A Rookie Anglican Guide to an Anglican Worship Service

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Word and Sacrament

Our worship service consists of two parts, the Service of the Word and the Service of the Sacrament. These two elements are equally essential, as the Word of God reveals Jesus and prepares us to receive him in the sacrament of Holy Communion. This pattern follows the early Church of the Book of Acts, who “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (Acts 2:42).

The Service of the Word

Hearing God’s Word read and proclaimed, praying together, and preparing for Holy Communion are the highlights; let’s explain the details of the Service.

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The Procession and Acclamation

We prepare our hearts for worship in quiet prayer and song. The ministers process behind the cross, reverencing it because everything we do is under the Cross of Christ. The People may also bow their heads as the cross passes. We name and bless the object of our worship, the God of the Christian Faith, revealed in Scripture as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The Collect of the Day and the Collect for Purity

A collect is a prayer that “collects” the intentions of all the people and sums them up by acknowledging God’s work, asking of him, and ending with a doxology of praise. This collect sets a theme for the day and week.

The Scripture Lessons

Holy Scripture is at the heart of our worship and faith. We read from a lectionary, a common pattern of Scripture texts. It helps us to worship together with other Christians, even though we are in different places. Paul wrote that we should continue to read the Scriptures publicly (1 Timothy 4:13).

The Holy Gospel

We read the gospel “among the people” because Christ came into the world to live among us; so the Gospel is the center of our parish life (John 1:1-14; 1 Corinthians 3:11). The “little” sign of the cross may be used with the thumbnail over the forehead, the lips, and the heart, signifying our prayer that the Gospel would fill our minds, be upon our lips, and in our heart.

The Sermon

Everything we learn about our faith in Christ is embodied. Faith is sacramental in that there is a means through which we affect every aspect of the cure of our souls. We need to hear a human voice speaking. We need that human voice to speak through personal experience and personality; we need to listen to the Gospel, explained and illustrated, aloud (Romans 10:14).

The Creed

St. Jude, Jesus’ brother, taught us that we should “contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.” The Nicene Creed was produced by Christians from East and West at a time when the Church was undivided and is an expansion of the earlier Apostles’ Creed. By “catholic and apostolic,” we mean the faith and order of the early Church and the Faithful throughout history and around the world today.

The Prayers of the People

Paul wrote to Timothy that:

First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.

1 Timothy 2:1, 2

We pray for those who have departed this life in faith because together with them we await the final resurrection of our bodies (1 Thessalonians 4:17, 5:10). They rest in him now in peace, and yet cry out “how long, O Lord?” (Revelation 6:10). As one body of Christ, we share Communion with the faithful on earth and in heaven (1 Corinthians 12:12). Our prayers remind us of their example of faith and call us to follow it.

The Confession of Sin and the Absolution

Christ in our baptism forgives us, yet until he returns, we remain imperfect. St. John wrote:

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

1 John 1:9

The absolution, or pronouncement of forgiveness, makes the present to us that:

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you, free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.

Romans 8:1, 2

The Passing of the Peace

The passing of the peace renews our obedience to our Lord’s command:

First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.

Matthew 5:24

Likewise, we recall St Paul’s warning to the Corinthians,

Aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.

2 Corinthians 13:11

Holy Communion

Baptism is the initiation into the Christian life, a one-time moment of promise in which the people of God stand on his new covenant of grace to welcome a new member into the body of Christ freely. Holy Communion is the ongoing Sacrament, the continually sustaining provision of God to nourish our faith, regularly and constantly reminding us of his mercy and providing us with his grace.

The Offering

The offering of our resources to God by giving to our local parish is a tangible expression of God’s ownership of all things, including our whole selves. Visitors are never required to give money during the offering.

The Great Thanksgiving

The prayers of the Eucharist service acknowledge that our Lord instituted this table for his people to commune with him together as his people. The Great Thanksgiving is the name for the cluster of prayers that surround the Lord’s Supper, or Communion. These prayers are based on ancient Christian prayers and on the pattern of worship from the earliest days of the Church, both of which are derived from Holy Scripture.

The prayers are not identical, but they follow a pattern that includes a recitation of salvation history and an “oblation” or declaration of the continuing power of Christ’s singular sacrifice on the cross for the forgiveness of sins. That includes ancient hymns and songs such as the Sanctus (“Holy, Holy, Holy…”). This always consists of the words of institution, namely, those Jesus spoke when he instituted the Lord’s Supper.

