Just how does worship happen at St. Anne’s?
Worship doesn’t come together on Sunday mornings on its own! A team of people, just like you, are behind all that goes into a service. Yes, that was a not-so-subtle request for you to consider joining the worship team! Here are the teams and what goes into a Sunday morning service.
The St. Anne’s liturgical team meets monthly to design our worship. We base our worship services on the standard Episcopal Church worship scaffolding in the Book of Common Prayer. Then we consult a variety of books approved by the Episcopal Church to select our Eucharistic and seasonal prayers.
This group also selects the music. We consult the hymnal and a variety of other worship books looking for music that best accompanies the church season and special holidays. We want to use a variety of familiar and new songs that allows our music to encourage, uplift and send us out into the world ready to share the good news of Jesus.
We prayerfully consider what we select to represent the variety of people who attend with the intentions to have joy filled worship. In response to a request to make summer services shorter we decided to have two readings, one from the New Testament and the Gospel reading, instead of three, and removed some prayers.
Our Altar Guild gets to set up God’s table! They lovingly prepare the table, polish the silver, set out the linens, light the candles, and bring out the wine, water, and bread used for our spiritual meal. They also clean up and put all away for the next Sunday. In addition, they make sure the white albs and all that the priest, deacon and acolytes wear are clean and ready for use. This is such an essential group to keep the priest calm and focused!
Our communion bread is made by members of our congregation. If you like to bake, please let me know and we can add you into the rotation.
The usher team greets all who enter, finds nametags, helps all find a place to sit, and ensures that everyone feel welcomed. This group helps direct people to receive communion, assists with collecting your financial donation, and is ready to help in any way. They also have the great job of letting us know worship is about to begin by ringing the bell. Both men and women are encouraged to join, and this is a great way to get to know everyone here.
People who have a good voice and feel called to read God’s word are encouraged to volunteer. We also have people who like to assist with serving communion by setting the table and serving the cup of wine. Some of you may have already been trained as a Eucharistic Minister and you are then ready to start ASAP. If either of these call to you, we can train you.
We have two middle school children who acolyte. This role is to lead us all into and out from worship by carrying the cross. The acolyte also receives the gifts brought up for communion, washes the priest’s hands, and they stand at the altar during our Eucharist. If interested, please let me know. All that is required is a desire to help during worship. We can always pair up a seasoned acolyte with someone new.
Our minister of music, Jim Ledbetter, plays the organ and piano. He works with Mary Tipton and Wayne Hodgin our instrumentalists, to add a deeper dimension to our music. Mary plays the flute and Wayne plays the clarinet. If you have the gift of musicianship, please let us know!
A few changes in worship beginning on Sunday September 3:
For the summer we used “The Message” version of the Bible for our readings, for the distinctively “every day” word use. As I shared before we began in June, some love this and some don’t! On Sunday September 3 we will return to reading from the NSRV or New Revised Standard Version of the Bible. Same content; it will now sound more familiar as this is the Bible version most often used in the Episcopal church. We will go back to having three readings, one Old Testament, one New Testament and a Gospel.
We will not be making any changes to the service until October. Then we will change the Eucharistic prayers and add back in prayers and service music for more singing. We appreciate all your suggestions as we prayerfully design worship.
Love,
Annie+