Worship

Each Sunday we come together as Emmanuel United Church of Christ to worship our inclusive and all-loving God through music, prayer, scripture readings, and a thoughtful and transformative reflection from our pastor or guest proclaimer. 

Perhaps the best way to describe our services is to say we employ “warm ritual.” We generally follow the liturgical calendar and lectionary, which means we join with Christians of different denominations all around our world in what scriptures we read and speak on and in celebration of significant events in the life of Jesus. Most often our services begin with music and a call to worship and include congregational singing of hymns from a provided hymnal, a time of confession and reconciliation, greeting each other with a word of peace, readings from the Bible, thanksgiving and the dedication of gifts we bring, choral anthems and instrumental and vocal solos, and on the first Sunday of each month, the celebration of communion, also known as the Lord’s Supper. Alongside the more traditional elements of our worship services though, you’ll find our creative and sometimes “messy” human selves, coming together in community to support each other and to worship a loving God, meeting each other wherever in life we might find ourselves.

We welcome everyone in worship services, and all are invited to participate through readings, hymns, careful consideration of the messages offered, and at the table for communion. Readers and lay-leaders participate each Sunday alongside musicians from our congregation. Children and infants worship alongside us in the service each week, and many children lead in worship in various roles as well.