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Worship
at the Chapel of the Cross maintains the simple dignity and beauty of
historic “Low Church” Anglicanism. The Liturgy (the work of
the people) is the corporate worship of God’s royal priesthood, not
primarily an individual experience, and invokes the ministry of God's
Holy Spirit in Word and Sacrament. Therefore, God's Word read,
preached and tasted are central to the Christian liturgy. God's
people order their actions, words, and prayers by the Holy Scriptures -
God's Word, written.
The early Church, continuing in the ordered and common prayers of
Israel, gave themselves to the breaking of bread, fellowship, the
apostles’ doctrine, and “the prayers.” The Book of Common Prayer
is nearly all direct quotes from the Bible, logically arranged and
organized to enable God’s people to prayer with one voice, or “in
common.”
The principal services are the Daily Office (Morning and Evening
Prayer) and the Holy Communion. These two services together
express the worship God so carefully taught His people in the Old
Testament, now fulfilled and completed in Christ.
The liturgy of the Reformed Episcopal Church is the theology of the
reformed and catholic English Church. Unlike the separated
communions of the more radical reformation, the English Church was able
to maintain its episcopacy and its liturgy. We continue to follow this
historic pattern of worship principally because we believe it to be an
eminently biblical and effective form of expressing our corporate
praise to Almighty God.
In life’s weightiest and loveliest occasions we repeat the best and
most cherished words of our language, intuitively recognizing that
spontaneity is inadequate at such times. Worshiping almighty God
is the queen of such occasions. Most importantly, however, in the
ancient liturgy, God's revelation in the Bible remains central, giving
us confidence that our worship is acceptable to God, for we speak to
Him using the very words He has given us.
Although it is sometimes difficult at first to move between the
bulletin, the hymn book, and the prayer book, most people become
accustomed to the pattern of the service after a few weeks and find it
a beautiful way to express the adoration that we owe our Lord.
Our people look forward to welcoming you to divine worship. For
your first visit, one of us would be more than happy to sit with you
and “walk” you through the service to make your introduction to
liturgical worship more comfortable. Please ask.
When coming to worship for the first time, it helps to know that the
congregation says the prayers and responses that appear in italics in
the Prayer Book, and that, in general,
• we stand to sing the hymns,
read the Psalms, and hear the Gospel lesson,
• we sit to hear the Word read or
preached, and
• we kneel to pray.
We look forward to worshiping with you soon.
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