Liturgy

Ritual provides and energy and space to steady us. Our tradition, and in particular the Holy Eucharist, provides a sacred structure, a set of sacred stories, and a score of sacred words which we can count on in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. The chaos of our world, the chaos in our souls can be brought into sacred structure and through our participation in liturgy, we can orient and re-orient ourselves to what matters most; we renew our devotion to loving God and loving others; we pray for ourselves, yes, and we pray for others and we pray for the life of the world.

Join us in this sacred, ancient ritual. If you have a lump of grief in your throat and you can’t get the words out, we’ll pray them with you; if you are really angry at God, let that anger become your prayer, bring it to the altar, and leave it there; here you can pray for others who struggle, here you can renew your devotion to loving and doing the right thing. Just join us.

Mother Jeanine, from a sermon for the 4th Sunday of Easter 2020

At Canterbury, our worship pattern (liturgy) finds it roots in the Book of Common Prayer which we share with millions of Christians who call themselves Episcopalians in more than 160 countries. Our liturgy primarily includes Holy Communion (eucharist) which was instituted by Jesus and has become the heart and core of christian worship and christian living.

The Holy Eucharist is structured into two principal parts:

The Word of God, where we read from the Bible (typically the NRSV), hear a sermon, confess our faith, pray for the world, and confess our sin.

The Holy Communion, where we give thanks to God, consecrate the gifts of bread and wine, pray the Lord’s Prayer, and share in communion.

Our service of Holy Eucharist follows a basic pattern that all Episcopal, Lutheran, and Roman Catholic churches share in common.  If you are familiar with the Catholic mass, or a Lutheran Communion service, our liturgy will seem familiar to you.