The printed Order of Service that ushers hand out to those attending worship each week is more than just a playbill describing what will happen over the course of the service. It is a theological document, describing the journey that the worship service will invite those who are present to take together that day. It reflects our understanding of what is important in worship and what we hope to achieve through worship.

In following a certain format, the order of service describes our “liturgy,” literally the “work of the people” that our congregation endeavors to support and engage in. It follows a rhythm and invites experiences to encourage certain habits of mind and heart that we hope will support them in this community and in their lives outside of it and to help them serve the values that we honor and promote.

Our Sunday Morning Liturgy

GATHERING

The service begins with us gathering together as one community, arriving from many different places in this community to join as one people with a common purpose.

Call to Worship

The chime serves as notice that the service is beginning and invites participants to end their conversations or private reveries and join as a community.

Welcome

This led by the Minister or, if a guest is speaking, by the Worship Associate. The leader introduces him/herself and the church in a few words, invites participation in the coffee hour afterward and the larger life of the church with reference to the announcements, highlighting important events in the coming week, and briefly shares pastoral concerns brought to him or her by pastoral visitors.

Prelude

Music invites us into a different space, to let go of whatever may have been preoccupying us and focus our minds and hearts on being present.

SHAPING OUR COMMUNITY

Having gathered as a community, we now begin the work of shaping that community. This is the portion of the service where people are welcomed, important news of the community is communicated and rituals of celebration and affirmation, such as child dedication, the dedication of teachers, pastoral visitors, and others, the lighting of candles for births and deaths, are performed.

Opening Words & Chalice Lighting

The symbol of our community is lighted accompanied by spoken words that focus our intention on our hopes and intentions as a community.

Opening Hymn

The first hymn typically is inviting, rousing and either well-known to the congregation or taught.

Affirmation or Ceremony or Story

For a faith tradition that often makes much of that which it denies, this is an important moment to name that which we as a community affirm. The affirmation is written or organized in responsive format, trading spoken parts between the worship leader and the congregation. The affirmation may be composed or compiled from other resources. If the words are gathered from another source, the source should be listed.

This is also the place in the service where ceremonies are performed and stories are told, when there is an intergenerational beginning. When there is a ceremony or story in the service, the affirmation is omitted. When a story is told for an Intergenerational Beginning the worship leader invites the congregation to sing the children to their classes with the song “As You Go,” which should be printed in the order of service.

REFLECTING

Having gathered and shaped our community, we begin the work at the heart of our faith: the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. We frame this as “Reflecting,” offering different ways of encountering the world and the many sources of wisdom that it offers.

Musical Reflection

This music offers a bridge from the SHAPING portion of the service to REFLECTING. It invites the congregation to prepare themselves to receive and reflect.

Spoken & Silent Meditation

Both spoken and silent meditations invite the congregation to open their hearts and minds and put themselves in touch with their own deep source of knowing. The silence should be long enough to enable those present to quiet themselves, usually 1 to 2 minutes.

Hymn

This following hymn serves as a response to that moment of personal reflection and usually has a meditative feeling to it.

Reading(s)

This reading can be a text that the following sermon is centered on, or it could be an evocative comment on the theme of the service. It offers a different voice from that of the worship leader and is often read by the Worship Associate or a member of the congregation invited to participate.

Anthem

The central music piece of the service, sung by the choir or presented by guest musicians.

Sermon

Our tradition points to the sermon as the central moment of the service. It represents the worship leader’s best efforts to name the truth as he or she perceives it, words that, as Ralph Waldo Emerson put it, give us “life passed through the fire of thought.” Typically it is 15 to 20 minutes in length.

Offertory

The Offertory is the piece of music that is played while the Offering is received. The offering is introduced by the worship leader or worship associate and those present for worship are invited to light candles of joy or concern from the chalice flame.

GOING FORTH TOGETHER

After concluding our reflecting, we prepare to end the service, reminding ourselves of the hope and values that inform and underlie our community.

Hymn

The closing hymn should affirm the values that the service has held up and works best when it is familiar or easily learned.

Closing Words

A few brief words to remind the congregation of the work before them.

Closing Song

Those present are invited to join hands in singing this song composed for our congregation.

Postlude

The congregation remains seated for this closing piece of music, which usually includes a rousing finish. Afterward the worship leader and Worship Associate greet the members of congregation in the foyer as they leave.