The Word of God
This worship service has a two-fold rhythm: we begin with a strong dose of the Bible and then move to the Lord’s Table. In this way we get to experience fully our biblical status as a prophetic people who speak God’s Word and then as a priestly people who pray for others and offer a sacrifice of praise. Similarly, it follows the rhythm of the Bible: first God speaks and then there is a new creation.
Songs of Entrance (please see weekly handout)
The most important symbol in Christian worship is the church itself, the Body of Christ, assembling on the day of Resurrection, when Jesus Christ arose from the tomb. Thus we begin with songs that assembles us.
Opening Acclamation
Celebrant Blessed be God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
People And blessed be his kingdom, now and
forever. Amen.
The first act in the order of worship is a prayer of praise. It is a foundational sort of prayer in that it follows one of the most common biblical /Jewish ways of praising God (see, for example, Nehemiah 9:5, Luke 1:68, and Ephesians 1:3: Blessed/Praised be…..), it names God in his Trinitarian fullness (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), and it remembers the key announcement by Jesus of the coming of the Kingdom of God.
It is customary to make the sign of the cross while the celebrant blesses the Trinity. To make the sign of the cross one touches one’s fingers to one’s forehead, heart, left shoulder and then right shoulder. Anytime the Trinity is invoked it is appropriate to make the sign of the cross
Collect of Purity (All)
Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hid: Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you, and worthily magnify your holy Name; through Christ our Lord. Amen.
The heart of Anglican worship is prayer. Most of the service is spent directly talking to God in different kinds of prayer. This specific prayer pleads for God’s assistance to be able to worship rightly. Acknowledging God’s complete knowledge of us (compare Psalm 139:1ff), it begs for the Holy Spirit to come so that we have the capacity to love and magnify God rightly.
This prayer has been one of the most consistent elements in Anglican worship through the centuries. Its pedigree reaches back to the late Middle Ages when it was said originally in Latin. It is now known as the collect of purity. A collect (coĺ-lect) is a particular kind of short prayer that typically names God, remembers something about God, and then adds a brief petition.
Notice the emphasis upon “we.” Anglican worship places the emphasis on an assembled church gathered for common prayer, not on individuals gathered for their own worship.
Songs of Praise (please see weekly handout)
These songs continue prayer to God.
Prayer
Celebrant The Lord be with you
People And also with you
This blessing we exchange with each other is one of the oldest traditions in Christian worship. Since the earliest centuries, it has been a standard way Christians acknowledge each other as we gather before God to pray. It presumes the many biblical instances of God promising to dwell with his people, particularly the promises that the Lord Jesus made to his followers. As the Body of Christ, we pray in Christ and through Christ.
The prayer that follows worships God by summarizing the key remembrance for the day. Anglican worship, following classic Jewish and Christian ways, depends upon remembering all the things God has done to save us. Listen for the echoes between this prayer, the Scriptures that follow, and the sermon. All three remember God’s activity.
The Old Testament (please see weekly handout)
Psalm (please see weekly handout)
The New Testament (please see weekly handout)
The next part of the service consists of several readings from the Bible, interspersed with prayers and ending with a sermon. They change for every service. The readings come from a list called a lectionary (lection=a reading of Scripture). The lectionary helps us read through large sections of the Bible over a year, particularly to remember the mighty acts of God that coordinate with the liturgical calendar of feasts and seasons.
Consider this Psalm as a prayer that responds to the Old Testament reading. If you were a character in the Old Testament passage, can you imagine addressing God with the words of this Psalm?
Why are there so many readings? To bring glory to God by remembering the breadth of what God has done before (the Old Testament) and after the coming of Jesus Christ (the New Testament). The point is to tell a full story of what God has done on our behalf. An immediate, obvious relevance of each reading to us as individuals is not the point; the point is to lay out a big story that properly reveals God. Therefore, be patient and attentive. We follow the ancient
Christian sensibility that God’s saving us through Jesus Christ needs to be understood in connection with God’s dealing with his elect people, the Israelites, and in light of the Second Coming of Christ. Thus it is important to hear the Scripture readings interacting with each other
as well as hearing their own distinct message.
Anglican worship sees the reading of Scripture as an act of worship because remembering what God has done brings glory to God and reveals him. The congregation’s thanksgiving after each reading affirms that this is indeed the same Word of God that creates and saves.
This whole ministry of the Word of God (the Bible readings and the sermon) work on a more subtle and profound level, too. As Jesus Christ did when he appeared after his resurrection from the dead, he still continues his ministry of speaking and teaching. Simply put, in the readings and in the sermon, we believe Jesus Christ can still speak to us through the power of his Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ has not lost his voice or become mute.