The celebrant (the priest who leads these prayers) takes the bread by placing it on the table. He gives thanks along with the people. He breaks it, signifying both Christ’s broken body and the shared nature of communion, and then he gives it, administering the body and blood of Christ to the people of God.

The Words of Institution

We find these Words in the Pauline Scriptures:

For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, ‘This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” 

1 Corinthians 11:23-26

The presbyter or priest then adds an exhortation, “Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.” We present this each week again.

The Lord’s Prayer

The Lord himself gave it to us, and it is the outline and basis of all Christian prayer (Matthew 6:9-13).

Receiving Communion

All baptized believers are welcome to receive at the Lord’s table. Fold your hands flat together to receive the bread. Guide the chalice to your own lips. Many will make the sign of the cross before receiving each kind, and after receiving, say, “Amen.” You may also choose to receive the bread by intinction (dipping) into the wine and consume both together. The unbaptized, or those who don’t receive communion for some other reason, but would like to receive a blessing by a priest, may indicate so by crossing their arms on their chest, with their hands at each shoulder. Unbaptized children are welcome to receive a blessing as well.

Post-Communion & The Blessing

Having received from our Lord Jesus Christ in Word and Sacrament, we are sent forth into the world as ministers of reconciliation in his name (2 Corinthians 5:18). This blessing is rooted in Aaron’s blessing (Numbers 6:22-26); it also reflects Paul’s doxologies in his Epistles, most notably in Romans 15:13, 33, and Philippians 4:7.

Photo: Donald Merrill on Unsplash

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May 10, 2016
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The Anglican Pastor

A classic resource from the founding team of Anglican Compass.

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Making the Sign of the Cross

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Why do Anglicans make the Sign of the Cross? When do they do it? How do they do it? I am often asked: “Why do you cross yourselves?” Often this is followed by “Isn’t that superstitious, like the baseball players who sign themselves before batting? Isn’t it a dead, rote ritual?” Sometimes, people don’t feel…

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Hi Father, I put a comment earlier which you welcomed but which has now disappeared. Sorry, did I say something wrong? If so tell me what, and I won’t say it again!

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Hey Revd Chris, we had a technical difficulty with the first posting, and had to re-post this article. Here is your original comment for our readers:

“A very useful summary Father, thank you – the Bible ‘clues’ are especially helpful.

Years ago I served a parish which enjoyed traditional worship, but was not very ‘literary’. We put all the essentials of our Mass on to two sides of A4, cards colour-coded according to the season. We used traditional terms in the instructions, but also provided very simple non-technical headings for newcomers from the wider community. For example the instruction said ‘The celebrant sings the Collect of the Day’, but the heading simply said ‘Prayer of the Day’.

Regulars and traditional Anglicans didn’t need the headings because the service was familiar, while newcomers had plain terms to guide them until they learned the pattern and the traditional terms for themselves. It proved quite helpful in a growing traditional church – ‘bridging the gap’ without ‘dumbing down’.

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Dear Anglican Pastor, (Fr),
I have been looking for a resource (on the internet) to do exactly as you have listed in your comment above. An A4 colour-coded Mass sheet on two sides. I would love a copy and wonder if this is at all possible. (Do you still have a copy?). I would happily reference where I received the information. I am an Anglican Priest in the Diocese of Melbourne. This would be very helpful.

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Dear Greg,

Many thanks for this thoughtful presentation of Anglican liturgy from the perspective of the Anglican Catholic tradition. May I, however, present a few points that were integral to Cranmer’s thoughts about liturgy which laid the foundation for all subsequent Anglican prayer books?

Firstly, Cranmer would have rejected the notion that Word and Sacrament had two different functions in the service of Holy Communion. For Reformation Anglicans, they were the two-sides of the same coin. With God’s Word went forth his Breathe/Spirit, transforming our affections through writing his promises on our hearts and drawing our wills towards him in loving gratitude. By joining the scriptural Words of Institution with the creaturely elements of bread and wine which we bodily receive, the Gospel promise of free reconciliation was incarnated sacramentally in our lives, supernaturally strengthening Christ’s presence in our hearts and, therefore, our union with him and one another. In short, the Spirit working through God’s Word throughout the service was at work to draw us into his presence so we could receive anew Christ’s life-giving power.

