We are an Anglican church and our worship tradition stretches back through history over 1900 years. It is based on a combination of two types of worship that were central to believers who lived during Jesus’ day; our service is therefore divided into two equal parts. The first is known as the Liturgy of the Word; the second is Holy Eucharist, often referred to as Holy Communion, and occasionally as Mass.
Usually, when we say the word “Liturgy” today, we are referring to a worship service with set prayers and repeated sentences. But the word comes from an ancient Greek word that means “the work of the people.” When we get together to repeat the ancient prayers in today’s language and sing hymns or contemporary songs, we are doing our Christian “work” together to praise God.
The Liturgy of the Word is based upon a Jewish form of prayer common to the earliest times of Christianity in which there were readings from the Bible, songs were sung, set prayers were repeated, and a sermon was given to relate or explain the readings to the worshippers. Similarly, the Holy Eucharist (“thanksgiving” in ancient Greek) is based on Jewish household feasts and celebrations from that time.
The minister’s clothing is worn to cover their ordinary clothes, to set them apart from their day-to-day existence, and place them in the long line of people who led worship from the days of the early church until now. The style is from ancient times. During the act of dressing in these special garments, the ministers are reminded of their own baptism and usually pray that they may be worthy of leading others in worship, so it serves as part of the whole service.
A typical Liturgy would include the following:
- The Greeting: like calling a meeting to order
- The Collect: we collect our thoughts and prayers into one
- Readings: these come in order of importance, ending with
- The Gospel: readings about Jesus from the New Testament
- Sermon: the readings are related to us today and to our future
- Affirmation of Faith: we stand and recall what we believe
- Prayers of the People: we join with the leader to pray for the world and ourselves
- Confession: we remember that we are not always perfect
- Absolution: we remember that God forgives us and loves us anyway
- The Peace: we are now ready to share in the Feast, having put to rights our relationship with God and each other
- Offertory: we offer to God some of that which He has given us over the past week
- Prayer over the Gifts: we recognize that we are giving back part of God’s many gifts to us
- The Great Thanksgiving: we copy the Jewish thanksgiving formula that Jesus taught us and asked us to repeat together
- The Lord’s Prayer: the prayer that Jesus taught us
- The Lamb of God: Jesus was sacrificed to save others like a lamb was sacrificed by the Jews at Passover
- The Doxology: literally “story of glory”
- The Blessing: we are reminded that God blesses us daily
- The Dismissal: we begin the rest of the week at this point, confident that God goes with us as he sends us out to do His work