In our worship, we gather to praise God,
to listen for God’s Word,
to experience Christ in community and in the sharing of bread and wine.

Our services are at once formal and relaxed, traditional and up to the minute. Ritual both expresses and shapes our experience of the Holy One.

It takes a while to get used to sitting, standing, and taking communion and to learn the responses and music but there is no wrong way to praise God, so please don’t feel embarrassed or afraid to ask the clergy and ushers questions.

We use the Book of Common Prayer and Enriching Our Worship which means that we worship using language with medieval and reformation roots and language which reclaims feminine images of God found in scripture and tradition. Everyone present participates fully in our services, lay people share leadership with the clergy, children are encouraged to worship with their parents and are welcome to receive the Holy Communion once they are baptized.

Sunday Worship

Holy Eucharist 7:30 a.m.
This is a quiet, meditative service of Holy Communion, with a sermon but no music. The congregation is small but friendly and welcomes worshippers to continental breakfast in the parish hall after the service.

Holy Eucharist 10 a.m.
This service has hymns and from September through May, additional music sung by the choir. The music is chosen to complement the themes of the readings of the day. The service bulletin has almost all the words you need to follow the service and usually some explanatory material, as well as announcements of coming events. Nursery care and Godly Play are available during this service

What is the Holy Eucharist?
Holy Eucharist is one name for the service that some people call Holy Communion, the Lord’s Supper or the Mass. The word “eucharist” means “thanksgiving” in Greek and in the words we use, we give thanks to God for all God’s gifts to us and for all that God has done for us in Jesus Christ our Savior.

Another word, derived from the Greek, is “Liturgy” we use it for the form of the service, but what it means is “the work of the people” – a definition of what public worship is meant to be. In the service we gather, hear and respond to God’s word, offer ourselves to God, share in Christ’s body and blood and go forth to love and serve God and God’s people in Christ’s name.

We begin the service with a gathering prayer of the day, called a “collect” and with a hymn of praise. We listen to a reading from the Old Testament, one from the New Testament letters, the Acts of the Apostles or the Book of Revelation and a reading from the Gospels. Responses to the readings include the sermon, recitation of a historic creed, and prayers.

The service continues with the offering, money, bread and wine symbolizing our offering of “our life and labor to the Lord”. In the Eucharistic prayer, we give thanks for God’s creation and redemption of the world through Jesus Christ and we use the words that the gospels say that Jesus used at the Last Supper with his friends. We believe that Christ is truly present when we gather and share a meal in Jesus’ name in this way.

Finally, since another purpose of worship is to strengthen and inspire us to live as followers of Jesus all week long, we pray that God will send us out “to love and serve the Lord,”

For more on worship in the Episcopal Church visit What to Expect at an Anglican Church and What to Expect When You Visit: Worship in the Episcopal Church

Prayer Links

Daily Prayer

• Oremus daily prayer and prayer resources on the Internet. www.oremus.org
• The Daily Office in English and Spanish - www.missionstclare.com
• The Lectionary, a collection of Lectionary resources for the Episcopal Church. Updated every Sunday night. www.satucket.com/lectionary

Meditations and reflections

• Sacred Space, daily prayer online, produced by the Irish Jesuits. www.jesuit.ie/prayer
• On a Journey, daily meditation on the lessons for the coming Sunday. www.onajourney.org
• Forward Day-by-Day, www.forwardmovement.org/todaysreading.cfm
• The Geranium Farm, down-to-earth support for living, by Barbara Cawthorne Crafton www.geraniumfarm.org/home.cfm
• James Kiefer's Christian Biographies elvis.rowan.edu/~kilroy/JEK/home.html

Prayers for Peace

• St. Mark's Prayers for Peace page
• An Invitation to Prayer, praying together for peace, justice and reconciliation. www.invitationtoprayer.org
• The Prayer of St. Francis and A Franciscan Blessing

Liturgical Resources[an amazing list of links to Episcopal/Anglican liturgical links] www.anglicansonline.org/resources/liturgical.html

"All members of the Episcopal Church [are] encouraged to develop a personal spiritual discipline that includes, at a minimum, the holy habits of tithing, daily personal prayer and study,
Sabbath time, and regular corporate worship."
(Resolution A135, 2003 General Convention)

Saint Mark's Episcopal Church
4714 Clifton Avenue
St. Louis, MO 63109