The Gospel Acclamation
All Alleluia, alleluia, singing, alleluia . . .
The Gospel (please see weekly handout)
In light of Christ’s presence among us in the ministry of the Word, we set the stage for the Gospel reading (the most direct witness of Christ) by singing a heavenly “Alleluia.” We also stand in recognition of Christ’s activity among us. We bracket the Gospel reading with congregational statements that recognize Christ’s presence.
The Sermon
The sermon seeks to do what Christ Jesus did in his first public sermon: lift up the Bible while saying, “This applies to today, right now.” According to Luke 4, Jesus’ first sermon came when he read from the prophet Isaiah and said, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
Sometimes the priest invites others to speak after the sermon. We do this because we believe God resides in all his people and has gifted each one of us. We speak to encourage and spur each other.
With the Nicene Creed, the service turns a corner. Prior to this, we have exercised our role as prophets proclaiming God’s truth. From here forward, we jointly act as a new priesthood in Christ interceding and offering spiritual sacrifices to God.
The Nicene Creed (All)
We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father. Through him all things were made. For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven: by the power of the Holy Spirit he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary, and was made man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried. On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified. He has spoken through the Prophets. We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.
The Creed serves as a concise summary of our scriptural faith. Notice its Trinitarian shape: it begins with an affirmation of God the Father, continues in recognizing the Son of God, and concludes with affirmations flowing from the Holy Spirit’s work.
The Nicene Creed comes from a period in the ancient church where rightly acknowledging the divinity of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit were hotly contested. This Creed, a legacy of all orthodox Christians for the last 1,500 years, acknowledges that Christ and the Spirit, too, share in God the Father’s divinity.
This creed became a regular part of Sunday worship about 1,500 years ago.
The Creed is all-inclusive of time, too. It begins by acknowledging God’s creation of the world and ends by looking forward to our final salvation in the resurrection and the life of the world to come.
As we say, “We look for the resurrection of the dead,” many make the sign of the cross. This is a way of reinforcing our belief we will rise from the dead.
The Prayers of the People
Leader Father, we pray for your holy Catholic Church;
People That we all may be one .
Leader Grant that every member of the Church may truly and humbly serve you;
People That your Name may be glorified by all people.
Leader We pray for all bishops, priests, and deacons;
People That they may be faithful ministers of your Word and Sacraments.
Leader We pray for all who govern and hold authority in the nations of the world;
People That there may be justice and peace on the earth.
Leader Give us grace to do your will in all that we undertake;
People That our works may find favor in your sight.
Leader Have compassion on those who suffer from any grief or trouble;
People That they may be delivered from their distress.
Leader We praise you for your saints who have entered into joy;
People May we also come to share in your heavenly kingdom .
Leader Let us pray for our own needs and those of others.
(All are invited to offer petitions. Simply voice your petition ending it with, “Lord in your mercy.” The congregation will respond with, “hear our prayer.”)
At this point in worship, our congregation prays for the world, the church, and those in special need. Why? Because the church believes that such broad and urgent intercessions are part of Jesus Christ’s own ministry (e.g., Hebrews 7:25) and of the Holy Spirit’s work for the church
(e.g., Romans 8:27). In other words, we all join in the priesthood of Christ through the power of the Spirit. The worship service turns a corner in the order of worship with these intercessory prayers. If the first part of the service dealt mainly with the ministry of the Word of God (the Scriptures) in the church’s prophetic role, the remainder of the service will proceed from the church’s priestly vocation to offer God the Father a variety of prayers and sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving.
Notice that the intercessions are addressed to God the Father. This fits with the most ancient Christian traditions as seen in the Scriptures and church history. It also fits with the idea that the primary intercessors are the Son of God (Jesus Christ) and the Holy Spirit.
Notice that the things we pray for (e.g., unity, justice, peace, deliverance, etc.,) would be appropriate on the lips of Jesus himself. Indeed, these desires are found in the Bible as proper aspirations for God’s people because they are the things on the heart of God.
The intercessions begin very broadly and might even seem generic. Remember that we are praying not first of all just as a distinct congregation for our own concerns but as part of the worldwide church of the Lord Jesus Christ. The breadth of the prayers reflects the breadth of the Lordship of Christ.
The intercessions conclude with an opportunity to lift up very specific requests we might have. God is concerned not only with the entire world but also with the things that concern us. The One who made the heavens and earth is also the One knows when a sparrow falls to the earth.
There is no long pastoral prayer in our order of worship. The Anglican liturgical tradition prefers to make intercessions an act by the whole congregation by the back-and-forth sort of praying that we see here.
