| | What to Expect When You Visit
& Share Worship
in the Episcopal ChurchWorship is essential to our faith, lives, and relationship with God. Worship provides the time and space for us to experience the fullness, the depth, and the richness of what it means to be connected with God and each other, the connection brought by God as Jesus Christ. Worship is the Sunday task on our "do the right thing" checklist. Worship immerses us in the presence of God and community. So that, if for some specific moments on a specific day, we know what it truly means to be God's people gathered together by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Everything in Worship draws us from harried lives to be restored, reconciled, and redirected as God's united people to the world.At St. Peter's, Sunday is the principle time we gather to worship. Worship Style Being a part of a large community and family of churches, our worship at St. Peter's blends elements of the many different styles in which Episcopalians worship around the world. The atmosphere of our worship gatherings offers moments of informality and personal familiarity, as well as appropriate formality. This variety serves to make worship a true time of participation and immersion in the amazing power and presence of God. Liturgy and Ritual Worship in the Episcopal Church is said to be “liturgical,” which means that the congregation follows a regular pattern of actions and prayer throughout the various seasons of the year. The consistent pattern from week to week builds a rhythm into the worship. This rhythm encourages participation, as well as provides comfort and familiarity to the worship participants.
We strive to share worship that is accessible and participatory by all people present, be they familiar faces or first-time guests. The entirety of spoken sections of our worship are printed in a distributed bulletin. We invite you to sing using one of the books or materials present in your seat. Through different body postures for prayer and participation in standing, kneeling, etc., our liturgy and worship engage your whole body, not just interior mental or emotional spaces. Liturgical worship can be compared with a dance: through the rhythm, steps, and movements, we are able in connect and interact with one another.
Our principle form of worship is the Holy Eucharist. A worship gathering, celebration, or service which holds a successive rhythm of moments: to receive God's continued wisdom and guidance, to respond to the continued Word of God's, to reconcile ourselves to God and each other, and then to gather as God's people at God's Table in a symbolic meal (Holy Communion) which nourishes us to return to the world.All Are Welcome All baptized Christians—no matter what age, and no matter of what denomination—are welcome to “receive communion,” that is, eat the bread and drink the wine with the congregation, regardless of within which Church they were baptized. We invite all baptized people to receive, not because we take the Eucharist lightly, but because we take our baptism and the invitation of God in Jesus Christ so seriously.
Guests who are not baptized are still welcome to come forward during the Communion to receive God's blessing from the priest. If you are interested in discussing the opportunity to be baptized, and share in the full gifts of God found in communion and community, talk with our clergy. |
