WORSHIP

"Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness . . . ."

At Trinity, we consider our worship together to be the most important thing we do as a church. The principal worship service at Trinity is the Holy Eucharist, also called Holy Communion. We celebrate the Eucharist every Sunday morning, at both our services. We strive for beauty and elegance in our worship, and we believe worship is a participatory event. So, we use acolytes to help set the altar and carry in the cross and torches, we use readers from the congregation to read our Bible lessons, and another to lead the prayers of the people, we use a lay eucharistic minister to help serve the communion, and at the 10:15 service, a choir helps lead the singing. We also have an altar guild to keep our vessels in good order, and a flower guild to provide floral arrangements for our services. The congregation has its part to play as well, making various responses in the service as set out in the Book of Common Prayer and in the Hymnal. For those who are not familiar with our services, you can click here for a new window containing answers to "frequently asked questions."

Everybody is welcome to come to the altar during the serving of the consecrated bread and wine. All who are baptized Christians, whether Episcopalian or not, are invited to receive Communion. Those who are not baptized can come receive a blessing.

On some Sundays, we also celebrate Holy Baptism for those who desire it. Baptism is the principal initiation rite into the Body of Christ, the Lord's family. So, we baptize infants as well as adults. Those who are baptized as infants are later invited to make a mature affirmation of their faith in the presence of our bishop at a rite of confirmation. The bishop visits Trinity at least once a year.

During the week, Monday through Thursday, we start the day off with a service of Morning Prayer in the chapel at 8 a.m. At this service, we read the Scriptures, say together some of the ancient canticles of the church, and pray aloud for those listed on our prayer request board. We are a liturgical church, so we also have special ceremonies in our worship services to mark the church seasons of Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, and Pentecost, as well as certain special feast days.