Prayer & Worship at Emmanuel

At Emmanuel prayer and worship is at the heart of all that we do. We have an inclusive vision of God’s generous love, which reaches out to everyone, celebrating the great diversity of human life in all its many expressions and ways of being. All human life is created by God and infinitely loved by him. It is our duty and joy to render thanks to God our creator, redeemer and sanctifier.

Each day Morning and Evening Prayer is said in Church when through Psalms and Scripture we place ourselves in the broader horizons of God’s love for the world and his relationship beloved people sustained over many centuries as we connect with our forebears in faith.

Not only on Sundays, but throughout the week also, we meet together to celebrate the EUCHARIST, the principal act of worship, which Christians have been celebrating since earliest times. The word ‘Eucharist’ means quite literally ‘thanksgiving’ and in it we encounter the living Christ both in the scriptures and in bread and wine at the altar, standing as near to the great and wonderful events of our salvation as those who first witnessed them two thousand years ago.

In the Eucharist you will see colour in the Church hangings and in the robes worn by the clergy.
GOLD, the festal colour of celebration, at Christmas and Easter, PURPLE, the colour of preparation in Advent and Lent, and
RED, the colour of the coming of Spirit at Pentecost and on Good Friday when we recall the passion and death of Christ. Red may also be worn for the Kingdom season from All Saints Day until Advent. For the long part of the year known as Ordinary Time from Trinity Sunday to All Saints Day and from Epiphany to Lent you will see
GREEN, the colour of creation and nature, symbolising the sustaining love of God in every part of our lives.

In the Eucharist you will see CANDLES and LIGHT, celebrating Jesus Christ who taught us that he came among us as the light of the world and at the Sung Eucharist on Sunday mornings you will see and smell INCENSE, symbolising the setting apart of people and things as special to God and of our prayers rising to God.

The Eucharist is indeed a celebration both of all that God has done for the world in Jesus Christ and also how we continue to experience his love through the power of the Holy Spirit. But the Eucharist commits us to more and to a radical way of life. Eucharistic people are called to live Eucharistic lives of thanksgiving and love in the world. For this reason in the final prayer of the Eucharist before we are blessed and sent out into the world we say together:

Father of all, we give you thanks and praise,
that when we were still far off
you met us in your Son and brought us home.
Dying and living, he declared your love,
gave us grace, and opened the gate of glory.
May we who share Christ's body live his risen life;
we who drink his cup bring life to others;
we whom the Spirit lights give light to the world.
Keep us firm in the hope you have set before us,
so we and all your children shall be free,
and the whole earth live to praise your name;
through Christ our Lord. Amen.