WORSHIP AND MUSIC

Worship: the life force of our congregation, the alpha and omega of our work together. It is through worship that we express our faith, share our fears and dreams, and gather strength and insight for ourselves and our work in the world. Our services are open to all, and we welcome new faces in our congregation.  

Our Worship Committee meets regularly and, following the liturgical calendar, helps to plan the Sunday Eucharistic service.  The committee's responsibilities include providing special services, often lay-led, that are offered throughout the year.  Time for meditation is scheduled weekly.  Also, St. Brendan's participates in a rotation with other island churches in offering Sunday worship services to the Island Nursing Home.  In addition to the Worship Committee, our members are actively involved in all aspects of worship as licensed Eucharistic Ministers, Eucharistic Visitors, lectors, and greeters.  A devoted altar guild serves throughout the year.

A line from the prayer of St. Brendan, “Tune our spirit to the music of heaven,” resonates with St. Brendanites.  We are blessed to have a talented musician, Connie Mayo, as our organist and choir director.  Organ music, instrumental music, congregational singing, choir anthems, we love it all!  Our worship reflects this.  Incorporating music as an integral part of the liturgy, our congregation listens quietly as Connie opens and closes our service with prelude and postlude.

Looking to the future, we hold in tension adhering to traditional forms of worship while exploring new forms of liturgical expression to meet the opportunities and challenges facing the church in the 21st century.  We pursue various initiatives to support us in this work, and to enrich our personal spiritual lives as well as to enhance our worship together.  We hope to continue programs such as: our study and critique of Old Testament scripture and its presentation in our worship; an exploration of the challenges presented in the document, “Reclaiming Jesus”; and a discussion of the value and need of lay-led services in our common life together.

Worship in an Episcopal Church follows an ancient order we call the liturgy (from Greek for the work of the people.)  Both the priest and the people participate actively in a form that Christians have been using for centuries with only a little variation in practice according to time and place.  

GATHERING

It’s good to arrive a few minutes before the service so you can get yourself settled. There will be a greeter to give you a service program you may follow through the service. You may sit anywhere you like; there are no assigned seats.  Visitors with children may want to stop by the cabinet at the back of the church where there is a collection of children's items that can be borrowed during the service.  In addition to the service leaflet there will be various books in racks in front of you in the pews. You will find The Book of Common Prayer, also called the Prayer Book or the BCP.  It has various portions of the service in it. Your bulletin will have most of this printed out in it, but also gives page numbers for the Prayer Book and Hymnal that you might need to look up. The dark blue book is The Hymnal 1982 which has much of the music in it.

A few minutes before the service there will be a musical prelude. This is meant to help us gather ourselves and prepare for the service. It is preceded and followed by a bell rung to signal quiet.

Services begin with a hymn that everyone stands up to sing. During it there is a procession – the priest is led in by the cross. Children who are visiting are often asked if they would like to carry the cross in the procession.

For a complete description of our service, please click here: LITURGY