What to expect
What to expect
Visiting a church for the first time can be a very intimidating experience, especially if you have never been to this type of church before. To make things easier, here are some basic things you can expect to happen at most services in our church.
When you enter you should be greeted by an usher who will give you a service bulletin. Our service bulletins don’t necessarily contain all the prayers we use in our services; they do, however, any responses that the congregation is expected to make, the readings for the service, and will direct you to the appropriate places in our Book of Common Prayer or in our Hymnal.
The Service
Our regular Sunday service is the Holy Eucharist, also known as Holy Communion, the Lord’s Supper, or the Mass. Occasionally there may be a service or Morning Prayer, and special services happen throughout the year. Holy Eucharist is a service of hymns, prayers, scripture readings, a sermon, reciting the Creed, a general confession, the Holy Communion itself (praying over and receiving the bread and wine) and a final blessing. Worship in our tradition is meant to be a delight to the senses and is richly symbolic. Visitors are invited to participate and whatever level they feel comfortable and all baptized Christians are invited to receive communion.
Learn more about our worship
If you would like to dig a little deeper into what we do and why we do it (and what we believe), check out Father Kevin’s “Worship of the Church” series below.