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Step by Step Explanation of Our Worship:
Understanding Episcopal Liturgy
1. What is the Nave?
2. What is the reason the entire congregation shares wine from just one or two chalices during communion?
3. Why is our worship service called a liturgy?
4. Why do we use unleavened bread for communion? And why do we use leavened bread?
5. Why do we stand for the procession?
6. Why do the priest and eucharistic ministers make the sign of the cross near the end of the eucharistic prayer?
7. What's the reason the priest or bishop is always the last person in the procession?
8. What is the reason we sing this hymn called 'The Sanctus'?
9. What is the reason the Gospel is read from the center of the Nave?
10. What is the reason the the priest wears a purple stole and the altar is covered in purple cloth during Lent?
11. What is the reason we pray the General Confession together as a congregation each Sunday?
12. What should I do when I receive the bread or wine?
13. What is the reason our Gospel lesson comes from Luke each week?
14. What is the reason we recite the Nicene Creed?
15. What is the reason the Gospel is read from the center of the Nave?
16. What is the reason we give the sacrament of communion to young children?
17. What is the reason the processions at the beginning , middle and end of worship is led by a person carrying a processional cross?
18. When the Eucharistic Minister offers the bread or the wine, they say words of institution, such as "The Bread of Heaven" or The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ keep you in everlasting life" Where do these words come from? What should I do when I receive the bread or wine?
19. What is the reason for having the large, single candle lit and placed in the center of the chancel during the Easter season?
20. What is the
Easter Vigil?
21. What is the reason the priest and other people bow as they approach the altar?
22. What is the reason we say the confession every (or almost every) Sunday?
23. What is the reason the congregation is invited to stand for the Eucharistic Prayer?
24. What is the reason one of the worship leaders carries the big book with the gold cover into worship during the procession?
25. Why don't we applaud at the end of the organ postlude?
26. Why are some of our prayers called 'collects'?
27. Why do we use purple as the color for Advent?
28. What is the reason the priest and other worship leaders wear robes during worship?
29. Why don't we use the words 'Alleluia' or 'Hallelujah' in worship during Lent?
30. What is a canticle? Why do we sing a canticle just a minute after the procession and opening hymn?
31. What is the reason we are saying this new form of the Lord's Prayer?
32. What is the reason we are using the traditional form of the Lord's Prayer?
33. Why do we sing or say one of the Psalms each week during worship?
34. Is it a problem if I don't say the right words or don't hold my hands the right way when I am receiving the communion bread?
35. What is the proper way to address the priest?
36. What is the Collect for Purity? What happened to the Canticle we were singing each Sunday at the beginning of worship?
37. What is the deeper history of the place we meet?
38. I notice there are places in the Book of Common Prayer (p. 304) where we talk about being members of the holy catholic church. Is the Episcopal Church a Protestant or a Catholic Church?
39. What is the reason the priest and eucharistic ministers make the sign of the cross at the end of the eucharistic prayer?
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