Summer Worship

It is our tradition to hold our summer worship services in our beautiful chapel. This year is no different. Our first service in the chapel will be June 23. Our worship in the chapel each summer gives us a chance to be closer together, to be bathed in summer sunlight, and to allow our voices to be amplified by the stunning concave ceilings. This year our worship will retain the basic form and shape we know and love. The choir will sing for us on the two Sundays in June before they take a break for July and August.

One new worship element that we are introducing this summer is the passing of the peace. In my sermon from a few weeks back, I said:

Many liturgical churches include a passing of the peace in their services. It is a moment when worshippers are encouraged to turn and face one another and offer words of welcome- specifically these words of welcome- “Peace be with you” and the response is often and “also with you.” 

This practice takes people who have been sitting in immovable pews, whose eyes have been fixed forward on worship leaders and it invites them into actions of participation: standing, turning, moving, extending a hand, directing a gaze. The passing of the peace proclaims that the interesting parts of worship don’t just happen up front- they happen among the people. The congregation becomes worship leaders as Jesus' words of greeting and welcome are proclaimed.

These words do what they did for Jesus- they create a space free of fear and threats and open to the possibility of relationships of trust.

The passing of the peace may be new to some of us (and, of course, new can be scary). My hope is that as we take this step toward one another in worship we will discover that it draws us together in important ways.

Our primary lectionary texts this summer will be from the Gospel of Mark and the epistles of Ephesians and James. In the background will be our understanding of faithful civic engagement. As our recent guest preacher, Dr. David Gushee shared, we seek faithful and biblical ways to be both political and hopeful. If we needed to put a theme to it, we might say along with James in his epistle, “Be doers of the word.” We will remind ourselves that it’s not enough to be right… we must be loving. It’s not enough to have the answers… we must engage with others. It’s not enough to be hearers of the word… we must be doers of the word!

Our summer worship format will take us through August- our first Sunday back in the sanctuary will be Sunday, September 1.

As always, please share your thoughts and your experience of worship. Your staff works hard to create a meaningful service, but we need feedback as we continue to plan.

As I say each Sunday, “Welcome to worship!”