The form used for the Prayers of the People changes from time to time.
Confession of Sin
Celebrant Let us confess our sins against God and our neighbor.
People Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We are truly sorry and we humbly repent. For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, have mercy on us and forgive us; that we may delight in your will, and walk in your ways, to the glory of your Name. Amen.
Our worship continues in prayer by a confession of sin. It comes at this point of the service as we draw closer to the Communion table and an increasing awareness of the Lord’s presence in our midst. There are many biblical stories of people honestly acknowledging their sinfulness in such situations. We do so not out of desperation or self-despising but as an acknowledgement of our own unworthiness to be before a holy God. We do so confident of the utter, lavish quality of God’s graciousness.
The priest invites everyone to kneel or sit at this point of the service as an act of humility. Another place in the service where kneeling is common is while the Great Thanksgiving is said.
Like most of the liturgy, this prayer is broadly stated because it assumes that our own specific sins would fall within the large parameters mentioned here.
Be aware of a likely dynamic for such prayers. Sometimes you personally will feel intimately engaged in what is said and sometimes you won’t. That is to be expected in such broadly stated prayers. Remember that these prayers are first of all the prayer of the whole, not just prayers of individuals who happen to be together in the same room. Remember, too, that the liturgy’s prayers intend to form us individually in key Christian dispositions and attitudes. (In this prayer the goal is to cultivate a humility of heart in an individual believer.) Thus don’t be worried if sometimes prayers like these seem just like words on a page and sometimes they express exactly what is burning in your heart. Absorb them so that you can grow into them. Participate as fully as you can.
Celebrant Hear these words of comfort to all who are penitent:
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)
Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. (1 Timothy 1:15)
If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all righteousness. (1 John 1:9)
The confession of sin is followed by three strong Scriptural promises of God’s forgiveness. These Scriptures show that worship’s accent falls not on us and our deficiencies but on a loving, kind God.
These Scriptures offer the Gospel to us. They come after the confession of sin to give us a chance to believe in God for salvation.
Celebrant Almighty God have mercy on you; forgive you all your sins through our Lord Jesus Christ, strengthen you in all goodness, and by the power of the Holy Spirit keep you in eternal life.
All Amen.
After the laying out of the Scriptural basis for forgiveness, the priest audaciously pronounces God’s grace over us. By this act, the liturgy shows one of its recurring impulses in seeing the biblical world and the actions God does in it as not being something far off in some distant time and place. The liturgy seeks to place us within the world of Scripture and have us experience it for ourselves.
Notice, too, the Trinitarian shape of this proclamation, reflecting the way the New Testament talks about God’s saving activity. God the Father is the fount of grace, offered to us through Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.
During the pronunciation of forgiveness, the priest makes the sign of the cross over the congregation and many make the sign of the cross at the same time. This is not a magical way of bringing forgiveness. Making the sign of the cross here is a physical way of reinforcing the truth that we are forgiven only because of the finished work of Christ on the cross.
The Peace
Celebrant The peace of the Lord be always with you.
People And also with you.
The ministry of Jesus Christ in our worship continues with the exchange of peace. It seems appropriate, after having confessed our sins and heard a proclamation of forgiveness, for us to hear the words that the Risen Lord Jesus spoke to his disciples: peace be with you. We exchange signs of peace not only as a sign of our own friendship and welcome but as a word of the Lord offered to each other.
The Holy Communion
Christ ians not only receive Communion and eat it, but they also are a communion and offer it, too. That is perhaps why the Lord’s Supper has such a vital role in worship: it serves as a dynamic symbol that embodies so many truths about Christ, the church, and salvation.
Offertory (All)
All things come of thee O Lord and of thine own have we given thee. Present yourselves as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God for this is your spiritual worship. All things come of thee O Lord and of thine own have we given thee.
The offertory at this point goes back to the earliest centuries of the church when all the people brought the food that would be used in Communion. Although we don’t follow that practice, we still bring financial offerings as tokens of our whole life and work. Notice that the song speaks of offering ourselves, using the words reminiscent of Romans 12:1. Again, the liturgy is giving us a chance to act out Scripture.
The Great Thanksgiving
Celebrant The Lord be with you.
People And also with you.
Celebrant Lift up your hearts.
People We lift them to the Lord.
Celebrant Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
People It is right to give him thanks and praise.
The Great Thanksgiving is the chief prayer in the entire liturgical life of the church. It begins with this ancient dialog between the presider and the congregation where they bless each other, encourage each other to look to heavenly realities (Colossians 3:1), and affirm the truest truth that there is: that God rightly is to be worshiped.
