| Trinity Episcopal Church | |
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Trinity Episcopal Church is an open and diverse Christian family dedicated to serving God and all creation. We foster spiritual growth through worship, prayer, education, service, stewardship and celebration. As a historic and landmark parish in a thriving and changing community we seek, welcome and nurture all who wish to share our journey. |
This page is designed to give you some basic information about the Episcopal Church and Trinity Episcopal Parish in particular. It was borrowed and adapted from material provided by the National Church Center in New York City (Go to the National Church Web Site). Some sections were adapted from other sources as noted in the sections below.
Who We Are | Basic Christianity | Jesus | Christian Beliefs | Christian History | What Makes Us Christian | A Primer about the Episcopal Church
The Anglican Communion | What Makes Us Anglican? | What To Expect When You Visit
We are a Christian people. The Episcopal Church is made up of about two million worshipers of about 7300 congregations organized into 100 domestic (North America) dioceses and 13 dioceses in Latin America, the Caribbean and in Europe. The Episcopal Church in the United States is part of a larger communion of churches called the Anglican Communion.
The religion of “Christianity” is established on the life, work, death, and resurrection of a man named “Jesus of Nazareth,” as the story is told in four books of the Christian Bible, known as the “Gospels” (which means “Good News”). According to the Bible, Jesus was a Jew who lived about two thousand years ago in the region of
Although he became popular with multitudes of people around him, he also made the Jewish leaders of his day angry by the things he was preaching and doing. Jesus became so popular, in fact, and the leaders were so upset by his activities, that finally, he was betrayed by one of his own disciples to the authorities, and the Roman government put him to death by nailing him to a wooden cross outside of
Who is Jesus and what did he do?
Jesus gathered a great following through his work and teaching, yet the leaders of his society were angry and afraid of what he said. His teachings of love, compassion, inclusion, and selfless care for others have continued to be "counter-cultural" through two thousand years, and still are today.
He chose weakness. Jesus, though he could do miraculous and powerful things, never used his power to harm others, to gain glory for himself, or even to defend himself when he was in danger. He taught his followers that they should also choose weakness, so that we could instead lift up the poor and weak around us.
He chose poverty. Jesus repeatedly tells people through the Bible that if they want to “enter into the Kingdom of God,” they should sell all they have and give the proceeds to the poor. In sending his disciples out, he told them to take nothing with them and to depend upon the hospitality of those to whom they ministered.
He put himself last. Jesus served those whom he taught and commanded them to serve others. When they argued about which of them was the greatest or asked for special recognition, he told them to humble themselves, so that they might be the servants of all.
He ate with people his society regarded as “unclean.” The Jewish society in which Jesus lived followed a strict set of rules about “purity,” which identified things, situations, and people as “clean” or “unclean” depending on factors such as health or even occupations. Jesus chose to live and eat with people such as tax collectors and prostitutes because they were outcasts of their society. He regarded them as precious to God, in spite of the purity codes of his day.
He fed the hungry, clothed the naked, and healed the sick, whether they deserved it or not. Through his parables and commandments, Jesus made it clear that God wants all people to be fed, clothed, visited, and in all other ways cared for, regardless of who they are or what they’ve done. He emphasized this commandment to go out actively to feed and care for others perhaps more than any other.
He called God “Father.” Jesus referred to God as his “Father,” which in his day was unheard of. In so doing, he taught people to think of themselves as individually loved and precious to God.
He forgave people’s sins. In story after story of his ministry, Jesus pronounced forgiveness of people’s sins, even sins which according to the laws of his time, could not be forgiven. In so doing, he commanded us also not to judge one another and to forgive one another, over and over again, as God forgives us.
He told us to love one another, including our enemies. Perhaps most controversial of all, Jesus commanded us to love our enemies, to do good for others who hurt us, and to pray for those who wish us harm, and to love every human being as we love ourselves. More than any other aspect, the love that Christians are to show others distinguishes Christianity from other religions.
