Worship
St. Thomas welcomes everyone to worship.
We’d love to talk with you about your questions and help you find what you need–please ask a greeter, your pew neighbor, or the Deacon. We hope you’ll join us to experience the beauty and joy of worship in our community. Join us in person or online!
Our Services
When we gather for worship at St. Thomas, we use Rite II services (more contemporary language and a wider variety of ways to pray), and we also worship with music. Often, after the service, we gather for refreshments and fellowship in Halliday Hall (named for one of our prior Rectors).
We are a sacramental church, and celebrating the Eucharist together is one of the focuses of our worship on Sundays. We celebrate the Eucharist most Sundays (as long as we are able to gather in person and the Bishop or a priest is present) to feast at Christ’s table in Communion, to hear what God might say among us through scripture and preaching, to pray for our own needs and for the world. On other occasions, we participate in the Liturgy of the Word, an abbreviated version of the Eucharist, usually led by our Deacon, containing most of the rich elements present in the Eucharistic service.
We use a variety of prayers authorized in the Episcopal Church to tell the story of God’s love for us from the creation to the life of Jesus to our future hope.
How We Worship
You are welcome to participate in the service as little or as much as you feel comfortable. You are invited to join in speaking some parts of the service (printed in bold in the bulletin) and in singing hymns. At various points during the service, people will be asked to stand or kneel as able. We want you to do whatever helps you to feel most at ease and connected with the worship. If you have children who need to move (or you are an adult who needs to move!) we invite you to walk around as needed.
The service includes infants and children of all ages. Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me,” and at St. Thomas we love to hear the youngest saints playing and exploring their vocal range during the service. This is the sound of the church breathing, and it is a beautiful sound.
