Worship:
Q: Why worship God on Sunday morning?
A: It's good practice for worshipping God the rest
of the week... and good practice in joining in religious community.
At Epiphany Community Church, worship begins with music
and a warm welcome. A hymn, a time of prayer, and a children's homily follow.
Each week, we hear readings from Scripture and from other sources of wisdom, and a sermon
is preached. Music, silence, and words all play a part in our worship of God--just as they
all play a part in meaningful life outside formal worship.
During the year, we have a number of special services:
our Ingathering Service on the Sunday after Labor Day, when members bring back water from
the places they visited over the summer, or just from their kitchen sink. The water that
is given and blessed that day becomes the water used for baptisms throughout the year.
We are always glad to usher in the Christmas season. Our
minister offers a workshop called "Unplug the Christmas Machine" to aid those
who want to restore the spirit of the holiday in an age of commercialism. We gather for a
Christmas Eve service, but also look forward to Epiphany in early January. After all, this
is the holiday which gives us our name. We tell the story of the three wise men visiting
the baby Jesus, and consider the ways the Holy is discovered and recognized today.
We celebrate communion on holidays throughout the
year: on World Communion Sunday in October, at the beginning of Advent in November, on
Epiphany Sunday in January, at the beginning of Lent, on Easter Sunday, and on Pentecost
in May.
After the worship service, we gather for coffee,
juice, and snacks. At Coffee Hour, we get to know one another and greet newcomers to the
service that day.