In every aspect of his life and ministry, Jesus Christ showed us how much God loves us—every person, regardless of any human consideration or circumstance—and how we should therefore love one another.
Who We Are | Basic Christianity | Jesus | Christian Beliefs | Christian History | What Makes Us Christian | A Primer about the Episcopal Church
The Anglican Communion | What Makes Us Anglican? | What To Expect When You Visit
Over time, Christians have come to this understanding about God, about Jesus, and about who we are in relation to God, based on the example and commandments of Jesus’ life, teaching, and resurrection:
1. Creation is Good. God has made all that there is, and all that God has made is good, including us.
2. We Are Chosen. God has chosen us (initially meaning the people of Israel, but now all who believe in God) as a special people, and has promised to love, care for, and be faithful to us forever.
3. We Turn Away From God. Because we are human, however, throughout history and again and again, we have not kept our promises to God, nor followed the ways that God has called us to follow—we make mistakes, and worst, we choose (either by action or inaction) to harm others, the creation, and ourselves, and thereby turn away from God.
4. God does not Abandon us. Yet God has never given up on us. God has sent us prophets, teachers, and others to call us back to God from the selfish and harmful things we do.
5. God Sent us Jesus Christ. Ultimately, Christians believe, in order to save us from the consequences of our own actions, God sent us Jesus Christ, God’s Son. In Jesus, God became a human being, born of a human woman, to live with us, to share our weakness, to suffer as we suffer, and to die as we die, in order to show us directly how God loves us and wants us to live with one another.
6. Jesus was Raised from Death to Life. We believe that as a fully human person, Jesus died on the cross at Jerusalem, just as all humans die, yet death could not keep him, and so he was raised from the dead to life again. We celebrate this miraculous truth on Easter, and in fact, on every Sunday.
7. God won the Final Victory Over Death. Through the miracle of Jesus’ Resurrection, God has won the ultimate victory, once and for all, in the human reality of life and death: Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we understand that although we, too, will ultimately face death as Jesus did, God will not abandon us, either, and we, too, will have new life. All that we are, which is so precious to God, will be brought to new and unending life.
8. In Jesus, we see God. Christians believe that Jesus is the complete revelation of God to us, and as such, Jesus, although fully human with us, is also fully God—fully divine. His two natures, both human and divine, make it possible for us to be related to God in a way that was not possible before. Through Jesus Christ, we are adopted as children of God.
9. We are the Body of Christ. As Christians, we believe that together we form the Body of Christ: Our love of God and of one another binds us together and makes us One. Our principal mission is to carry on the work and life of Jesus Christ, to spread the good news about God’s victory over death, to lift up the poor and heal the sick, and to work to heal the divisions among people, so that we can live together in the fullness of the example of Jesus Christ. Together, we continue to be Jesus’ human presence in the world.
10. Christ will Come Again. Jesus promised his disciples, before he was taken away to his Father, that he would come to us again. Christians live in hope, waiting for Christ's coming again, when he will sit in judgment over the living and the dead, and his reign will never end.
Who We Are | Basic Christianity | Jesus | Christian Beliefs | Christian History | What Makes Us Christian | A Primer about the Episcopal Church
The Anglican Communion | What Makes Us Anglican? | What To Expect When You Visit
The Early Church
After the resurrection, Scripture tells us, Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit to be with the disciples. When that happened, the Church was born. The Disciples began to gather more followers for Jesus, and continued to teach them. The more people learned about Jesus life, death, and resurrection, the more excited they became about changing their lives to be closer to Jesus and his followers’ example.
They sold their possessions and gave the money to the poor. They prayed and celebrated the resurrection every Sunday. They traveled throughout the region and one person in particular, whose name was Paul, felt that he was sent my God to bring this good news not just the Jewish people, but to all people he could find.
The Church grew, in spite of tremendous persecution, first from the Jewish communities to whom they were preaching about Jesus, but then from the Romans. The Roman Empire was threatened by the Christians’ refusal to worship the Emperor, as well as by the “unnatural” ways in which they loved their enemies and did good to their persecutors. Many, many Christians were executed for their beliefs, and many of the “Saints” whose lives we celebrate still today were among them. You can read about early church history in depth using our on-line course of study about the Episcopal Church.
