Worship at Grace

Worship is the response of the created and limited human mind and heart to the unlimited Creator, who Christians believe is best known through Jesus Christ. Worship engages all that is best and most creative in the human spirit. We may worship individually or corporately, drawn together in common response to love, awe, mystery, beauty, human need, great joy or fear. For more than two thousand years, Christians have worshiped God in many ways.

In the pew racks at Grace, as in most Episcopal churches, you will find two books: a hymnal and the Book of Common Prayer. The BCP, as the latter is commonly known, is central to our worship. As Episcopalians, we find our unity not primarily in a set of beliefs but in worship, an experience that transcends language and logic. Worship services are called the Liturgy, which means “the work of the people.” The Holy Eucharist is the principle service on the Lord’s Day, but other corporate worship services include Morning and Evening Prayer, and Compline (late night prayer). On Sundays, four passages of Scripture are usually read: three lessons and a Psalm. The Collects (prayers), Songs of Praise, the Eucharistic Prayers, and the most common Blessing are all saturated with biblical references. The Bible forms and shapes our worship.

Prepared with reference to Welcome to the Episcopal Church, by Christopher L. Webber, Morehouse Pub., 1999, and As We Gather to Pray, Marilyn L. Haskel and Clayton L. Morris, ed., The Church Hymnal Corportation, 1996.