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How We Worship
The services of this congregation,
like all Episcopal congregations, and other liturgical churches, follows a
simple pattern laid out in The Book of Common Prayer. This Prayer Book,
now more than 500 years old, has been revised many times, but it connects us
with the prayer of our past and the prayer of most of the world’s Christians.
The main service on Sundays and other
days is called “The Holy Eucharist” or “The Mass” or “the Lord’s supper.” It
consists of
ü
Hymns and prayers of praise,
ü
The reading of scripture,
ü
a sermon or “homily”,
ü
the recitation of the Nicene Creed,
ü
prayers of intercession,
ü
and the great banquet Christ commanded in which
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bread and wine is offered,
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over which thanksgiving is said,
ü
the bread is broken,
ü
and the bread and wine shared around the Lord’s table.
The Eucharist is celebrated in two
distinct ways at two services each Sunday in this parish.
The 8:00 Sunday morning service is
quiet and relatively short, normally about 45 minutes. No hymns are sung.
There is a homily. Many of the 8:00 congregation have breakfast together
afterwards at a nearby restaurant. Many of those who attend are our senior
members. But all ages are represented.
The 10:30 service includes hymns and
the singing of liturgical texts. It last about an hour, depending on how long
the announcements are! Most of our children attend this service. And they
contribute their own distinctive gifts.
The Eucharist is also celebrated
Wednesdays at 10:00 a.m.
About the use of Scripture in
Worship
Holy Scripture is read at the Sunday liturgy in a
three-year schedule of readings called “a lectionary”. Most liturgical churches
follow a similar, often identical, schedule of readings. Normally it includes
a lesson from the Old Testament, a Psalm, a lesson from the New Testament
Epistles, and a reading from one of the Gospels. Anglicans, like their Roman
Catholic friends, read one of the lessons occasionally from a collection of
books called “The apocrypha.” Anglicans do not consider these books to have the
same authority as the rest of the scriptures, but find the texts enriching.
Occasionally the Old Testament reading is from an apocryphal book
The Church after the Easter Vigil
The Easter Vigil, a service held on
Easter Eve, is perhaps the most moving of all the services of the church. On
Maundy Thursday of Holy Week, the candles are all extinguished at the end of the
service and it remains dark until the Easter vigil when new fire is struck and
the paschal candle lit.
The candle is brought into the church
in procession as the Deacon or Priest sings “the Light of Christ” . From it all
the other candles are lit. The candle is blessed by the singing of an ancient
hymn by the deacon or priest called “The exultet.” Several lessons are read
from the Old Testament with psalms and hymns retelling the story of our creation
and redemption.
Baptisms then happen or if no one is
to be baptized the whole congregation renews its baptismal promises. The
service concludes at Trinity with a litany of thanksgiving. But the celebration
continues as we go outside and enjoy a fireworks display. We do it because it
is exuberant and fun. But one could make a kind of theological case for it.
Creation begins with a big bang, or so it is thought by astrophysicists. In the
tradition Easter is seen as the Eighth day of Creation, a kind of new creation.
Why not another big bang, or in fact many?
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