The Orders of Clergy: Deacons, Bishops, and Priests
As the communities grew, the disciples of Jesus (known by this point as “Apostles,” from the Greek word for “one who is sent”) could not manage to lead all the new churches and still keep up the work of caring for the poor and disenfranchised, so they appointed help. First, they chose “deacons” (from the Greek meaning “servant”) to carry on the work of feeding and caring. Next, they appointed “overseers,” whom we call bishops, to watch over the churches. As the Apostles died and the churches grew, the bishops appointed “priests” to help them. Thus the main “orders” of the clergy were founded: Bishops, Priests, and Deacons.
Over the first three centuries of the history of the Church, the Bishops established the fundamental doctrines and practices that still today govern the life of churches all over the world.
Different Kinds of Church
Through the first centuries of Christianity, the Church was a sort of loose association of worshipping communities, most of which met in people’s houses. This Church was referred to as “catholic,” which really means “universal.” “Catholic” technically means, “All the Baptized Members of Jesus Christ.” As Christianity spread, the bishops worked hard to standardize their beliefs and practices to make sure that everyone had the same story, even if their experiences of God were richly diverse. By the fourth century, the fundamental doctrines of the Church had been formalized into the Nicene Creed. There continued to be tension, however, across the Church concerning all sorts of matters, including worship and technicalities of theology. The geography and diversity of the Church grew until it finally split into two parts in the 11th Century between two cities: The Roman Catholic Church, based in Rome, Italy, and the Eastern Orthodox Church centered in Constantinople, now Istanbul in Turkey. Each part claimed to be the “true church.”
In Western Europe in the 16th Century, tensions in the Roman Catholic Church had grown again to the point that another “schism” (or split) took place, led by Martin Luther and is commonly referred to in Western history as the “Reformation.” The “Lutheran Church,” which grew out of Luther’s ideas, was the first of the so-called “Protestant” Churches (because of their “protest” of Rome). From that point on, the Church has continued to fracture into more and more denominations, depending largely on the way their governing bodies make decisions (called “polity”), their arguments about aspects of Christianity (at what age Christians should be baptized, for instance), or their styles of worship.
The Episcopal Church was formally organized in 1783 when representatives of the Church of England in the United States of America met in Maryland and organized the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States. A year later Samuel Seabury traveled to Scotland be ordained the first Episcopal bishop by three Church of Scotland bishops. In 1785 the church's first General Convention, consisting of a House of Deputies, met in Philadelphia. The General Convention became a bicameral body in 1789 when the House of Bishops was formed. The first American Book of Common Prayer, modeled on the Church of England prayer book, was adopted by General Convention in 1790. The church's corporate organization, The Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society, was founded in 1820.
Bishop William White of Pennsylvania was the church's first presiding bishop. Until 1919 the presiding bishop's office was held by the church's most senior bishop. The first bishop to be elected presiding bishop was John Gardner Murray, bishop of Maryland, who served from 1926 to 1931. In 1946 the General Convention designated the presiding bishop as the chief pastor and primate of the church, and removed the requirement that the presiding bishop also function as a diocesan bishop. In 1994 the presiding bishop's term of office was reduced from twelve years to nine years. The presiding bishop and staff work out of the Episcopal Church Center, 815 Second Avenue, New York, NY 10017.
At Trinity, we teach an extensive course to help new members and nascent Christians learn about us and the Epsicopal Tradition. Check this course out at Inquirer's Course.
Who We Are | Basic Christianity | Jesus | Christian Beliefs | Christian History | What Makes Us Christian | A Primer about the Episcopal Church
The Anglican Communion | What Makes Us Anglican? | What To Expect When You Visit
The Goodness of Creation, Made by God
Most Christians believe that the physical universe, including humanity itself, is fundamentally good, even though human beings cause it harm through their negligence and self-interest. Other Christians hold that while humanity may be flawed, God's love and grace provides a way to perfection and goodness through the teachings and saving presence of Jesus Christ.
