Worship in the Episcopal Church, and here at Saint Paul’s, involves everyone—through singing, reciting prayers, responding to prayers and readings, and simply being present to the Lord. Yet, there are special ways to become even more involved through a variety of worship ministries. The Episcopal Church is a sacramental and liturgical church, practicing a liturgy that has its origins in the earliest days of the ancient church of the First Century. The form of the liturgy is found in the Book of Common Prayer, a document that, through various editions, has been used by Anglican and Episcopal churches for nearly 500 years.
The Book of Common Prayer is the official liturgy of the Episcopal Church, this is the way we pray our faith and through which we meet God and God meets us. Worship in the church and in Saint Paul’s ranges from the plain to the elaborate, from the simplicity of an informal, spoken service to ceremonies reminiscent of the Roman or Orthodox churches.
Episcopalians worship the Lord together, in common and with devotion. The laity actively participate in worship by bodily gestures, reciting prayers together, responding to liturgical greetings, and answering every prayer with “Amen!” We stand for praise, stand or kneel for prayer, and sit for instruction. We also stand for the creed and, at the Eucharist, for the reading of the Gospel.