What to Expect

At St. Jude’s Anglican Church, we do worship by the book—the Holy Bible and the Book of Common Prayer. All Christians should be familiar with the Bible, but the Prayer Book might be unfamiliar. First produced in the 1500s during the Protestant Reformation in England, the Prayer Book has proven a bulwark of Christian devotion for generations of saints. It pulls from prayers, creeds, and other resources of the Christian tradition over the millennia, and it draws especially—and most importantly—on the inspired Word of God, including the entire Book of Psalms.

The language of the Prayer Book and our public Scripture readings might be described as “old-fashioned.” The Psalter is the Miles Coverdale translation of 1535, and the Scripture readings are the Authorized Version of 1611 (popularly known as the King James Version). Why do we still use these translations? For one, they are beautiful and fitting. If we come into the presence of the King of Kings, how ought we to talk? How do we address Him? With humility and honor, where the best of our language—English—is rendered up to Him in praise and forms the souls of His people. Even popular culture recognizes the dignity of “dearly beloved brethren,” “til death do us part,” and “ashes to ashes, dust to dust.” These memorable cadences and turns of phrase can mark our Christian pilgrimage from birth to death, nourishing us and building us up into a holy Temple.

For another thing, these older texts are often more honest about the gravity of our sinfulness, the abundance of God’s mercy as found in Christ, and elements of our Christian lives that can be neglected in contemporary mindsets. They give us the words to say when we don’t know what to say or how to say it.

We find that hymns are most fitting for our corporate worship. When we assemble together, we do not sing contemporary praise choruses. Instead, we sing hymns old and new, typically with organ or piano accompaniment. We also sing some of our prayers.

So, when you come to St. Jude’s, expect to be handling books: the prayer book, the hymnal, and the Bible. We rarely use projector screens, and never in our worship services. That might be a new experience for you. Don’t worry—it was also that way for many of us who are members here. But, in time, the rhythms become familiar, and the consistency of Prayer Book worship becomes a mainstay of our spiritual lives.