The Bible as the Word of God
Christians believe that the Bible is “the Word of God,” and as such, “contains all things necessary to salvation.” While there have been countless books about Christianity written since the Bible, and while many of the other doctrines essential to Christianity have been worked out in them, the Bible is sufficient to knowing God through Jesus Christ and to benefiting from the saving act of the Resurrection. Christians may disagree regularly, however, on how to interpret or apply what the Bible says.
The Trinity: One God in Three Persons
Christians believe in one God, whom we understand to exist in three “persons,” traditionally referred to as “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” The three “persons” of the Trinity are God, who created all things, Jesus Christ, his fully human—and at the same time, fully divine—son, and the Holy Spirit of God who gives life to all things and moves through all living things. Contemporary language now acknowledges other images of the Trinity, such as “Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier,” but the Trinity remains: One God in three persons.
The Incarnation: God Became Human
Christians believe that Jesus Christ was, at the same time, completely human and completely God, all in one person. This idea was articulated and adopted to address variants to Christian theology (known as “heresies”), which arise from time to time throughout history. One heresy has claimed that Jesus didn’t really die on the cross because he wasn’t really human. An opposing heresy claims that he was really just an important guy with some great ideas, and that he wasn’t really God.
The Crucifixion and Resurrection
Christians believe that Jesus of Nazareth died completely on the cross, that he was buried in a tomb, and that on the third day, he was raised physically again to life to return to his disciples.
Baptism
Baptism is the sacrament whereby people become Christians, and thereby members of the Church. At Baptism, the new Christian (or in the case of a child, the parents or guardians) professes belief in Jesus, renounces evil before the Church, and then is immersed in (or sprinkled with) water three times—in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Baptism represents our participation in the death and resurrection of Jesus, and assures us of our salvation through belief in him.
Eucharist
All baptized Christians participate in the Eucharist (from the Greek, meaning “Thanksgiving”) or as it is also called “Holy Communion,” “the Lord’s Supper,” or “The Mass.” The Eucharist was instituted, according to the Bible, by Jesus himself on the night of his arrest, before he was crucified. During the Eucharist, bread and wine are blessed as symbols of Christ’s body and blood. The bread is broken and shared, and then the cup of wine is passed among the worshipers as a sign of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross and resurrection. The Eucharist is a continual remembrance of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection until he comes again.
Working for the Reconciliation of the World to God through Jesus Christ
All Christians share in the God’s work of reconciling the world to God’s self. In other words, Christians believe that in Jesus Christ, all divisions among people, all injury, all wrong, and all sinfulness can be healed, and it is every Christian’s responsibility and ministry to work for that healing. Christians believe that there will come a day when the world will be completely at peace, sharing in God’s love, and living as one Body.
Who We Are | Basic Christianity | Jesus | Christian Beliefs | Christian History | What Makes Us Christian | A Primer about the Episcopal Church
The Anglican Communion | What Makes Us Anglican? | What To Expect When You Visit
A Primer About the Episcopal Church
Note: The material in this section was adapted from the Diocese of Chicago,
and we gratefully acknowledge their contribution to the furthering
of education about the Episcopal Church.
As noted above, the Episcopal Church grew out of the Protestant movement in Europe. It is patterned after the Church of England which incorporates both Protestant and Catholic practices and principles. This heritage allows the Episcopal Church and its sister Anglican churches to serve as a middle way, or via media, between the Protestant and Roman Catholic traditions.
History
The Episcopal Church was formally organized in 1783 when representatives of the Church of England in the United States of America met in Maryland and organized the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States. A year later Samuel Seabury traveled to Scotland be ordained the first Episcopal bishop by three Church of Scotland bishops. In 1785 the church's first General Convention, consisting of a House of Deputies, met in Philadelphia. The General Convention became a bicameral body in 1789 when the House of Bishops was formed. The first American Book of Common Prayer, modeled on the Church of England prayer book, was adopted by General Convention in 1790. The church's corporate organization, The Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society, was founded in 1820.
