Welcome FIRST TIME VISITOR

First and most important: You will be welcomed with open arms. We extend a cordial welcome to you to worship with us, and we offer this document as a brief introduction to Saint Stephen Anglican Church and our way of worship and practice. There is no wrong way to worship.

As you enter, you will notice an atmosphere of worship and reverence. Anglican churches are built in many architectural styles; but whether the church be small or large, elaborate or plain, your eye is carried to the altar, or holy table, and to the cross. Our thoughts are taken at once to Christ and to God whose house the church is. On and near the altar there are candles to remind us that Christ is the Light of the World. Sometimes there are flowers, to beautify God's house and to recall the resurrection of Jesus. On the left side at the front of the church, there will be a pulpit for the proclamation of the Word. It is from here that the Scriptures are read and the sermon is preached. 

Anglican church services are congregational. On the entry table, you will find a Liturgy Booklet with the liturgy for the day. Please take one to guide you in our worship. This enables the congregation to share fully in every service. The congregational responses with be in bold italics. You may wonder when to stand or kneel. Practices vary even among individual Anglican churches. The general practice is to stand to sing. Hymns and other songs (many of them from the Holy Bible) called canticles or chants are printed as part of the service. We stand also to recite our affirmation of faith, the Creed; and for the reading of the Gospel in the Holy Eucharist. Psalms are sung or said sitting or standing. We sit during readings from the Old Testament or New Testament Letters, the sermon, and the choir anthems. We stand or kneel for prayer to show our gratefulness to God for accepting us as children or as an act of humility before God. While these are suggested norms, the best way is simply to do what everyone around you does. 

The principal service is the Holy Eucharist (Holy Communion). While some parts of the services are always the same, others change weekly or seasonally. At the Holy Eucharist, three Bible selections are read, plus a Psalm is either read responsively or sung. These change each Sunday. Certain of the prayers also change, in order to fit the season and the specific theme of the day. You will find the services of the Anglican Church beautiful in their ordered dignity, God-centered, and yet mindful of the nature and needs of human beings. 

It is the custom upon entering church to kneel in one's pew for a prayer of personal preparation for worship. In many churches it is also the custom to bow to the altar on entering and leaving the church as an act of reverence for Christ. Many Anglicans do not talk in church before a service but use this time for personal meditation and devotions. At the end of the service some persons kneel for a private prayer before leaving. Others retire to the Fellowship Hall to visit.

To signify their special ministries and to add to the beauty and festivity of the services, the clergy and other ministers customarily wear vestments. Acolyte (altar server) vestments usually consist of an under-gown called a cassock (usually black) and a white, gathered over-gown called a surplice. Some clergy may also wear cassock and surplice. Another familiar vestment is the alb, a white tunic with sleeves that covers the body from neck to ankles. Over it, ordained ministers wear a stole, a narrow band of colored fabric. Deacons wear the stole over one shoulder, priests and bishops over both shoulders. At the Holy Eucharist, the celebrating bishop or priest wears a chasuble (an oval garment that envelopes the body) over the alb and stole. Bishops sometimes wear a special head covering called a miter. Stoles, chasubles, and dalmatics, as well as altar coverings, are usually made of rich fabrics. Their color changes with the seasons and holy days of the Church Year. The most frequently used colors are white for Christmas and Easter, red for Pentecost and remembrance of martyrs, violet for Lent, blue for Advent, and green for Ordinal Time (sometimes called ordinary time or seasons after Epiphany and Pentecost).

 When you visit Saint Stephen Anglican Church, you will be our respected and welcome guest. You will never be singled out in any embarrassing way, nor asked to stand before the congregation, nor to come forward. You will worship God with us. Should you wish to know more about Saint Stephen Anglican Church or the Anglican tradition, the pastoral team (or any member) will gladly answer your questions and suggest ways to find the answers you desire or a path to membership if you are so inclined.