Sunday 10.30 a.m. Parish Eucharist
Monday 6.30 p.m. Holy Communion
Introduction
The present pattern of worship at St. John's has evolved in response to the needs of both the present worshipping community and those who are beginning to explore the meaning of Christian discipleship.
The church benefits from a sound-reinforcement system which includes an audio loop to assist members of the congregation who use hearing aids.
The Blessed Sacrament is reserved as a focus of adoration and for the communion of the sick.
Parish Eucharist - Sundays at 10.30 a.m.
This sometimes includes Thanksgivings for Birth or Holy Baptism.
A number of slightly different orders of service are used depending on the occasion and the season of the Churches Year.
We already use the Revised Calendar and Lectionary and are preparing to use the Common Worship services when these are authorised from Advent 2000
On Pentecost Sunday (23 May 1999) we began to use a new musical setting for the Eucharist on some Sundays. This is basically that composed by Margaret Rizza and published by Kevin Mayhew Ltd as "Mass of the Bread of Life". However we found we needed further provision to that published and this has been accomplished by using additional arrangements by Jennie Hawes, a member of our congregation. Jennie has also recorded the entire score in General Midi format and it is these disks played on a Roland Rogers W50 which accompanies our worship.
Holy Communion, Monday 6.30 p.m.
Conclusion
For all sorts of personal reasons some people are unable to
attend church on Sunday mornings. Our service on Monday evening
provides them with an opportunity to receive Holy Communion. We
follow the ASB Rite A Order of Service but without any musical
accompaniment. The service lasts about 25 minutes.
Worship is central to the life of any Christian. It is when we
worship God that our relationship with Him approaches what He
intended. We begin to appreciate at a deep level our importance
in His eyes and our place in the scheme of things. To worship
properly we need to offer the whole of ourselves yet for many of
us this is difficult. We all need frameworks and patterns to help
us feel safe but free, to encourage our spirits to rise that we
may be aware of God's presence. Corporate Christian worship in a
church building aims to provide some of these aids to worship.
What makes life rather tricky for those planning worship is that
the very thing which one person finds helpful is for someone else
a real turn-off. Here at St. John's we recognise this situation
as a challenge to us to provide a varied pattern of opportunities
for worship and a chance to grow in love and understanding one
for another. We seek to incorporate into our worship not just
what we want but what we know others will find helpful. This very
act of self-denial is in itself a form of worship. We express our
love for God by helping others to experience what we enjoy.
Whatever your background in the Christian faith, whether catholic
or reformed, charismatic or strictly formal we at St John's would
hope that you could feel at home here with others who know and
love the same Lord Jesus.
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