Bishop William White of Pennsylvania was the church's first presiding bishop. Until 1919 the presiding bishop's office was held by the church's most senior bishop. The first bishop to be elected presiding bishop was John Gardner Murray, bishop of Maryland, who served from 1926 to 1931. In 1946 the General Convention designated the presiding bishop as the chief pastor and primate of the church, and removed the requirement that the presiding bishop also function as a diocesan bishop. In 1994 the presiding bishop's term of office was reduced from twelve years to nine years. The presiding bishop and staff work out of the Episcopal Church Center, 815 Second Avenue, New York, NY 10017.
Dioceses
The basic unit of organization in the Episcopal Church is the diocese, a geographic group of at least six parishes under the leadership of a bishop. The Episcopal Church comprises 100 domestic dioceses and 13 overseas dioceses, most of which are in Central and South America. Massachusetts is the largest with over 91,000 members, while the smallest, in the United States, is Eau Claire ( Wis.) numbering just over 2,500. The total number of congregations stands at 7,305, while the church's total membership numbers 2.3 million.
Clergy
The Episcopal Church recognizes three orders of ordained ministers: bishops, priests, and deacons. There are 162 active bishops in the church, serving as diocesan, coadjutor, assistant and suffragan bishops, and over 150 retired bishops. There are around 14,000 priests and 1,700 deacons.
General Convention
The General Convention is believed to be the largest bicameral legislative body in the world, numbering over 900 deputies and 300 bishops. It meets every three years to approve the church's program and budget; address resolutions and legislation affecting the church's faith and order, and its position on issues before the church and wider society; and, if necessary, elect a presiding bishop. The House of Deputies meets only during General Convention, while the House of Bishops meets twice a year, though it cannot enact legislation during these interim meetings.
The House of Deputies consists of four lay and four clerical deputies from each diocese of the church. All bishops, active and retired, make up the House of Bishops. Other Anglican bishops can be admitted to non-voting membership in the House of Bishops. Legislation and resolutions can be introduced in either house, but both houses must concur for the measures to take effect.
Presiding Bishop
The presiding bishop serves as the chief pastor and primate of the church, president of the House of Bishops, president of the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society, and president and chair of the Executive Council. The House of Bishops elects the presiding bishop, whose election must then be confirmed by the House of Deputies. Presiding bishop's duties include:
The presiding bishop is assisted by a staff of over 200 at the Episcopal Church Center, 815 Second Ave., New York City. The church also operates field offices in Washington, DC, (Governmental Relations Office, Jubilee Ministries), Oklahoma City (Multicultural Ministries), Richmond, Va. (Office of Pastoral Development), Chapel Hill, N.C. (General Board of Examining Chaplains), and Paris (American Convocation of Churches in Europe).
Who We Are | Basic Christianity | Jesus | Christian Beliefs | Christian History | What Makes Us Christian | A Primer about the Episcopal Church
The Anglican Communion | What Makes Us Anglican? | What To Expect When You Visit
The Episcopal Church is one of 38 self-governing churches or provinces in the world-wide Anglican Communion. Churches in the Anglican Communion are located in 160 countries on five continents,and they are linked by their proclamation of the catholic and apostolic faith; their grounding in scripture, tradition and reason; their common liturgical tradition derived from The Book of Common Prayer; their recognition of the Eucharist as the central act of worship; and through their historic ties to the Archbishop of Canterbury, primate of the Church of England and spiritual leader of the 70-million member communion. The present Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. and Rt. Hon. Rowan Williams, was nominated archbishop by Queen Elizabeth II in July 2002 and enthroned in February 2003.
During the Reformation in the 16th Century, Henry VIII declared the Church of England independent of the Roman Catholic Church with himself as its head. It was the result of many factors, some political and some theological, but it has given rise to a distinct form of Christianity, known as Anglicanism.
