches show a short form at the foot of the rota: give your name as it appears on the rota and the email address held for you, and your own settings link is emailed to you. From that page you can change your details, choose whether you get reminders, add the rota to your calendar and say when you are away.
Note: Both must match what the rota already holds, and the reply is the same either way – so it never reveals whether somebody is on the rota. If the form is not shown, or your details do not match, ask your team manager or rota administrator for your link instead.
Installing it as an app on your phone or computer
The rota can also be added to your phone’s home screen or your computer as its own app icon, separate from your browser. It opens full-screen with one tap, and once it has loaded once, it keeps working with no internet connection at all.
This always uses the same public, initials-only view described above – installing it does not sign you in or show anything extra.
iPhone or iPad (Safari)
- Open Safari and go to https://rota.glenmeth.church/pwa-app/.
- Tap the Share button along the bottom – a square with an arrow pointing up.
- Scroll down and tap “Add to Home Screen”.
- Tap “Add” in the top right.
Worth knowing: Only Safari can do this on an iPhone or iPad – Chrome and other browsers on iOS do not have this option, even though they work fine for viewing the rota itself.
Worth knowing: Newer iPhones show an “Open as Web App” toggle in that same dialog. Leave it switched on (it is on by default) – that is what makes it open full-screen like an app instead of inside Safari.
Android (Chrome)
- Open Chrome and go to https://rota.glenmeth.church/pwa-app/.
- Tap the ⋮ menu in the top right.
- Tap “Install app” (older versions of Chrome say “Add to Home screen” instead).
- Tap “Install” to confirm.
Worth knowing: Chrome sometimes offers this itself, as a banner at the bottom of the screen – tapping that does the same thing.
Windows (Edge or Chrome)
- Open Edge or Chrome and go to https://rota.glenmeth.church/pwa-app/.
- Look for a small install icon at the right-hand end of the address bar and click it, then click “Install”.
- If you cannot see it, open the browser’s menu instead (⋯ in Edge, ⋮ in Chrome) and look for “Apps > Install this site as an app” (Edge) or “Save and share > Install page as app” (Chrome) – the exact wording shifts slightly between browser versions.
Keeping it up to date
The app checks for a newer version by itself and updates automatically whenever it has a connection – typically the moment you open it or bring it back to the foreground.
Worth knowing: Exactly how promptly that happens can vary by phone, computer and browser. If the page ever looks out of date, check the “Last updated” line near the top, then tap the “Refresh” button beside it – or press F5 or Ctrl+R on a computer – to fetch the latest copy right away.
Printing from the installed app
On some phones – iPhone in particular – printing does not work from the installed app itself, due to a compatibility issue with how those devices handle it. If Print does not respond, the app shows a message with the full website address instead.
Worth knowing: Copy that address and paste it into a full browser (Safari, Chrome or Edge) rather than the installed app, and print from there. Printing from the ordinary website works normally on every device.
Adding the rota to your calendar
If someone at church has shared a calendar (iCal) link with you, you can add it to Google Calendar, Apple Calendar or Outlook and the services will appear in your own calendar automatically, updating when the rota changes.
Note: Your calendar app decides how often it checks for changes, and some are slow – Google in particular can take many hours to notice an update, whatever the rota says. If you need to be certain, look at the rota on the website rather than in your calendar.
There are separate links for the whole rota and for individual areas, so you can subscribe to just the parts you care about. Ask your rota administrator for the right link.
Worth knowing: Calendar entries normally show initials rather than full names, in the same way as the rota page. It is not a lock, though: a calendar address can be adjusted to show full names, and some of the links handed out at church already do. Treat any calendar link you are given as something to keep to yourself.
Getting emails when you’re on the rota
If you serve on a team, you can be emailed whenever you are added to or removed from the rota, so you don’t have to keep checking.
This depends on the church having your email address – that is, you’ve given it to a rota administrator or your team manager. It’s entirely optional and always opt-in: you’ll receive a one-off invitation with a personal link, and nothing further is sent unless you confirm.
If you’d like this and haven’t had an invitation, ask your team manager or rota administrator. If you already have your personal preferences link, see the “Rota Member” guide, which explains what you can do there.
Something look wrong?
If a name is missing, wrong, or you can no longer serve on a date you’re listed for, contact your team’s manager or the church’s rota administrator. The rota can only be changed by them – there is nothing to edit on the public page.