What does worship look, sound and feel like?
When you enter the church: Greeters will welcome you and provide you with a booklet called a bulletin that will assist you in following along with the service. It lists the songs, page numbers and special prayers that will be used during the service.
In the Pew: We like to sing together, using the Hymnal book in each pew, which is a collection of many songs that are used in Episcopal churches. In the bulletin it will give each song number that you can find in the hymnal. The other book is a Book of Common Prayer, which is the "guidebook" for everything Episcopalian. In it you will find all the prayers used for the worship service, which are also printed in the bulletin so you don't have to find them in the BCP if you don't want. But the BCP also has a wealth of other prayers for every occasion, services for baptisms, weddings and funerals, what we believe as Episcopalians and so much more. There is also a visitor card to fill out if you would like and drop in the collection basket as it is passed before communion.
The Service: A celebration of the Holy Eucharist, which means “thanksgiving” in Greek. We give thanks for what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. It is also known as Holy Communion, because in it we commune with God and also with each other as the Body of Christ. All are welcome to receive communion at the table of the Lord. We move around a bit during the service; we sit, stand, kneel if you are able, greet one another at the sign of peace with a wave, bow or handshake as you are comfortable, and walk up to the altar rail to receive communion. You can either kneel on the kneelers or stand at the rail to receive, or a minister can deliver it to where you are sitting too.
The first part of the service is called “The Liturgy of the Word,” in which God’s acts in history are recalled through scripture and applied to our lives in a reflection given by the priest (sermon). The second part is called “The Liturgy of the Eucharist,” in which we repeat the words and actions of Jesus’ last meal with his disciples and make that story our own.
All are welcome to receive communion at the table of the Lord. Greeters will assist you in coming up to the altar rail. The priest and lay minister will offer you the bread and wine consecrated as the body and blood of Jesus Christ. To receive the bread, simply place your hands together, palms facing upward and the priest will place the bread into your hand. To receive the wine, simply guide the bottom of the cup that the minister will hold toward your lips and take a sip. If you wish to receive a blessing rather than the Sacrament, simply cross your hands over your heart as a signal for the priest. Gluten free hosts are also available for those unable to consume wheat.
A reflection on what worship is:
- "Awe and wonder is our first response to The Holy.
Thanks and praise, our second.
We gather in worship to practice them both. - We spend our days abiding in God in whom, we’re told, we live and move and have our very being. Some of us do so consciously, some less so, but all of us have a hunch there is something more than meets the eye, something greater than ourselves – a meaning and purpose to life that makes sense of our joys and sorrows, our hopes and hurts, our courage and our fear.
We gather in worship to connect the dots. - The pattern is clear, the rhythm rewarding. We call it ‘liturgy.’
We gather. We listen. We pray. We eat. We head back out into the world. - Jesus asks us to ‘do these things in remembrance’ of Him.
Our worship reminds us that it’s our ‘doing’ that binds us together; not our ‘believing.’
So rest assured there’s a diversity of backgrounds and beliefs present in the pews beside you.
This is in fulfillment of our call to heal the world, one relationship at a time.
And it is God, the primary agent in our lives together, who does it."
from St. Mark's Cathedral Minneapolis