The member churches of the Anglican Communion are joined together by choice in love, and have no direct authority over one another. The Archbishop of Canterbury, the head of the Church of England, is acknowledged as the spiritual head of the Anglican Communion, but while respected, the Archbishop does not have direct authority over any Anglican Church outside of England.
While there are other churches that call themselves “Anglican,” only one Church in any country can be considered “in full communion” with the Church of England, and the Episcopal Church is the American member of the Communion.
Who We Are | Basic Christianity | Jesus | Christian Beliefs | Christian History | What Makes Us Christian | A Primer about the Episcopal Church
The Anglican Communion | What Makes Us Anglican? | What To Expect When You Visit
The Episcopal Church, having its roots in the Church of England, is also an Anglican Church. Like all Anglican churches, the Episcopal Church is distinguished by the following characteristics:
Protestant, Yet Catholic
Anglicanism stands squarely in the Reformed tradition, yet considers itself just as directly descended from the
Worship in one’s first language
Episcopalians believe that Christians should be able to worship God and read the Bible in their first language, which for most Episcopalians, is English, rather than Latin or Greek, the two earlier, “official” languages of Christianity. Yet the Book of Common Prayer has been translated into many languages, so that those Episcopalians who do not speak English can still worship God in their native tongue.
The Book of Common Prayer
Unique to Anglicanism, though, is the Book of Common Prayer, the collection of worship services that all worshipers in an Anglican church follow. It’s called “common prayer” because we all pray it together, around the world. The first Book of Common Prayer was compiled in English by Thomas Cranmer in the 16th Century, and since then has undergone many revisions for different times and places. But its original purpose has remained the same: To provide in one place the core of the instructions and rites for Anglican Christians to worship together.
The present prayer book in the
Scripture, Tradition, and Reason
The Anglican approach to reading and interpreting the Bible was first articulated by Richard Hooker, also in the 16th Century. While Christians universally acknowledge the Bible (or the Holy Scriptures) as the Word of God and completely sufficient to our reconciliation to God, what the Bible says must always speak to us in our own time and place.
The Church, as a worshiping body of faithful people, has for two thousand years amassed experience of God and of loving Jesus, and what they have said to us through the centuries about the Bible is critical to our understanding it in our own context. The traditions of the Church in interpreting Scripture connect all generations of believers together and give us a starting point for our own understanding.
Episcopalians believe that every Christian must build an understanding and relationship with God’s Word in the Bible, and to do that, God has given us intelligence and our own experience, which we refer to as “Reason.” Based on the text of the Bible itself, and what Christians have taught us about it through the ages, we then must sort out our own understanding of it as it relates to our own lives.
Who We Are | Basic Christianity | Jesus | Christian Beliefs | Christian History | What Makes Us Christian | A Primer about the Episcopal Church
The Anglican Communion | What Makes Us Anglican? | What To Expect When You Visit
Sunday is traditionally when Episcopalians gather to worship. In most churches now, the principal worship service is the Holy Eucharist, or as it is also known, “The Lord’s Supper,” “Holy Communion,” or “The Mass.” In most Episcopal churches, worship is accompanied by the singing of hymns, and in some churches, much of the service is also sung. At Trinity the Sunday services are presently at 8:00 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. We also have a Wednesday Eucharist at 9:30 a.m.
Worship Styles
There are many different styles in which Episcopalians worship, from very formal, almost Catholic styles that have lots of singing, music, fancy clothes (called vestments), and incense, to very informal spoken styles that have less music. Yet all worship in the Episcopal Church is based in the Book of Common Prayer, which gives it a familiar feel to Episcopalians, no matter where they go.
