In worship, you will be our respected and welcomed guest.
Our stewards will greet you and try to meet your every need. They will give you a worship bulletin, and you may sit wherever you are most comfortable.
You will experience an atmosphere of beauty and reverence as you enter our nave. Episcopal churches are built in many architectural styles, but whether large or small, elaborate or plain, your eye will be drawn to the altar and historic stained glass windows. In this ambiance of holiness, your emotions and thoughts will be taken at once to God.
We observe the traditional Christian worship seasons - Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week, Easter, and Pentecost. Our church allows you to experience many worship arts, particularly the radiant colors of these changing holy seasons in which time is sanctified.
It is customary to kneel upon entering the church to pray for personal preparation for worship and avoid excessive conversation. In many churches, bowing when entering and leaving the pew is also customary. This is an act of respect and reverence for Christ's saving work and God's sovereignty.
All Saints' worship involves the congregation. The Book of Common Prayer is in the pews, enabling the congregation to share fully in worship. We also have Bibles in the pews for study and reflection.
You may wonder when to stand, sit, and kneel. A general rule is that we stand to sing, to say the Creed, and for the reading of the Gospel. We sit during anthems, readings of the Bible, and the sermon. We kneel for prayer to show our gratefulness to God for accepting us as His children and as an act of humility before God.
On Sundays, we encourage you to use the TV monitors to follow along with the service. You will find text instructions for prayers, psalms, and other elements we recite during the services. In some texts, the celebrant’s words will be in normal text, while the people’s words will be bold.
Our main worship is the Holy Eucharist, which means ‘thanksgiving,' thus, the central focus of Episcopal worship is the altar, the saving work of Christ. All who are baptized are welcome to receive Holy Communion. We offer the host and common cup on the right. We offer intinction of the host with a designated chalice in the center. We offer preintincted hosts on the left. Gluten-free hosts can be provided by request. Please ask a steward to request Holy Communion to be brought to your pew if needed. Those not baptized are welcome to come to any place at the rail for a blessing; cross your arms over your chest.
While parts of the service are always the same, others change. For example, four Bible selections are read. These change each Sunday according to a schedule used by several liturgical church denominations.
Certain prayers also change according to the worship season. Page numbers for parts of the service are printed in the worship bulletin you receive from the steward.
At the end of worship, some people sit to listen to the beautiful and inspiring organ postlude while others greet one another before departing.
Following the service, the clergy will greet you as you exit. Be sure to let them know if you are a guest.