Worship at
The Episcopal Church of the Holy Cross
When you visit an Episcopal Church, you will be our
respected and welcome guest. You will
not be singled out in an embarrassing way, nor asked to stand before the
congregation, nor to come forward. You
will worship with us.
The Episcopal Church offers a thoughtful approach to
religion. It is often described as a
“thinking person’s church” or a three-legged stool with each leg representing
scripture, tradition, and reason. The
Episcopal Church teaches that morality is rooted in Jesus’ summary of the law
“to love God with heart, mind and soul and to love one’s neighbor as oneself.”
When Episcopalians worship we unite ourselves with one
another to acknowledge the holiness of God, to hear God’s Word through readings
from the Bible, to offer prayer and praise and to celebrate the
Sacraments. The Celebration of Holy
Eucharist (Holy Communion) is the central part of our service. Through this celebration we share the bread
and wine in remembrance of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection as well as
receive forgiveness for our sins and strengthen our connection with Christ and
each other.
Worship at the Episcopal Church of the Holy Cross uses two
books, The Book of Common Prayer (red or black) and the hymnal (blue). We are given a bulletin as we enter the Church
which contains the Bible readings for that day. While some parts of the service are always the same, others change. The three Bible readings and the psalm are
different each week as we move through the church year. Our service is beautiful with its ordered
dignity, uplifting prayers and wonderful music that is sung at our 10:30am
service.
The order of the service
As we begin our worship, we praise God through singing and
prayers. We listen to as many as four
readings from the Bible. The pastor then
usually gives a sermon about the Bible readings. The congregation then recites the Nicene
Creed which states what we believe. We
then say the “Prayers of the People” which include prayers for the Church, the
world and those in need such as the sick. We also thank God for our many blessings. As the service proceeds, we confess our sins
which are things that we have done and not done. The pastor assures us that God is always ready
to forgive our sins. We then greet one
another by saying “Peace be with you.” Please do not be alarmed if many people greet you in this way as we are
happy to have you with us.
The service then moves to the Holy Eucharist during which
the priest recites prayers that tell the story of Christianity and the story of
Jesus Christ. He reminds us of Christ’s
coming into the world and about the night before his death. During Jesus’ last supper, he instructed us
to remember Him by eating the bread which is His body and drinking the wine
which is His blood so that our sins can be forgiven. All baptized Christians are invited to join
us at Holy Communion regardless of their denomination. This means that you can eat the bread and
drink the wine. If you are not baptized
or do not want to participate, you can receive a blessing by just crossing your
hands in an X on your chest and joining us. The priest will recognize this signal. Once Holy Communion is completed, we will say a prayer of
thanksgiving. The priest concludes by
blessing us and we leave to live a life that reflects God’s love in the
world.