Our worship is in the ‘inclusive/modern Catholic’ tradition of the Church of England. We have a diverse team of clergy and lay people who take part in our worship. We include and affirm everyone: from our clergy to our readers, anyone who feels called to take on a role in our worship is welcome to do so, regardless of race, gender, sexuality, age, or any other part of their God-given identity. Both male and female priests regularly celebrate Holy Communion. Our team of altar servers is drawn from the young people in our congregation.

Our worship is structured around the Church of England’s Common Worship Order 1. This is the most common order of service, and so our worship should be recognisable if you’ve come from another Church of England church. We wear robes, and use music, candles, bells, and incense to mark out our actions and words as sacred – different from our usual words and actions. 

We begin by singing a hymn. Hymns are songs directed to God, and often tell stories, or praise God for his goodness. There are several other points in our service where we sing hymns. Our hymns are a mixture of older and modern songs, accompanied by an organ and amateur choir.

Next, we remind ourselves that our first duty is to love God, and love our neighbour. We acknowledge when we have failed to do that; when we have sinned. We bring our guilt and shame before God, and are assured of God’s forgiveness. As the forgiven people of God, we then sing God’s praises in the words of the Gloria, an ancient hymn of praise used throughout the world.

We then hear readings from the Old and New Testaments, and from the Gospels. These readings contain stories, teachings, and instructions from the authors of the Bible, and we hear a sermon exploring how and why those words are useful in our lives today. Our sermons, lasting for around 10-12 minutes, also remind us of the love of God and are an opportunity for us to explore our faith more deeply.

We then recite the Creed, a series of statements about what we believe about God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. After reminding ourselves who God is and his power, we offer prayers of intercession to God. In these prayers, led from the front, we give thanks to God for his goodness towards us, and ask for God’s help in all places of suffering and sorrow, and for his help in our communities, families, and our own lives.

Then we come to the summit of our worship: Holy Communion. Also called the Eucharist – which means thanksgiving – we recall how on the night before Jesus died, he had supper with his friends. He took bread and wine, and gave it to his disciples saying ‘Take, eat and drink. This is my Body and my Blood, broken and shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins.’ We obey Jesus’ commandment to ‘Do this in remembrance’ of him. In the Eucharist, we offer bread and wine to God, and God uses these ordinary gifts to become really present with us. In the Eucharist, we join this moment with the moment Christ died on the Cross, the moment he burst from the tomb on the first Easter morning, and every moment throughout all of time, past, present, and future, when Holy Communion is celebrated.

Having been fed by Christ’s Body and Blood, we then go out into the world with God’s blessing. Strengthened by our act of worship, we go into the world to proclaim the love of Jesus for our world in everything we say and do, until we meet in church again.