The Service itself.

In this service you will see some parts marked "President" .This name is given to the presiding priest.

1. The Greeting.

The president greets the people, "The Lord be with you".
Everyone says: "and also with you."

So, quite simply we ask God to be with all of us throughout the service.

Often the first hymn or song comes now.

2. This is followed by the "Prayer of Preparation" which is saying that God knows everything about us, and we ask the Holy Spirit to inspire us.

3. We need to be right with God in order to continue worshipping Him, because He is holy and our sin separates us from Him. So next we have "The Prayer of Penitence". Here we apologise for our failings, by saying we are sincerely sorry and truly intend to try to do better in the future, with God's help. The 'President' asks for God's forgiveness for us all.

4. Now comes the "Gloria in Excelsis", said or sung, which are the words the angels sang when telling the shepherds of Jesus's birth (Luke Ch.2 vs14).

5. Next we "collect" our thoughts in the prayer for the day, "The Collect", and this is followed by

6. the first reading from the Scriptures.

Most churches have 2 out of a possible 3 readings from the Bible. The first may be from the Old Testament, or from one of the Epistles. It is usually followed by a hymn or song, and then all remain standing for the reading from the Gospel. We stand in honour of Jesus, about whom we will hear in this Gospel reading.

7. Then comes the sermon, given by the vicar or someone trained in teaching and preaching, which explains some aspect of our faith.

8. Now 'the Creed' (from the Latin word 'credo', which means 'I believe'.) Everyone declares their faith in the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit and the church. The Creed reminds us of the fundamental aspects of our faith.

9. 'Intercessions' come next. They are prayers for others. The priest can arrange for people from the congregation to lead these prayers, and they will usually have spent some time preparing them.

This is the end of the first section of the service, which is based on the original Jewish synagogue service that the earliest Christians attended.

The final part of this posting will explain what happens at the Communion itself. Watch this space!