To be an Anglican is to be on a journey of faith with God, supported by a community of fellow believers, who are dedicated to finding God by prayer and service.
We are a sacramental church.
Sunday is traditionally when Episcopalians gather for worship. At the very heart of Anglican worship is the celebration of the Holy Eucharist, also called the Holy Communion, the Lord’s Supper, or the Mass. In this offering of prayer and praise, the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ are recalled through the proclamation of the Word, and the celebration of the sacrament. Thus nourished, we are sent into to the world to serve God by serving others.
We are a liturgical church.
Worship in the Episcopal Church is said to be ‘liturgical’, meaning that the congregation follows a pattern for the worship service, and prays from texts that do not change greatly from week to week during a season of the church year. This sameness from week to week gives worship a certain rhythm that, for most worshippers, becomes comforting and familiar.
For the first-time visitor, liturgy may be exhilarating...or confusing. Services may involve standing, sitting, kneeling, sung or spoken responses, and include participatory elements that may challenge you. Liturgical worship, however, is sometimes compared with a dance: once you learn the steps, you come to appreciate better the rhythm, and it becomes satisfying to dance those familiar steps, again and again. Eventually, one begins to hear that the music changes subtly; and so changes also one's capacity to appreciate its mysteries and complexities.
The Bilingual Editions of The Book of Common Prayer.
The Vision statement for our Convocation expresses our ethos: "The Episcopal Church is a welcoming community that knows that God loves all people, 'no exceptions'. We celebrate our diversity of languages, cultures and nations. Worshipping together, we rejoice in reaching out to the world and becoming One in Christ."
In an effort to reach out to all of its members, The Convocation has undertaken the task of translating selected liturgies from The Book of Common Prayer. Since 1999, we have published four bilingual prayer book editions: Italian-English, Spanish-English edition, French-English and German-English.
All are welcome.
All baptized Christians -- no matter age or denomination -- are welcome to receive communion in The Episcopal Church. Visitors who are not baptized Christians are welcome to come forward during the Communion to receive a blessing from the presider.