What We Believe
St Andrew’s Worship is grounded in the ancient practices of the Christian faith as we receive them through the historic Anglican tradition and its expression in the Episcopal Church in the United States. We have a rich tradition of sacred music in a sacred space.
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We are Protestant, Yet Catholic
We stands squarely in the Reformed tradition, yet consider ourselves just as directly descended from the Early Church as the Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox churches. We find our unity in common prayer, not conformity to a certain set of doctrines. We articulate our faith in the historic Nicene Creed each Sunday, and understand that each believer has their own spiritual journey that informs their faith as it is articulated in that text.
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We pray with The Book of Common Prayer
Unique to historical Anglicanism is the Book of Common Prayer (BCP), the collection of worship services that Anglican churches use. It’s called “common prayer” because we all pray it together, around the world. The first one was compiled in English by Thomas Cranmer in the 16th century, and since then has undergone many revisions for different times and places. In 2024, the Episcopal Church affirmed that while we are centered around the “Book of Common Prayer,” it is perhaps more technically correct to say that we have a “Library” of Common Prayer, which includes texts developed more recently than the last BCP Revision in 1979. These texts include provision for more expansive language for God (He/Him are not God’s only pronouns!), contemporary liturgies for life passages, and adoption of new saints.
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We are grounded by Scripture, Tradition, and Reason
Sixteenth Century theologian Richard Hooker coined the handy expression “three legged stool” to describe the theological approach that grounds us. The three “legs” in his analogy are Scripture, Tradition, and Reason, each of which plays a critical part in maintaining the structure’s integrity. We place great importance on the Bible (the Scripture), which we regard as the Word of God that reveals to us the truth about God’s care for humanity throughout time and God’s gift to us of God’s son, Jesus Christ, crucified and risen. We also rely on church Tradition to connect all generations of believers and provide a starting point for applying the Word of God to our own lives, in particular in how we pray and worship. Additionally, we rely on Reason to help us understand the teachings of the Bible both within their original historical context and in the context of our lives today. At the time the Bible was written, for example, understandings of the role of gender and sexuality were very different from our own day.. We use Reason to determine how Scripture offers timeless absolutes, versus being understood as a product of its time that needs to be reevaluated in light of what God is doing in our own day. We also use our reason to examine how Scripture can help us with contemporary issues; climate change wasn’t an issue when Genesis was written, but God’s call to be stewards of the earth is a timeless charge.
What to Expect in Worship
Our worship is grounded in the ancient practices of the Christian faith as we receive them through the Episcopal tradition. St Andrew’s has a rich tradition of sacred music in a sacred space. If you’ve ever been to a Roman Catholic or Lutheran service, our service will feel familiar.
The service breaks into two parts
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The Liturgy of the Word
We begin our liturgy by praising God through song and prayer, followed by readings from the Bible. These readings usually include a passage from the Old Testament and an excerpt from the Epistles, and always include a reading from the Gospels. A psalm is recited by the people together.
Next, a sermon interpreting the appointed readings for the day is preached. At St Andrew’s, on the first Sunday of each month, the children of the congregation are invited for a conversation with the preacher instead of a traditional sermon. Their questions teach us all! The congregation then recites the Nicene Creed, a document which was written in the 4th Century and remains today the Church’s articulation of faith.
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Following the Nicene Creed, the congregation prays together – for the Church, the world, and for those in need. We pray for the sick, thank God for all the good things in our lives, and finally, we pray for the dead. The presider (e.g. priest) concludes with a prayer that gathers the petitions into a communal offering of intercession.
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In most seasons of the Church year (except for the fifty days of Easter), the congregation formally confesses their sins before God and one another. In the Episcopal Church you can do the sacrament of Reconciliation (sometimes called “Confession”) one-on-one with a priest, but it is never mandatory. The forgiveness we find together on Sunday mornings is sufficient. The Confession is a corporate statement of what we have done and what we have left undone, followed by a pronouncement of absolution by the presider: God is always ready to forgive our sins. The members of the congregation then greet one another in God’s name with a sign of peace.
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The Liturgy of the Table
Upon the conclusion of “The Peace,” the liturgy turns toward Holy Communion in the Liturgy of the Table. The prayer tells the story of our faith — from the beginning of Creation, to God’s call to return and the coming of Jesus Christ, and finally, the story of the Last Supper and sharing the words Jesus said to his friends before his death and his invitation through history to us: “do this in remembrance of me.”
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The presider blesses the bread and wine, and the congregation recites the Lord’s Prayer. Finally, the presider breaks the bread and offers it to the congregation, as the “gifts of God for the people of God.”
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The congregation then shares the consecrated bread and wine, which we gather around the altar to receive. Everyone is welcome to receive the sacrament at St Andrew’s, including young children.