Second, since Cranmer understood the whole service of Holy Communion as the highest form of the church’s proclamation of the Gospel, his emphasis was on the people of God first receiving the divine gift of reconciliation and fellowship with God as well as one another through the sacrament, and then offering their sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving as the fruit of the gift, not its grounds, as in the medieval period. For Reformation Anglicans, liturgy is God’s work for the people, not the people’s work for God.

Third, since the transforming power of Scripture was fundamental to Cranmer’s understanding of the Christian life, the whole point of the lectionary, according to the Preface, was to inflame the hearts of the people with divine love. Cranmer wanted the people regularly to sit under the whole counsel of Scripture, so that the divine gracious love it proclaimed would gradually birth in them grateful human love. Consequently, at the very heart of his service of Holy Communion were the Comfortable Words, the “Four Spiritual Promises” that summarized the Gospel for Reformation Anglicanism: 1. Human longing for release; 2. Divine longing to rescue; 3. Salvation from our perspective: Sin as the source of our bondage, Jesus as our only Savior from it; 4. Salvation from God’s perspective: The death of God’s Son as an atoning sacrifice so that he could become our defense lawyer, rather than our judge. Cranmer was convinced that as we heard these promises our hearts would be supernaturally drawn in gratitude towards God and, thus, be able to fulfill the priest’s next command to “Lift up your hearts.”

I would be grateful to know whether you thought these essential principles of the 1662 Prayer Book are still helpful today and, if so, how we might communicate them to our congregations?

Once again, many thanks for your thoughtful description of Anglican liturgy.

Blessings,

Ashley Null

Reply

Dr Null, thank you for taking the time to comment. Very much appreciate the encouragement and the points you address.

I’m not a scholar so probably don’t have as thorough an answer as your comments require. But I will share my thoughts from my pastoral experience and reading in this area.

I find that the 1662 book is a wonderful and important standard. Cranmer’s theology of worship and approach to Word and sacrament are likewise important. But I also appreciate the way the theology of the Fathers and recently discovered early liturgies are also important. I don’t mind us tempering some of Cranmer’s thinking by putting it in context of the wider Christian theology of worship.

So with that in mind, I find the Word and Sacrament not to be different in the sense of opposing one another. But I do think that they should be seen as equal and yet different in some profound ways. I think Paul points to this in writing that in Eucharist we “participate in Christ.” We hear and then we receive. Word/gospel are sacramental and sacrament is Word/Gospel and yet identifiable as distinct.

Would the average parishioner not interpret Cranmer’s thinking today as meaning that all worship is merely intellectual? I don’t believe he meant that. But if instead of fully subsiding sacrament within Word, we present Word and Sacrament as different and yet intertwined would that not help people embrace both the hearing of the Gospel in word and the receiving of Christ’s presence in sacrament?

Please let me express how deeply I appreciate your work and ministry and that you’ve responded here.

Blessings to you.

Reply

Great insights Dr Null and I believe you have rightly understood Cranmer’s words.

Reply

Dear Fr. Goebel,
Thank you for your thoughtful response to Dr. Null. I have recently been incardinated into Anglican ministry. I find your reflections refreshing. I come from a baptist/pentecostal background where the Word (and the pastor) are the center pieces of what we look to in worship. I appreciate that the Word/gospel is sacremental and utterly essential. Albeit, I spent decades eating the menu, so to speak, and partaking of Christ in “spiritual” terms that held no foothold in Sacrament nor the fidelity of a liturgy that illustrates and engages at the same time. This is where the table, the Holy Eucharist has transformed my relational engagement with Christ and makes him and him, alone, the object of spiritual and physical worship through partaking of the elements (Jesus). I do not these as separable from the one another. Rather, I see the Word as a qualification of and invitation to participation and the Eucharist as the act of participation, of experiencing.

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I am Roman Catholic. I have attended an Anglcan Mass. I was amazed how close both of our Churches are. It seems that given the dwindling population our Churches our. It is a shame we are separated. It would be beneficial as we are fighting our same enemies here on earth that we do this as one both politically and spiritually. the heart of our Masses is the Consecration and the Communion. That these are real is contained in the Epistle of St. Paul who says” He eats the body and drinks the blood of Jesus Christ has life everlasting. but he who eats the Body of Jesus and Drinks his blood unworthily brings damnation on himself. If these elements were not the body and blood of Christ and were merely symbols surely a person would not bring damnation on himself.

Marion Schneider
Albuquerque New Mexico

[email protected]

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