Weekly Service

Book of Common Prayer

Traditional Service

Sundays at 11:15am

The Book of Common Prayer (BCP) service is a traditional service from the Book of Common Prayer - the official prayer book of the Anglican Church of Canada.

This service features prayers in traditional language, Scripture readings, a sermon and the celebration of Holy Communion.

A Typical Sunday Worship Outline - With Explanation

A few minutes before the service begins the rector welcomes people and advises them of the weekly announcements.

Sunday Worship Outline

Typically, when Anglican's gather for public worship on a Sunday, we have a service of Communion, also known as the celebration of the Holy Eucharist. We do this because this is the way Christians have worshiped since the earliest days of the Church. When Jesus instituted the first eucharist at the Last Supper, he commanded all of his followers to continue the practice. It is the clearest way we know to tell the story of Jesus' death and resurrection, and to maintain our communion with Him and one another.

Anglican Worship is structured, and it uses either The Book of Common Prayer or The Book of Alternative Services as its sources. The texts and patterns of worship in the prayer book are derived from some of the earliest sources and derived from the surviving texts of ancient Christian worship, updated and expanded as times and circumstances have changed. The common words of the prayer book express our most deeply held beliefs, keep us connected to the timeless elements of Christian tradition, and allow us to participate as more than just listeners.

A eucharistic service has two main parts. The first part is known as the "Service of the Word" or "Liturgy of the Word". The word liturgy means the work of the people. In the Liturgy of the Word we gather in the Lord's name, proclaim and respond to the Word of God, and pray for the world and the church. We do this, not as a group of spectators watching a group of performers, but as the people of God acting together, each with their appointed part to play. The second part is known as the "Liturgy of the Table". 

We begin with the gathering rite. Now that we are assembled in one place, those who have designated roles in the service enter in procession while we all sing praise to God. The procession allows everyone to take their appointed places, while at the same time helping the service begin on a note of dignity and reverence. When all are ready, the priest in charge of the celebration, known as the celebrant or presider, begins with the Lord's Prayer followed by the Collect for Purity. After a time with the children of the congregation the liturgy continues with the Summary of the Law and the Collect of the Day, a prayer that reflects the themes of the particular Sunday.

The Liturgy of the Word - Part 1

The Asperges - congregation standing

The Processional Hymn - as appointed for the day

Welcome & Children's time - a brief gathering of the children for instruction and prayer

Summary of the Law

Collect of the Day

In this next part of the Liturgy of the Word we sit in order to listen to readings from Holy Scripture. It is our custom to stand, sit, or kneel at different parts of the service. Most of these postures are optional, but we find them useful in helping us worship with our bodies and not just our minds. Typically, we follow the biblical Jewish and Christian traditions of standing to praise God, sitting in order to listen, and kneeling in order to express penitence or devotion. If you have a physical condition which makes any of these difficult, you are always welcome to adopt a more comfortable position. You may also notice that some people engage in various acts of personal devotion, such as bowing or making the sign of the cross. These are used by some people in order to enhance their devotion to God and their experience of worship.

We use a fixed pattern of scripture readings, called a lectionary, that allows us to hear most of the Bible within a three-year cycle. This makes sure that nothing important is left out, and that preachers don't overlook some passages in favour of others. 

It has long been a tradition among Christians that lay people read the first lessons. We all participate in singing the psalm together.

The final reading at a eucharistic service is always from one of the four gospels. Christians have long given special importance to the gospels because that is where we hear directly the words and actions of Jesus. We express this importance by having an ordained minister do this reading, and by standing when we listen to it. 

Before the sermon, we respond to God's Word by standing and singing together the Nicene Creed. This summary statement of Christian belief was adopted by the undivided church in the fourth century and is one of the oldest texts of Christian worship. Then follows the sermon which is always based on the scripture readings for that week.

The Liturgy of the Word - Part 2

The First Reading - generally from the Old Testament

The Psalm - sung responsively

The Second Reading - generally from the New Testament

The Holy Gospel - from one of the 4 gospels

The Nicene Creed

The Sermon

The word eucharist means to give thanks. In every communion service Christians tell the story of God's creation and God's saving act of redemption by the sending of Jesus. We focus on the death and resurrection of Jesus which is the heart of the Christian faith. We listen to his oldest recorded words at the Last Supper with his disciples, in which he commanded us to continue the tradition he was beginning. 

The one who presides over the eucharist is always an ordained person known as a priest. In the earliest centuries of the church, the bishop, or chief pastor, would always preside, but soon the church grew too large for one person to do this. So the bishop ordains and delegates priests to celebrate the eucharist in each local congregation. 

As the words and actions at the altar unfold, they do so according to four-fold pattern first used by Jesus when he miraculously fed the multitudes with bread and fish, and also used again at the Last Supper. First he took the bread. Then he gave thanks over the bread. He broke the bread, and finally he gave it to the people. As we involve ourselves in the drama of communion, together we rememeber what happened in such a vivid way that this memory is brought right back into the present.

Through all of our prayers, we believe that God has now transformed the bread and wine so that Christ is truly present in them. Together they are an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace - the traditional definition of a sacrament. Every baptized Christian is encouraged and invited to receive communion while all people are invited to the altar for a blessing. 

The deacon (or priest) clears the altar in much the same way as you might clear your own table after dinner. In church, we generally consume any leftover wine immediately and any leftover wafers are place in the tabernacle behind the altar to carry to those who have not been able to attend the service.

The celebrant then leads everyone in saying a post-communion prayer, followed by a hymn and a closing procession. The final act of our common worship is the dismissal, which formally closes the worship as we go as Christ's servants out into the world. It reminds us that the purpose of worship is not simply to encourage and build ourselves up, but for all of us to be empowered and sent forth as ministers of Christ.

The Liturgy of the Table

Comfortable Words

Prayer of Consecration

The Lord's Prayer

Prayer of Humble Access

Communion Hymn - as appointed for the day

Prayer of Thanksgiving

Gloria

The Blessing

Recessional Hymn - as appointed for the day

Benediction Hymn

Dismissal