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ST. P HILIP ’S A G UIDED EUCHARIST Faith in the city Welcome! We are glad you have joined us today. This bulletin is a guide to our worship and the life of our parish. St. Philip’s Episcopal Church welcomes people of every race, nationality, gender, age, ability, sexual orientation, and economic circumstance to participate fully in the life of the church. WORSHIP SCHEDULE SUNDAYS 8:00 a.m. Said Holy Eucharist, Chapel 9:00 a.m. Holy Eucharist with Music, Parish Hall 11:00 a.m. Choral Eucharist, Church WEDNESDAYS 5:30 p.m. Said Holy Eucharist, Chapel Followed by dinner and adult formation offerings SAINT PHILIP’S FIRST WEDNESDAY 5:30 p.m. Eucharist with Healing, Chapel EPISCOPAL CHURCH THIS SUNDAY A G UIDED EUCHARIST ST. P HILIP ’S EPISCOPAL CHURCH 403 East Main Street Durham, NC 27701 919-682-5708 www.stphilipsdurham.org 1 1 Preparation of the vessels and vestments A priest vested for the Eucharist wears an alb, a cincture, a stole, and a chasuble. Each of these garments has its own history and its own symbolic signiLicance. Added together, a vested priest resembles a dressed-up gentleman of the late Roman Empire - the time and place where Christianity Lirst took institutional root. Alb : The alb is the white robe worn by clergy and lay ministers who serve at the altar. Its white color symbolizes purity. It was originally an undergarment, and true albs even today are made to be worn under other vestments. Here, we wear “cassock-albs”, which are heavier than true albs, and are often ornamented and made to be seen. Cincture : The cincture is the rope belt that goes around the waist over the alb. The cincture, like most of the vestments, has an obvious practical use, in this case as a belt. It has also come to be invested with symbolic signiLicance, representing the whip with which Jesus was Llogged, or the rope Jesus said would pull his followers where they were needed, or the virtues of chastity and self-restraint as seen in monastic garments. Stole : The stole is a mark of ofLice used by clergy on sacramental occasions. Deacons wear the stole diagonally, over the left shoulder; priests wear them either hanging straight, or crossed at the waist. Stoles come in the various liturgical colors—white, red, green, and purple. Stoles symbol- ize the yoke of Christ which is put on by the priest or other clergy person who is preparing to preside at a sacrament, and are a reminder that the true minister of every sacrament is the One we all serve. Like other vestments, the history of the stole is practical as well as symbolic: it traces its roots to scarves worn by clergy in cold northern climates. Chasuble : The liturgical poncho. Chasubles are worn only by priests and bishops, and are exclusively a sacramental vestment. The chasuble descends to us from ancient Rome; it was the overgar- ment, richly ornamented and worn for warmth as well as elegance. It is reminiscent of an up- scale Roman dinner party. As the early church struggled to Lind its place, as it learned to follow Saint Paul’s admonition to be in but not of the world, it doubtless seemed wise to adopt the ap- pearance of those who made the rules. Over time, the chasuble has come to have symbolic sig- nificance; it is often said to recall the seamless robe worn by Jesus at the time of his arrest and passion. Like stoles, chasubles generally follow the liturgical color scheme. In addition to vesting the liturgical leaders, we also prepare the altar for the Eucharist. The following items are set out in readiness: Chalice : The Chalice is the wine-cup. It is usually shaped like what we think of as a wine glass, with a stem and a round “foot”, but it need not be—Colonial chalices, for example, were sometimes shaped like tankards. While the chalice may be intricately worked and elaborately ornamented, as a sign of reverence for its contents at communion, its only essential function is to be a cup from which the consecrated wine may be drunk. Paten : The paten is a plate, used to hold consecrated bread when it is being distributed at communion. Hosts : We either use communion wafers, or “hosts”. These are made of wheat and water, and so are very small loaves of unleavened bread. They are convenient to use and do not leave crumbs (consecrated crumbs can be a problem); their drawback is that they do not seem like real bread. Sometimes, therefore, we use a real loaf of bread. Wine : Any kind of wine made from grapes may be used; we generally use port. Linens : Various linens are set out ready for communion; the one people are most likely to notice is the purificator, with which the chalice bearer wipes the lip of the chalice between communicants. The signiLicance of the puriLicator is hygienic, not particularly liturgical. The one on the altar is called the corporal, as it is meant to catch the crumbs of the consecrated bread—corporal comes from corpus, meaning ‘body’, in this case the Body of Christ. 2 A G UIDED EUCHARIST A Guided Eucharist Please observe silence so that all may have quiet time available for prayer and meditation in preparation for worship. The service is taken from The Book of Common Prayer (BCP), beginning on Page 355. Voluntary An organ voluntary (or prelude) is usually played Liturgy of the Word (or The Word of God) All who are able please stand as the procession enters. Processional Hymn Celebrant Blessed be God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. People And blessed be God’s kingdom, now and for ever. Amen. TTTHEHEHE CCCOLLECT FORFORFOR PPPURITY was long ago one of the prayers said privately by the priest. But it is appropri- ately used by the whole congregation as a way of asking God’s grace in preparation for worship, and so since 1549 it has been said aloud as a collect. A “collect” is simply a prayer said by the celebrant to “collect” the thoughts and prayers of all; at the end of or a collect, all present join in the “Amen” to make the prayer their own. The Celebrant continues Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hid: Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you, and worthily magnify your holy Name; through Christ our Lord. People Amen. The Gloria in Excelsis (on page 4) is a song of joyful praise, which has been sung by Christians for at least the last 1700 years. 3 Gloria in excelsis Glory to God 4 The CCCOLLECT OFOFOF THETHETHE DDDAYAYAY is a prayer specific to the day. Sometimes the collect picks up on a theme from the appointed readings; other times it is geared to events being commemorated in the liturgical calendar. There are other times when the collect raises a theme for the day that is not picked up elsewhere in the service, unless perhaps in the sermon. The Collect of the Day Celebrant The Lord be with you. People And also with you. Celebrant Let us pray. Almighty God, by the hand of Moses your servant you led your people out of slavery, and made them free at last: Grant that your Church, following the example of your prophet Martin Luther King, may resist oppression in the name of your love, and may secure for all your children the blessed liberty of the Gospel of Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. LLLESSONS are readings from the Bible. In the Episcopal Church, as in many other churches, we follow a “lectionary,” a list of readings (in a three-year cycle) that ensures that over time, we read broadly in the scriptures. Using a lectionary helps keeps us honest: God’s Word does not come to us only in our favorite parts! It also helps keep the priest or other liturgical planner from succumbing to the temp- tation to choose readings only from the passages that her or she happens to like. At a celebration of the Eucharist, there is always a reading from one of the Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John, who tell the story of Jesus; life, death, and resurrection. Prior to that, we often have a reading or psalm from the Old Testament, which tells the story of God’s relationship with his chosen people Israel, our spiritual ancestors, and another reading from the New Testament other than the Gospels. This other New Testament reading is usually from one of the letters attributed to Paul, the apostle who more than any other helped to found the early church, or it may be from a non-Pauline letter, the Book of Acts, or the Book of Revelation. The First Reading Exodus 3:7-12 A reading from the book of Exodus The Lord said to Moses, “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them.

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