St. John's Episcopal Church

               Sunday Service 10:30 a.m.   
Vacation Bible School      Wednesday Holy Eucharist & Healing Service 7:00 p.m.                    
                                                                       Evening Prayer,  Daily 7:00 p.m.                                               

"The harvest is so great, and the workers are few," he told his disciples.  "So pray to the one in charge of the harvesting, and ask him to recruit more workers for the harvest fields." - Matthew 9:37-38

Worship In The Summer Months At St. John’s

For many if not all of us, summer is a more relaxed and flexible time of the year.  Families go on vacation, spend more time in recreation, and generally live at a slightly slower pace than during the school year.  Our life at St. John’s reflects these changes as well.  I don’t make changes in Sunday worship just for the sake of change, but nevertheless the style and format of worship should change from time to time so our worship does not become rote.  Here are some differences you will notice at the Sunday Eucharist that reflect the change of season:

a.  We will say the “ordinary” of the Eucharist – Glory be to God, Sanctus, Benedictus, and Lamb of God.  We will also say the “Our Father” rather than sing it.

b.  The Eucharistic Prayer may vary with the month.  We will use Prayer C in June and others from Enriching Our Worship 1 and other Prayerbooks in July and August.

c.  Since any hymn or canticle may be substituted for the “Glory be to God” we may use other canticles from the Book of Common Prayer or Enriching Our Worship 1.

d.  The Prayers of the People will generally be those from the BCP with additions and variations as needed.  Clergy, the Sick, the Deceased etc will not be prayed for out loud by name unless indicated.  The lists for your own prayers will be found toward  the back of the bulletin.

e.  Sermons may be shorter and “topical” rather than lectionary based.  I hope to make them both informative and educational.

f.   We will normally sing all verses of hymns unless noted by the hymn number.  We will also concentrate on hymns that are well known by most of the congregation.

Our Bishop has strongly suggested that all parishes make use of liturgical options included in the Enriching Our Worship series and other approved sources.  As the chief liturgical officer of the Diocese it is his prerogative to do so and as priests we should , to the best of our abilities, carry out his directives.  As his appointed Priest – In – Charge at St. John’s, I will be continuing to use new and approved liturgical rites and ceremonies as directed, so we will be used to using them by his visit in December.  If you have any questions about this, feel free to give me a call and I will endeavor to answer them to the best of my ability.

God bless,

Your loving pastor,

Fr. John  

Designed, operated and donated
by Onsight Technologies

www.onsight.net

| Home | Calendar | Staff | History | Core Values|
| Kids | Youth | Directions | Contact Us | Special Events|