Liturgy and Ritual
Worship in the Episcopal Church is said to be “liturgical,” which means that the congregation follows the same service and prays from texts that don’t change very much from week to week during a season of the year. The sameness from week to week gives the worship a rhythm that becomes comforting and familiar to the worshipers. Liturgy can be confusing, however, or difficult to follow for the first-time visitor. It often involves switching between two or more books or a service pamphlet, and there may be a lot of standing, sitting, kneeling, bowing, and sung or spoken responses. We oftentimes use specialized language and "weird" terminology to describe aspects of our worship (check out an Online dictionary of Episocpal Terminology ). Liturgical worship can be compared with a formal dance: Once you learn its steps and movements, you learn to appreciate its rhythm and it becomes satisfying to dance, again and again, as the music changes.
The Holy Eucharist
In spite of the diversity of worship styles in the Episcopal Church, Holy Eucharist always has the same components and the same shape (although not necessarily the same langauge).
The Liturgy of the Word
We begin with the praise of God through singing and prayers, and then listen to as many as four readings from the Bible. Usually, they are one from the Old Testament, a psalm, and one from the Epistles, but there is always a reading from one of the Gospels. There is usually then a sermon or meditation on the readings given by the priest.
The congregation recites the Nicene Creed, which was written in the Fourth Century and has been the Church’s statement of what we believe ever since.
Next, the congregation prays together—for the Church, for the World, and for those in need. We pray for the sick, we thank God for all the good things of our lives, and finally, we pray for the dead.
Then usually, the congregation confesses its sin before God and before one another. This is a corporate statement of what we have done and what we have left undone, and the priest “pronounces absolution.” In so doing, the priest assures the congregation that God is always ready to forgive our sins.
 Bill Stroop, Rector Welcomes you to Trinity |
The congregation greets one another and wishes them “peace.”
The Liturgy of the Table
Next, the priest stands at the table, which has been set with a cup of wine and a plate of bread—or thin, crispy wafers. At Trinity Church, our priest bakes communion bread each Saturday for use on Sunday morning. Check out the Communion Bread Recipe. Then he or she raises his or her hands and greets the congregation again: “The Lord be With You.” Now begins the Eucharistic Prayer, in which the priest tells the story of Christianity, from the beginning of Creation, through the choosing of
How Our Worship Changes During the Church Year - Especially During Lent
The church year is divided into six major seasons. Beginning with Advent, the seasons are Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, and “Ordinary” time, that long season of the church year that follows the feast day of Pentecost. The seasons of the year are bounded by or contain Principal or Major feast days and Holy Days such as Christmas Day (during Christmas); Holy Name, The Epiphany and The Presentation (during Epiphany); Ash Wednesday, The Annunciation, Palm Sunday, and Good Friday (during Lent); Easter Day and Ascension Day (during Easter); The Day of Pentecost, Trinity Sunday, The Transfiguration, Holy Cross Day, and All Saint’s Day (during Pentecost).
It has become traditional to mark the seasons of the church year through the use of colors, and changes in the Sunday Eucharistic liturgies and music. It should be noted, however, that traditions change over time, and what the church once considered traditional (and perhaps unchangeable) in fact did change over time. Consequently, what we consider “traditional” today might not be the same ten or one hundred years from now. For example, the “traditional” practices for distributing bread and wine during Holy Communion have changed considerably over the centuries, and have involved such varied procedures as passing the cup of wine from person to person in the congregation (no Eucharistic servers) to the use of a common “straw” (called a fistula) to the administration of the holy supper with a spoon containing a “slurry” of consecrated bread and wine.
Lent, being the most penitential season of thee year is marked by the use of the color purple or lavender. On Ash Wednesday, the hangings, altar decorations, and vestments change from the green color of the post-Epiphany period to purple, and they remain purple until Lent ends on the Saturday before Palm Sunday. Oftentimes, if a church does not normally have a vessel of holy water out during the rest of the year, such a vessel is placed in the church during Lent so that as people enter the nave (church) they may dip their fingers in it before crossing themselves. Such gestures are not for everyone, but some people find such genstures meaningful, spiritual actions especially during the Lenten season.
