We’re celebrating 1 of our 2 Patronal Festivals this Sunday, the Feast of St. Peter and St. Paul! Our Call to Worship, Collect, Readings, Litany, Parish Prayer, Prayer over the Gifts, Eucharistic Prayer, Prayer after Communion, and Blessing all reflect this theme.
We’re greatly blessed to have a great many helping us in our celebration! Deacon Bob is officiating at Holy Nativity today, but through the gift of technology, we’re able to have him with us on video to read the Gospel, preach the Homily, and lead the Dismissal. Our Virtual Choir is leading us in all 3 congregational Hymns, and sharing with us an anthem during the Offertory. Two of these pieces haven’t been part of our Sunday worship since March 2020. Murray is on video giving our First Reading. Stacy is on tape leading us in the Prayers of the People. And at the end of the Service, there’s the second half of our “Interview” with Betty. (Betty will actually be in the Sanctuary for today's Service, and so we’re offering a special Blessing for her in advance of her Ordination to the Diaconate on June 29.)
It’s the fourth Sunday of the month, and so, it’s a Triple C Service (a “Christ-centred Creative Celebration”). Our Liturgy reflects this throughout. Our Psalm is from a translation of the Psalms by Robert Alter, and our First Reading and Gospel are from N. T. Wright’s Kingdom translation of the New Testament. Our Affirmation of Faith is one of our Hymns, and all four of our Hymns are contemporary. The bulk of our Eucharistic Prayer is adapted from the Anglican Resource Book Patterns for Worship.
Our Prayers acknowledge and respond to the pain in our world. The Litany for St. Peter and St. Paul lifts up all who are suffering, and asks for the grace to follow the Apostles’ example of love in action to transform the world. Our Prayers focus on 2 particular areas of suffering, with a “Remembering the Children Prayer” from this year’s National online Prayer Service marking the National Indigenous Day of Prayer; and a “Prayer in Response toCOVID-19” from the Lutheran Church in Chile. Our Prayers end, as they do at both of our Patronal Festivals, with our embracing and rededication ourselves to our vision and mission as a Parish by offering together our “St. Paul’s Parish Prayer”.
Our Service is a Holy Eucharist, and so we have the opportunity to receive the Lord in our hearts by faith with thanksgiving, as we partake of Communion, physically as well as spiritually, using Reserved Sacrament from the previous Sunday’s Service. This Reserved Sacrament is available for pick up just inside the main doors on Saturdays, from 2 to 2:45, and other times by appointment. The wafers are in individual paper cups, and placed in a sealed baggie, to ensure their safety.
When our Liturgy ends, the service begins: we go in peace to love and serve the Lord, rejoicing in the power of the Spirit, and by the power of the Spirit, bearing witness to Jesus and his way of justice, reconciliation, peace, and love to our broken world in all we say and do.
Today’s Service of Holy Eucharist will be livestreamed on our main Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/stpaulscalgary) at 9:30 am. Following the service, the video will be posted on our YouTube Channel, and a link to the service will be added here. To watch this service in full screen mode, please click on the “Watch on YouTube” button in the lower left-hand corner of the video.
Please download the Order of Service if you would like to follow along.
Permission to reprint, podcast, and/or stream the music in this service obtained from:
(a) ONE LICENSE with license # A-713985, and/or
(b) CCLI with Streaming License # 20351479.
All rights reserved.