WORSHIP
Worshiping
On Sundays we celebrate Holy Eucharist at 10:30. We live-stream to our Facebook page, St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Ewing, and we post to our YouTube channel in 24- 48 hours.
Holy Eucharist (also called Holy Communion or the Lord's Supper)
Holy Eucharist, the sacrament of Christ's body and blood, is the principal act of Christian worship. "Eucharist" comes from the Greek word for "thanksgiving." At the Last Supper when Jesus shared the bread and cup of wine with his disciples, he identified the bread with his body and the wine with his blood of the new covenant and commanded his disciples to “do this” in remembrance of him. Christ's sacrifice is made present by the Eucharist, and in it we are united to his one self-offering. Christ's body and blood are present in the sacrament and received by faith. Christ's presence is also known in the gathered eucharistic community.
Our service of Holy Eucharist begins with the Word of God, including lessons from the Old and New Testaments, the Nicene Creed, prayers, confession of sin and absolution, and the exchange of the peace. The second portion of the service is the Holy Communion. It includes the offertory, the consecration of the bread and wine in the Great Thanksgiving, the communion of the people, and the concluding prayers of thanksgiving, blessing and dismissal.
Preparing for Sunday - the Lessons
We use the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL). A lectionary is a set of readings assigned for each Sunday of the church year. The RCL is used by many denominations of Christians throughout the world, which means that you will hear the same lessons regardless of which church you attend in the Episcopal, Anglican, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, Reformed and Orthodox traditions. The RCL uses the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) of the Bible.
The lectionary is designed so that a lesson from the Old Testament and New Testament, including the Psalms and the Gospels, are read each week. Over the course of three years, we hear much of the Bible read during our Sunday services.
The Order of Service
Our worship follows the Book of Common Prayer and supplemental materials authorized by the General Convention of the Episcopal Church, such as Enriching our Worship, the Book of Occasional Services, and additional authorized hymnals.
A link to the weekly bulletin can be found on our Home page.