Worship
In worship we respond to the grace and peace which God gives to us.
Our main weekly services at St John's are Communion services. Another word used used for Communion is 'Eucharist' which means 'thanksgiving'.
One of the most beautiful of prayers is known as the General Thanksgiving and it includes these words:
We bless you for our creation, preservation,
and all the blessings of this life;
but above all for your inestimable love
in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ,
for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory.
The Christian journey in life is one of hope in which we trust that God's grace at work amongst us through the power of the Holy Spirit will bring into being God's purpose for all creation.
In the Communion service
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we hear and reflect on words of scripture which challenge us with the message of God's purpose of justice and peace
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and share bread and wine as Jesus bid his followers do.
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As we do so, we recognise what the Church has described through the centuries as 'means of grace': Ways in which we make close encounter with the presence of God - and Christians recognise the life, death and resurrection of Jesus as the supreme focus of that encounter: One which we can connect with and respond to in prayer and worship.
Within the Communion we also open our hearts to God's peace: Not just a gentle sense of calm - but the peace of forgiveness and reconciliation which we are challenged to bear out into the world in our daily lives.
The fulness of worship is then not just the time spent in private prayers, or in services in Church: It is in offering our lives for the service of all God's people as we pray at the end of the Communion service:
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.. we offer you our souls and bodies
to be a living sacrifice.
Send us out
in the power of your Spirit
to live and work
to your praise and glory