About Our Services

Sundays
    • 8:00 am Rite I (spoken) Holy Eucharist (Rite II first Sunday of the month)
    • 10:30 am Rite II Holy Eucharist, accompanied by the adult and junior choir
    • Christian Education classes take place for all ages from 9:10 to 10:10 a.m.
    • Fellowship & Refreshments are available in the Parish Hall after each Sunday service. All are welcome!
Thursdays
    • 5:30 p.m.  Rite I (spoken) Holy Eucharist with a Healing Service on the last Thursday of each month.

Our services are traditional rather than formal. If you’ve never visited an Episcopal, Anglican or Catholic church, it may seem a bit odd at first.

The services of the Episcopal Church are set out in the Book of Common Prayer. They include scripture readings, the recitation of psalms, prayers and the Holy Eucharist (Communion). We have a three-year cycle of Scripture readings that ensures we get through pretty much the entire Bible every three years. Prayers and psalms are set according to the various Holy and Saint’s days and the season of the Church year. We have traditional church music taken from the 1982 hymnal. We also have some services without music – Thursday evenings at 5:30 pm and Sunday Morning at 8:00 am.

Order of Service

We jokingly refer to our services as ‘Episc-orobics’ that’s because of the regular standing, sitting and kneeling that takes place. If you don’t know what to expect it can be quite confusing. Don’t worry, if you’re not sure what to do, just follow the lead of the choir and the people around you, they generally tend to know what they’re doing! No one is giving you marks out of ten for your performance!  Just to make our services even more interesting, you can also have fun juggling with the Prayer Book, Hymnal, and the Bulletin which has a the order of service in it.

Here are some general guidelines. We stand to sing hymns, for the Gospel reading and for most – but not all – of the prayers. We kneel for confession, the latter part of the Holy Communion, and the final prayer and blessing. We sit for the lessons, psalms and sermon. And of course we stand for The Peace, when we great each other in the name of the Lord.

A typical Sunday service goes something like this.

  • The Procession –  Clergy, acolytes and choir process into the church (all stand and sing a hymn)
  • The Word of God – Some introductory prayers, followed by the collect of the day, that’s a prayer picked according to circumstance, the season, or to celebrate a specific Saint or Holy day
  • The Lessons – A reading from the Old Testament, followed by a psalm, possibly another reading and then a hymn, followed by a reading from the Gospel. We all stand for the hymns and the Gospel reading
  • The Sermon – The sermons are typically a reflection on The Lessons we’ve just heard and last 10-20 minutes.
  • The Nicene Creed – We stand and recite the Nicene Creed which sets out our basic beliefs (You can find it on page 358 of the 1979 Episcopal Church Book of Common Prayer)
  • The Prayers of the People – In which we give thanks and pray for the Church, the Nation, the world, our local community, those who are suffering, and finally the departed
  • Confession of Sin – For which we kneel, and recite in unison. After which we receive a Blessing, and we stand for…
  • The Peace – When we greet each other in the name of the Lord. Typically we just shake hands with our near-by pew-neighbors, though it is not unheard of for some people to venture further afield.
  • Announcements – take a seat and listen to what’s going on in the church.
  • Offertory – The choir will sing while the ushers pass around the collection plates. If you don’t feel comfortable making an offering don’t worry. Regular, pledging members of the congregation have envelopes into which they can place their offering. This enables their contributions to be recorded – and a record produced for tax purposes.
  • The Holy Communion – We start this part of the service standing, and will kneel when directed in the Book of Common Prayer. At Christ Church we welcome all baptized Christians to receive Holy Communion. The ushers will let you know when to go up to the Altar rail. If you are unable to make it up the steps to the Altar rail but you’d like to take communion, tell the usher and they will inform the priest, and the communion bread and wine will be brought to you.  At the Altar rail, those that are able should kneel. You will be given the bread (a wafer), which you can eat straight away, or if you don’t fancy drinking the wine, hold onto it and dip it in the chalice when it is offered to you. If you are going to take a sip of Communion wine, do help the officiant by gently guiding the chalice. It’s difficult for them judge how much to tip up the chalice if you don’t give them some help. If you have not been Baptized, you may receive a Blessing. When you get to the Altar rail, cross your arms across your chest to indicate that you want a Blessing. If the thought of taking communion makes you feel uncomfortable, don’t. You can just stay in your seat.
  • Final Prayer and Blessing – After Communion, we quietly reflect and then kneel for the post communion prayer and Blessing.
  • Procession – We all stand to sing the final hymn while the clergy, choir and acolytes process to the rear of the church.

A typical service will last around an hour, and afterwards we’ll go to the Parish Hall for Sunday School, coffee, donuts and fellowship.  The Thursday 5:30 pm. service and the Sunday 8:00 am. services are slightly shorter, and are spoken – there are no hymns.