Talk me through your religious service..

[WingedPig]

I'm Anglo Catholic, this is how we do it:

We have an entrance hymn while the choir, servers and deacons walk down the aisle.
We then do some call & response with the priest
We then confess our sins
Then we sing Kyrie/Christe Elesion
The Priest then speaks & we respond
We then sing Gloria in Excelsis Deo
We pray
Liturgy of the word -
Old Testament reading
Pslam
The Espistle
The Gospel (with incense, read in the centre of the aisle
The sermon
The Nicene creed
Intercessions
Liturgy of the sacraments -
The peace
Hymn
The Eucharist prayer (call & response, sung)
The Lord's Prayer (sung)
The breaking of the bread
Agnus Dei (sung)
The Communion
Hymn
Prayer
Final Hymn
Blessing
Dismissal

[WingedPig]

Anyone? I'm curious, doesn't have to be a Christian service!

[atthestrokeoftwelve]

Wow- how long does that last? So much going on.
I'm a witch, but most of my rituals and intentions take less than 15 minutes.

[stressedHEmum]

So, I'm Church of Scotland (Presbyterian) and our service typically follows this pattern

intimations (read by Session Clerk)
introit (couple of verses of a hymn sung by the choir)
call to worship
hymn
children's address
children's prayer and Lord's prayer
children's hymn, then the kids leave for Sunday School
prayer of adoration, thanksgiving, confession and supplication (essentially prayers for ourselves)
hymn
Reading (usually OT)
Reading (NT)
Hymn
prayer of intercession
hymn
sermon
offering
hymn
benediction and 3 fold Amen
sung blessing as the Word is taken out
leave
If the service lasts more than 1hr exactly folk begin to complain

When we have Communion (4 Sundays a year), there is no children's address, prayer or hymn, so it doesn't take any longer

Basically it's a hymn sandwich..

[plutarch14]

Same is you OP - am AC too

Takes about 1 hr 15, attthestroke

[BackforGood]

I'm Methodist.
Our services vary as we have different people taking them, not our own minister each week.
Generally take an hour.
In our church (but isn't the same in all methodist chuches) we haven't got a choir at the moment.
Everyone is seated, minister or local preacher comes in with a steward from the Church who welcomes everyone (including the preacher) and gives any notices that might be needed, then the first 20mins or so (while the children are still in) usually have 2 hymns, a 'children's address', some prayers and a bible reading - some preachers have the collection here, some have it later.
After about 20mins the dc go out and in the remaining 40mins we'll have another 3 hymns, another reading, the sermon and some time in prayer.

When we have communion (usually once a month) then the rest of the service is a bit more compact, and the communion litergy and takng of the bread and wine tends to be towards the end of the service.

Things may be different if it is a (Uniformed Orgs) Church parade or if there is a Christening, etc.

Very flexible, us.

[Jaynebxl]

I go to a mildly charismatic evangelical church these days. We start with one person up the front reading the next psalm in the book of psalms as a call to worship and maybe saying a sentence or two about it. Then we have a time of worship involving mostly singing but sometimes people go up the front and read something from the Bible or pray. This lasts about half an hour. Then we have a slot where sometimes we have intercession, sometimes communion, sometimes a focus on mission or something, and finally a sermon for about 25 to 30 min. At the end someone gives any notices and invites anyone who wants to to come and get someone to pray for them then we all go off and have coffee for an hour or so. That's it really.

[flagnogbagnog]

We have a strict one hour service, 15 mins of coffee/chat/fellowship. 15 mins of prayer/worship. Kids go out to Sunday school. 15 mins of discussion where we are split into small groups and have two questions to talk about. And then 15 minute sermon.

We have lovely nice leather sofas and tub chairs too.

[Isabeller]

I am a Quaker (Religious Society of Friends).

Meeting for Worship usually lasts an hour. It is difficult to describe... :)

.

.

At the start we gather together, there might be some flowers on the table.

We sit in silence

.

.

Someone might be moved to speak

.
...
.


We don't have any but at the end on the meeting we all shake hands

... **?......
!
?


!!!.......?*

and talk a lot!

[BackforGood]

I've never been to a Quaker meeting, but following that description, I'm very tempted to go along

[Aelfwyn]

Isabeller, love your pictograms, v appropriate for the silence too!

I converted from Episcopalianism to Catholicism just over a year ago. Our service is exactly like yours sounds, OP, except we never have incense in my parish church, only in the big cathedrals. In fact one thing that surprised me about Catholic worship is that it seems really 'low' church compared to a lot of Anglican churches! Our priest is determinedly post-Vatican II.

Forgive my ignorance, WingedPig, but I am genuinely not quite clear about what Anglo-Catholicism is. I think of it as very high-church Anglicanism (i.e. the Abp of Canterbury, not the Pope, is head of the church) rather than Anglicised Catholicism (which would mean believing in the Real Presence in the Eucharist). Is that correct?

