Learn With Us
The Anglican Church is one of the largest Christian denominations worldwide
with about 75 million members. Much of Anglican worship, like that of other churches,
is based on traditions going back for centuries.
Our regular church service starts at 10:000 AM every Sunday morning.
The church service is:
- A more contemporary service geared towards families
- Service is both spoken and sung including hymns
- Lay people participate in many parts of the service as greeters, readers, leading prayer, and assisting with communion.
Sometimes worship services may be Morning Prayer or Evening Prayer.
What happens in our Sunday Worship?
Common prayer. When you come you will notice that common prayer is an important part of how we worship. We use set prayers from our service books and other prayers that are specially appointed for specific Sunday services.
Most of the service is shown on a PowerPoint. When you need to use the prayer book, you will be guided to the proper page.
Two prayer books are commonly used. The Book of Alternative Services (commonly referred to as the BAS) is more modern and used for most church services.
The Book of Common Prayer (also known as the BCP) is a traditional book of prayer based on 16th century rites. It is used several times throughout the church year.
Bible readings. As Anglicans, we follow a three year cycle of bible readings. This ensures that most of the bible is read once every three years.
Three bible readings are given on most Sundays:
1. Scripture reading from the Old Testament
2. Scripture reading from the New Testament
3. Gospel (one of the four gospels of either Mark, Luke, Matthew or John)
Sermon. The priest gives a sermon to help translate the teachings of the Bible to everyday modern life helping parishioners to learn and better understand how to live a Christian life.
Music.
We sing both traditional hymns and more contemporary hymns throughout the service.
Two hymn books are used. The “blue book”, The Book of Common Praise, contains a wide selection of hymns and other pieces of service music. It is the most recent authorized hymn book for the Anglican Church in Canada.
At Immanuel we also use another hymn book, “the green book” called Songs for a Gospel People. Songs for a Gospel People is a smaller collection of popular hymns.
Holy Communion (also known as the Holy Eucharist or the Lord’s Supper) is the central part of the church service. If you have been baptized you are welcome to participate in the communion taking the bread and the wine.
If you haven’t been baptized but would like a blessing, you may come forward to the altar and simply cross your arms over your chest and the priest will give you a blessing.
Other Church Services. Church services are held according to the seasons of the Church and other Holy Days. The Church seasons are Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter and Pentecost. Additional church services are held at these times of the year.
