Worship

We are an Eucharistic community; our common life is grounded in worship, and particularly in our weekly communal celebration of the sacrament of bread and wine.

The outlines and complete liturgies for our services may be found in The Book of Common Prayer, copies of which are available in the pew racks in church.

We hope that these brief descriptions of some of our regularly-occurring worship services will help you to feel more at home here.

Holy Communion

The Celebration of Holy Eucharist, or Communion, is described by The Book of Common Prayer as “the principal act of Christian worship on the Lord’s Day and other major feasts.” Eucharist means “thanksgiving,” and it refers both to Jesus’ giving thanks over the bread and wine he shared with the disciples (I Corinthians 11:23-25; Matthew 26:26-8; Mark 14:22-24; Luke 22:17-20) and to our act of rendering thanks to God in worship.  The Eucharist is something that we enact as a community, and it also makes us a community, joining us to one another, and all of us to God in Christ.

But Holy Eucharist is more than a communal and community-making act; in a way, it is a wonderful summary of the many and varied aspects of our Christian faith.  This idea, which may at first glance seem rather odd, is articulated clearly by Anglican theologian John Macquarrie in his remarkable book, Pathways in Spirituality:

The Eucharist sums up in itself Christian worship, experience and theology in an amazing richness.  It seems to include everything.  It combines Word and Sacrament; its appeal is to spirit and to sense; it brings together the sacrifice of Calvary and the presence of the risen Christ; it is communion with God and communion with man; it covers the whole gamut of religious moods and emotions.

Again, it teaches the doctrine of creation, as the bread, the wine and ourselves are brought to God; the doctrine of atonement, for these gifts have to be broken in order that they may be perfected; the doctrine of salvation, for the Eucharist has to do with incorporation into Christ and the sanctification of human life; above all, the doctrine of incarnation, for it is no distant God whom Christians worship but one who has made himself accessible in the world.

The Eucharist also gathers up in itself the meaning of the church; its whole action implies and sets forth our mutual interdependence in the body of Christ; it unites us with the Church of the past and even, through its paschal overtones, with the first people of God, Israel; and it points to the eschatological consummation of the kingdom of God, as an anticipation of the heavenly banquet.  Comprehensive though this description is, it is likely that I have missed something out, for the Eucharist seems to be inexhaustible.

Baptized Christians of all denominations and traditions are welcome at our Communion table; we invite you and encourage you to join us in our weekly celebrations of praise and thanksgiving.

* John Macquarrie. Paths in Spirituality, 2nd ed. Harrisburg (Pennsylvania): Morehouse Publishing, 1992, 73.