Why we do what we do

If you have not been to a church service before, or not for a long time, you may find yourself watching what everyone else does and wondering whether you are getting it wrong.

You are not. Nothing here is a test, and none of it is required of you. Sit when you like, stay in your seat, join in or simply listen. What follows is an explanation of what we do and why, offered so that you can follow it if you would like to — not a list of instructions.

Before we begin

The church is open before the service, and you are welcome to come in quietly and sit for a while. Some people pray, some sit and look, some light a candle. If you would like to light one, please do — it is a way of holding someone before God without needing words for it.

You may hear a bell before the service begins. It is rung to call people to worship and to mark that something is starting. We do not ring bells during the service itself.

You will notice candles on the altar, and at certain seasons a tall one standing nearby. That is the paschal candle, lit at Easter and used through the year at baptisms and funerals — light carried from the resurrection into the beginnings and endings of our lives.

The Gathering

We begin with a procession. The clergy and servers come in from the back of the church and walk up to the sanctuary, and at the end of the service they go out the same way. It is not for show. It says that worship is something we come into together, and that we are sent back out again afterwards.

As we reach the chancel step we bow, and again at the altar before Communion and on our way out at the end. The bow is simply a way of saying, with the body rather than the mouth, that this is holy ground and we are glad to be on it. Some people also cross themselves, or genuflect — go down briefly on one knee — as they arrive or pass the altar. Others do neither. Both are entirely at home here.

The clergy are robed. Underneath is a cassock alb, a long white garment, with a stole over it — the coloured band around the neck, whose colour changes with the season of the church’s year. On feast days there is also a chasuble, the outer garment. The robes are deliberately impersonal: they cover the person, so that what you see is the office rather than the individual, and so that the service does not depend on who happens to be taking it.

Near the beginning we say a confession. This is where we are honest about how we have come — not as people who have it all worked out, but as people in need of mercy. It is not designed to leave you feeling small. It is the first step of a journey that the rest of the service completes.

Then comes the collect. The word simply means the prayer for the day: a short prayer that gathers up, or collects, the theme of that particular Sunday.

The Word

We hear readings from the Bible — usually one from the Old Testament, one from the letters of the New Testament, and one from the Gospels — with a psalm or a hymn between them.

We stand for the Gospel reading. Of everything in the service, this is the moment when standing carries the most meaning: we get to our feet because these are the words and deeds of Jesus himself, and we stand for them as we would stand for someone we honoured coming into the room.

We also stand for the hymns, for the creed, for the peace, and for the first part of the eucharistic prayer. We sit for the readings and the sermon, and kneel or sit to pray. If you cannot manage standing or kneeling, please stay comfortably as you are — nobody will think anything of it.

The sermon lasts about eight minutes. It is not a lecture and not a performance; it is an attempt to take what has just been read and ask what it means for the week ahead.

The prayers that follow are prayers of intercession: for the church, the world, our community, those who are ill or in trouble, and those who have died. If you would like someone prayed for by name, please do say — before or after the service, or at any time in the week.

The Sacrament

We share the peace, greeting one another before we come to the table. A handshake, a nod or a smile is all it needs.

Then the eucharistic prayer, at which bread and wine are taken, blessed, broken and shared. It is the same thing Jesus did with his friends the night before he died, and Christians have been doing it ever since.

When it is time, people come forward to the altar rail. You may kneel or stand, whichever is easier. We use a common cup — one bread and one cup, shared by everyone, because the sharing itself is part of what is meant. Gluten-free wafers are always available; you only need to ask.

If you would rather have a blessing than receive Communion, you are very welcome to. Bring the red service book up with you and hold it, and I will know — or simply tell me when you get there. Children, visitors and anyone who would prefer not to receive are all included in this, and nobody is looking.

At the end there is a blessing and a dismissal, and we go out — the same procession, in the other direction, back into the week.

And if you would rather just watch

That is completely fine. Come, sit at the back or at the front, stand when you like and stay seated when you would rather. There is no part of this you have to perform, and nobody is marking you.