Another change you will notice in church during Lent is the use of unleavened wafers of bread instead of baked communion bread. The use of leavened or unleavened bread for communion is another of those “traditions” that has changed over time. For about 1000 years, unleavened bread was the norm for the church, but for the past 1000 years, the Eastern Catholic churches (except the Armenian) use leavened bread, while the Roman Catholic Church in the West uses unleavened bread. This change came about gradually, but by the time of the schism between the Eastern and Western Churches in 1054, the divergence over the leavening of communion bread was a cause of dissention. In the Church of England tradition, leavened bread has been the custom since 1552 (and indeed supported by a rubric in that prayer book). A number of Anglican liturgies today specifically permit the use of either kind of bread, but most make no mention of the matter, leaving the choice up to local custom. I like to change from leavened bread to the wafers in Lent as a way of marking the season of Lent as different from the flanking seasons of Epiphany and Easter.
Lent is often characterized by austerity and somberness. A common thing that many churches in the Anglican tradition do at this time of year is to put away the silver and the brass or gold fixtures and vessels of the altar and use less ornate, simpler implements made of wood, glass, or ceramic. Sometimes the number of candles is reduced as well. At Trinity we put away the silver Eucharistic vessels and replace them with simpler glass ones. And when the silver returns on Easter, it will seem even more glorious when it is surrounded by all those Easter lilies. Another austere way we will mark the Lenten season is by processing in and out of the services in silence.
The language we use and the musical settings during Lent are also more subdued. We “put away” the Alleluias, and the Gloria in excelsis is replaced with the Kyrie eleison or the Trisagion. The servers switch the words used to administer the sacraments of bread and wine to remind us of the season of the year. Beginning with the second Sunday in Lent at the 10:30 am service, we will sing the Trisagion at the beginning of the service, just before the silent procession. Instead of the customary priest’s blessing at the end of the service during Lent, the church commends the use of the solemn blessing for Lent from The Book of Occasional Services (seasonal blessings are also used during Advent, Epiphany, Christmas, and certain other seasons of the church year).
On the First Sunday in Lent, we chant the Great Litany in Procession. The litany, as a prayer form, is a set of supplications said or sung by a cantor, deacon or priest, and followed by set responses from the people. Predating Christianity, this prayer form was used by other religions, including Judaism.
The Great Litany was in use in the Roman Church long before the reformation, but with the 1549 Prayer Book prepared by Thomas Cranmer, the litany was to be used as part of the daily offices, for Eucharistic celebrations, and for rogation days, times of emergency, and other special occasions. The litany we use today was assembled by Cranmer from many sources including the Roman litanies, Luther’s litany, the litany for rogation, and the litany of St. John Chyrsostom. The current rubrics call for the Great Litany to be “said or sung, kneeling, standing, or in procession...” Indeed, in the earliest days of Anglicanism, it was prescribed that the Litany be chanted in procession.
On subsequent Sundays in Lent, we begin the service with the Penitential Order from the Prayer Book. This effectively “moves” the confession to the front of the service. This will seem very familiar to those coming in from the Lutheran tradition.
We also observe the ancient traditional service of Tenebrae during Holy Week. This is a very ancient liturgical expression of our sacred story involving the reading of antiphons and psalms.
The form of the Eucharistic Prayer (the Great Thanksgiving) during Lent we use at Trinity is Form C, found on page 369 (cf) of the Book of Common Prayer. This prayer is considered by church liturgists to be the most penitential of the Eucharistic Prayers in the American prayer book, and particularly well suited for the Lenten season.
All Are Welcome
At Trinity Episcopal Church all Baptized persons — no matter what age, and no matter of what denomination — are welcome to “receive communion,” that is, eat the bread and drink the wine with the congregation, regardless of which Church they were baptized in. This invitation to other Christians who are not Episcopalians is in sharp contrast to the position of many other Churches. Episcopalians invite all baptized people to receive, not because we take the Eucharist lightly, but because we take our baptism so seriously.
At the end of the Eucharist, the congregation prays once more in thanksgiving, and then is dismissed to continue the life of service to God and to the World.
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