[Isabeller]

[nickelbabe]

church of england here.

first hymn, choir process led by cross and two acolytes.
vicar follows.
welcome
introductory prayer thing (bidding prayer?)
confession
absolution
gloria (sung)
first reading
hymnn(choir moves into main body of church during this)
gospel (with sung intro and finish)
sermon
creed
prayers
peace (lots of shaking hands)
3rd hymn
eucharist - with syng setting for sanctus and benedictus
vicar and servers move to high altar for dishing out the bread and wine, choir sings agnus dei.
choir get communionnthen sing anthem/s
thankbyou prayer
final hymn - choir recess
dismissal
organ voluntary
tea coffee and biscuits.

[nickelbabe]

oh, we sing kyries instead of gloria during lent and advent

[nickelbabe]

aelfwyn you're right - it's "high church" anglican.

[Aelfwyn]

Hope some more people add to this thread eventually, as I'm interested too in how others worship. I grew up in SE Asia and witnessed Hindu processions of ash-covered penitents stuck with spikes (scary), got woken up by the call of the muezzin every morning, and was invited to Sikh, Muslim and Buddhist weddings. It was a very rich culture to grow up in.

My parents were Anglicans who became regular members of the Kirk (Presbyterian) once we moved back to Scotland. I was brought up as episcopalian (Scottish version of Anglicanism) but regularly attended the Kirk. At university I tried out other traditions: the baptists (v friendly but I came over all self-conscious), the wee frees (Free Kirk of Scotland - sober, reserved and felt to me too much like a business meeting rather than an act of worship), the Quakers (I longed to feel at home with them, but I missed the structure of the Anglican tradition). The one church I don't think I ever visited was the High Anglican one, which I knew irreverently as 'Smells and Bells'!

For a while I wasn't really anything, just a sort-of Anglican with lots of atheist friends, but I prayed like mad that God would send me a husband with a stronger faith than my own. So he sent me a Catholic. And after 14 years of regularly attending mass, arguing about theology and bringing our children up in the faith, I finally saw the light (!) and converted.

Our priest always says that there are many ways to God. You don't have to be RC, you don't even have to be Christian. (Which if you think about it is quite something for a Catholic priest to tell his flock.) In the end perhaps all of those who are searching, are searching for the same thing: we just come at it from different directions. Peace!

[Fugacity]

We have a welcome message followed by 2-3 songs. Then we have the confession and creed, another song, then the readings. Another song, the the sermon (25 minutes), another song, then intercessions. We end with a final song, offertory and blessing.

When we celebrated the Lord's Supper, we have the Peace after the intercessions, prayer of humble access, distribution, post communion prayer, followed by the final hymn and blessing.

This is evangelical Anglican.

[Fugacity]

Our services are 1h30.

[cheapskatemum]

I am a member of a charismatic Baptist church. We start with notices & sing to anyone who has a birthday in the coming week. We then sing 3, 4 or 5 worship songs/hymns. The collection is taken during the 2nd one. Then we usually pray - open prayer, but with a focus eg giving thanks, local needs, international concerns. 2 more worship songs. Once a month (1st Sunday) we have communion. Children go out to Sunday School. The sermon - around 20 mins. Sometimes a testimony, a final worship song. We all say the Grace to one another, then tea, coffee, juice, cake & biscuits, chat. Lasts about an hour & half, then go home
Jaynebxl - what's a mildly charismatic church? do you believe in some, not all of the spiritual gifts? Or do you feel it's a half-hearted belief in spiritual gifts? I'm genuinely interested, please forgive me if I've misunderstood your phrase.

[TeacupDrama]

evangelical baptist

opening hymn,
short prayer
another hymn or chorus
notices
short talk maybe on mothers day, missionary, last sunday it was about tearfund in Syria ( if there was a baptism or blessing or new baby it would be here)
another song
bible reading
song children go to sunday school
prayer
sermon
maybe hymn or another prayer
communion would follow once a month makes service 20 minutes longer)
benediction
tea and coffee ( about every 6 weeks church lunch something simple like hotdogs then coffee with biscuits or soup and desserts)

[wangle99]

This is very interesting, I hope more people post :)

I have recently joined a 'Fresh Expression' of the Church of England. It is held in a village hall and is very family friendly. It is 2 hours long (10-12). We start by having breakfast! Bacon sandwiches, pastries, tea and coffee. Just after 10am we start by singing and then there is a children's talk. We sing some more. The children then take part in a colouring competition (in the same room) whilst the adult's have their talk then more singing!

I am so glad I have found them :)

[specialsubject]

Orthodox Jewish Saturday morning service is about 3 hours.

unsurprisingly I am now an atheist!

[Ninehoursahead]

Anglican in Sydney, ours is pretty evangelical
Start with 2-3 songs, we have a music minister so quite "rocky"
G'day time, where we speak to someone around us who we don't know, kids go out to kids church/crèche during this
Notices
Prayers, followed by bible reading
Sermon for approx 30 mins
We have communion once a month at this point
1-2 more songs
Dinner in function room (we go to 5pm service, so this works for us!)


The 10am and 6.30 services are similar (6.30 doesn't have kids) but our 8am is pretty traditional and similar to the church I grew up in in England.