What's a Worship Service Like?

Sunday worship includes readings from the Old and New Testaments, a sermon based on the day's scriptures, an affirmation of faith using one of the Creeds, congregational prayers, several congregational hymns and choral anthems, and a celebration of Holy Communion. All baptized Christians, from any denomination, are invited to receive Communion at St. Luke's.

What's a Liturgy?

As an Episcopal church, St. Luke's follows a liturgy, which is a pattern of scripture readings, prayers, and congregational responses that are set forth in the Book of Common Prayer. Although the content of services changes from week to week, the pattern of worship remains basically the same throughout the year. The Book of Common Prayer, in addition to being a wonderful aid to worship, is one of the great literary achievements of the English language. Two-thirds of the prayers and responses in the Book of Common Prayer are themselves taken from the Bible.

So . . . What's a Sacrament?

As described in the Book of Common Prayer, a sacrament is an "outward and visible sign of inward and spiritual grace." In other words, it's a physical sign of a spiritual gift from God. The two sacraments described in the New Testatment are Baptism and Communion (or the Holy Eucharist). In Baptism, the outward sign is water, which symbolizes the gift of "union with Christ in his death and resurrection, birth into God's family the Church, forgiveness of sins, and new life in the Holy Spirit." In Communion, the outward signs are bread and wine, and the inward and spiritual gifts they carry include the forgviness that comes from Jesus' sacrifice of his Body and Blood on the Cross and the assurance that we are members of Christ's body (the Church), which the Prayer Book call "the blessed company of all faithful people." At St. Luke's, we celebrate the sacrament of communion every week and the sacrament of baptism at regular intervals during the year.

You Can Participate.

The congregational responses throughout the service make Episcopal worship participatory worship. And, because the service is printed in the Sunday bulletin, it is easy for visitors to follow and join in, if you so desire. Finally, many -- but by no means all of us -- kneel or cross ourselves at various points in the service. These actions are personal aids to worship and are purely optional. If you don't feel comfortable worshiping in this way, that's no problem; if you find these traditions helpful, that's great too!

Contemporary Worship & Praise

In addition to the traditional Episcopal liturgical Eucharists described on this page, St. Luke's offers The River, a contemporary worship and praise service on Sunday mornings at 11:15 am. More information about The River is available here.