Some kneel as an act of humility and reverence while the Great Thanksgiving is prayed.
Celebrant It is right, and a good and joyful thing, always and everywhere to give thanks to you, Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth. Therefore we praise you, joining our voices with Angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven, who for ever sing this hymn to proclaim the glory of your Name:
The form and nature of the prayer reflects ancient Christian ways of praying reaching back to the earliest centuries of the church. In turn, early Christians were influenced by Jewish ways of praying that worshiped God by reciting his mighty acts of salvation. Look for how the prayer is a condensed review of salvation history, ultimately interpreted through God the Father’s activity in Jesus Christ.
In special seasons and feasts, this remembrance will pick up the appropriate tone and themes of the calendar.
All Holy, holy, holy, Lord, God of power and might. Heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. Hosanna in the highest.
This angelic song of praise is a short ecstatic burst of heavenly worship. When we remember what God has done and praise him for it, we are transported in a way into the heavenly realm and join in the worship that never ceases. Not surprisingly, this little praise chorus is a synthesis of materials echoing a breadth of Scripture. (See Isaiah 6:3, Revelation 4:8, Matthew 21:9, Psalm 118:26.) Angelic worship cannot be contained!
Celebrant Holy and gracious Father: In your infinite love you made us for yourself, and, when we had fallen into sin and become subject to evil and death, you, in your mercy, sent Jesus Christ, your only and eternal Son, to share our human nature, to live and die as one of us, to reconcile us to you, the God and Father of all. He stretched out his arms upon the cross, and offered himself, in obedience to your will, a perfect sacrifice for the whole world.
This part of the Communion consecratory prayer really focuses in on God’s saving activity through Jesus. Think of it as the Gospel in prayed form. The particular emphases will be adjusted as the church progresses through the liturgical year.
On the night he was handed over to suffering and death, our Lord Jesus Christ took bread; and when he had given thanks to you, he broke it, and gave it to his disciples, and said, “Take, eat: This is my Body, which is given for you. Do this for the remembrance of me.” After supper he took the cup of wine; and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and said, “Drink this, all of you: This is my Blood of the new Covenant, which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Whenever you drink it, do this for the remembrance of me.”
This part of the part is known as the Words of Institution. It serves as the culmination of the reciting of salvation history. Jesus Christ as God Incarnate takes food and offers it as a gracious gift of himself to his disciples.
In contrast to some other churches, this Anglican prayer recites this story as part of a prayer still addressed to God, not as a warrant address to the people. Similarly, the “remembrance of me” is to be understood broadly. As we saw elsewhere in the prayer, what is being remembered is not simply the Last Supper or even Christ’s passion and death but the whole of the scriptural story, which is embodied in Jesus, the Savior that God has sent.
Therefore we proclaim the mystery of faith:
All Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.
The breadth of this remembrance of Jesus is summarized by this congregational acclamation. The three aspects, Christ’s death, resurrection, and return, are like the foundations upon which all other aspects of the Gospel are built.
Celebrant We celebrate the memorial of our redemption, O Father, in this sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. Recalling his death, resurrection, and ascension, we offer you these gifts. Sanctify them by your Holy Spirit to be for your people the Body and Blood of your Son, the holy food and drink of new and unending life in him. Sanctify us also that we may faithfully receive this holy Sacrament, and serve you in unity, constancy, and peace; and at the last day bring us with all your saints into the joy of your eternal kingdom.
All this we ask through your Son Jesus Christ: By him,
and with him, and in him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit all honor and glory is yours, Almighty Father, now and forever.
All AMEN
The prayer now emphasizes another priestly dimension to our liturgical vocation: offering sacrifice praise to God the Father.
The prayer ends with a deep longing for God to send the Holy Spirit so that we might truly participate in Christ and fulfill who we were meant to be in him.
It is common to make the sign of the cross while we ask God to sanctify us. Again, this is a physical way to reinforce the centrality of the cross in our sanctification.
Notice how the prayer ends with an explicit Trinitarian burst of praise. This reinforces the basic Trinitarian quality to the whole prayer: offered to God the Father through remembrance of Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Celebrant : And now as our savior Christ has taught us; we are bold to say.
All Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.
The immediate preparation for receiving Communion comes through several prayers. The first of these is the Lord’s Prayer which Jesus directly taught his disciples. Note the confidence that trust in God’s grace should bring about: we are bold to pray. This is the common prayer of all Christians and thus a symbol of the communion (or fellowship) which is likewise represented by the single loaf. Being in Christ, we pray together with him to the One he addresses in prayer as Father.
Traditionally the Lord’s Supper was one of the ways that Christians viewed as God answering the prayer to provide bread.
Fraction
Celebrant Alleluia Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.
People Therefore, let us keep the feast. Alleluia
The fraction is the breaking of the bread so it can be distributed and eaten. At one level it thus is simply functional: the bread must be broken so it can be shared. At another level the breaking is reminiscent of the passion of Christ in that he is considered broken on our behalf. Jesus himself broke bread at the Last Supper and, in the Gospel of Luke, he was known after the resurrection through the breaking of bread.
The dialog here is an adaptation of I Corinthians 5:7-8. In that Scripture the apostle Paul uses the Jewish feast of Passover (which the Last Supper was) as a way of signifying who Christ is and what his death accomplishes.
The Prayer of Humble Access
All: We do not presume to come to this thy Table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in thy manifold and great mercies. We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under thy Table. But thou art the same Lord, whose property is always to have mercy. Grant us therefore gracious Lord so to eat the flesh of thy dear son Jesus Christ, and to drink his blood in these holy Mysteries, that we may continually dwell in him , and he is us, that our sinful bodies may be made clean by his body and our souls washed through his most precious blood. Amen
The Prayer of Humble Access is the second of the prayers that prepares us to receive Communion. It is one of the most beloved prayers in the Anglican liturgical tradition, a holdover from previous versions of the liturgy. That explains the more archaic language (…thou art the same Lord, whose property….) in the prayer. The reference to crumbs and table is an allusion to the story found in Matthew 15:21-28. Again the liturgy has us praying Scripture from the inside out in that we are to take the part of the woman who gains favor from Jesus because of her insistent faith. The prayer at its heart is an honest acknowledgement that we are entirely dependent upon God to be able to approach the table and, indeed, he is entirely dependable in mercy.
The prayer concludes by asking for the proper fruit of the sacrament: to be transformed by God’s grace and enjoy constant fellowship with Christ. Note the breadth of our desire for his touch: it is for all of us, our bodies and our souls.
The Communion
Having prayed, we now receive the living tokens of the risen Lord, Jesus Christ.
After Holy Communion you will notice that our priest pauses to bow before the Table before leading us in the prayer of Christian Discipleship. This is called reverencing the altar. It is a way of embodying thanks for the Lord making himself present to us in the sacrament of Holy Communion. Some reverence the altar every time they pass in front of it.
The Prayer of Christian Discipleship (All)
Eternal God, heavenly Father, you have graciously accepted us as living members of your Son our Savior Jesus Christ, and you have fed us with spiritual food in the Sacrament of his Body and Blood. Send us now into the world in peace, and grant us strength and courage to love and serve you with gladness and singleness of heart; through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Just as prayer had us enter into Communion with God so prayer culminates the experience. This prayer is an astounding affirmation of the depth of God’s love for us in that we would be intimately joined to his Son whom he loves dearly and nourished by this same Savior. (See John 6.) The prayer is not a throwaway or afterthought. It is a brief statement of praise and petition for the whole point of the worship service: having been brought into the closest communion with God through Jesus Christ in worship, we now seek to go out and live faithfully in line with this experience.
Blessing
Song of Dismissal (please see weekly handout)
Dismissal
Celebrant Let us go forth into the world to love and serve the Lord.
People Thanks be to God. Alleluia. Alleluia.
The concluding acts of worship speak to us one last time of the service’s theme and God’s blessing, leading to a dismissal that calls us to a liturgy of life where we love and serve the Lord in the coming week.
What’s the point?
Some people wonder whether all these written words, repeated on a weekly basis, are really worship. Doesn’t all the repetition just lead to going through something by mindless rote?
Sure, that happens, but it doesn’t need to happen. Several things ought to be kept in mind. First, remember that many of the standard texts in the service are really Scriptures that have been re-written in some other form, for example, scriptural language turned into prayers. Second, familiarity and repetition are not bad things. They can deeply form us in deeply biblical ways of believing over time; they, too, just like praise choruses, can free up our minds to get beyond the words to commune with the Lord in the deeper meanings. Not surprisingly, the use of written liturgies like ours is an ancient practice and very common in worldwide, historical Christianity. Third, the use of set texts allows our worship to be common prayer, a way for the whole congregation to participate well together.
Use of a written liturgy like this does presume something, however. It expects worshipers to intend to have their hearts and minds fully engaged.
Some people also wonder if our commitment to this way of worship is our way of saying that we don’t believe other ways of worship are legitimate. Nothing is further from the truth. Although we regularly discover the loving presence of our Lord in this worship, we allow freedom to other Christians.