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Holy Trinity Anglican Church
5333 N. Tamiami Trail
Sarasota, FL 34234
(941) 355-7510
5333 N Tamiami Trail, Sarasota, FL 34234
(941) 355-7510
Anglican Province
of America
Our Anglican Worship
Traditional, Mystical, Biblical
What should be our #1 question as we approach Christian worship?
Option (1) -- How am I most comfortable worshiping God?
Option (2) -- How does God Himself desire us to worship Him?
Put this way, the answer may seem rather obvious. But why is it, then, that when most Christians seek a
church, they base their decision on what atmosphere makes them most comfortable or what worship style
they find most appealing? Sadly, our entertainement-based and market-driven culture has evidently
affected our attitude toward worship, too. Perhaps unwittingly, it has become almost second nature for us
to favor what makes us feel good and what product sells itself best. We know very well that retailers,
television, and Hollywood work this way, but a quick glance at the most successful churches in America
reveal that “progressive Christianity” differs little in its overall approach. So many churches (large and
small) have just become businesses promoting a package with the broadest appeal. But does God really
intend for us to keept reinventing worship based on public acceptability? Is it for our pleasure or His?
As Anglicans, we believe that the latter is the answer. We don’t believe that worship (and religious
expression in general) should be judged by charm or convenience. Instead, we believe that worship
should always be done reverently, in a spirit of prayer, and with our focus on God’s glory and not our
own need for emotional gratification. Not that we don’t matter, mind you! But if our attention is given to
God, then He will supply our human necessities as well. Christians have found this to be true for the last
2000 years, so we show our agreement by worshiping in the “old-time” way.
TRADITIONAL
This means #1 that our worship is traditional. Traditional is NOT a style. We are not simply selecting a
time-honored form over the latest trend. Rather, we are remaining faithful to a spiritual inheritance that
has been passed down and refined by the Church since the days of the Apostles. Can you imagine how
incredible it might be to do something that your ancestors have done for thousands of years? Well, as
Anglicans, we believe in our worship that we do just that: as Christians have done from the earliest days.
This not only connects us with the faithful of old, it gives us a sure foundation; we can trust what God has
always accepted and blessed, not scramble to figure it out on our own.
In our Anglican worship, we think that a great guide to keeping the past and the present in continuity is
the Book of Common Prayer. The Prayer Book takes the best of our tradition and unites Christians to
pray together. When we pray as one Body of Christ in these “common prayers” our worship takes a
consistently structured form we call “liturgy.” Liturgy means “the people’s work,” so the liturgy is the
Church’s labor for God’s praise and adoration. In the Liturgy, no one is there for himself. We all rely on
one another to make it work. Nor is anyone there just to listen to a dynamic speaker or be wowed by
technology. No, we are all active participants to use everything that God is redeeming: mind, body, and
spirit. Liturgy takes practice! It requires us to think, memorize, and use our bodies in appropriate ways at
the right time: standing, kneeling, bowing, even crossing oneself. We are temples of God and involving the
whole person helps to sanctify us into fitting dwelling places for the Holy Spirit!
Throughout the year, our liturgy is guided by something called the Kalendar. Since the early centuries,
it has developed over time to contain special seasons and feasts to teach the Church the great doctrines
about God and redemption and stories of the saints who have truly lived out that redeeming work,
exemplifying what it really means to be a child of God. Through different themes, colors, and customs,
we as Anglicans are guided in our study of Scripture and taught what prayers and devotions are most
fitting as we seek to re-experience the First Coming of Christ among us and to prepare us to receive Him
at His Second. Do you struggle in your relationship with Christ? We all do. Throughout the Kalendar
Year we learn how to be penitent and how to be joyful, how to fast and how to feast so we can appreciate
the breadth of our communion with God. The major seasons of the Year include: Advent, Christmas,
Epiphany, Lent, Passiontide, Easter, Pentecost, Ascension, and Trinity.
The center of traditional Christian worship is the Holy Eucharist (aka the Holy Communion, the Mass,
the Divine Liturgy, and the Lord’s Supper). Eucharist means “praise” or “thanksgiving,” so it is the primary
way for us to celebrate God and thank Him for what He has done for us, especially in Jesus Christ. The
Eucharist is specifically commanded in the New Testament, both by Christ at the Last Supper (Matthew 26,
Mark 14, Luke 22) and by St. Paul (I Corinthians 11). It is also the fulfillment of the sacrifices of the Old
Testament. When Jesus offered Himself once-for-all on the Cross, He became our one and only
sacrificial Lamb. In the Eucharist, the worship that we offer at the altar joins us with Christ’s redeeming
work at Calvary; we don’t resacrifice Christ, but make the Cross a saving reality in our present.
When we receive Holy Communion, as Anglicans we believe that we are actually receiving Christ into
ourselves, just as He told us we must (John 6). Without Jesus, we can have no hope of eternal life, so
this is the way He transmits His own immortality into us. We confess the “Real Presence” of Christ in
the Eucharist, meaning that when the priest prays over the bread and wine, they are transformed by
the Holy Spirit into the Precious Body and Blood of Jesus. As the Church has believed since ancient
times, we think this is the most natural understanding of Christ’s own explanation to His Disciples:
“this is My Body” and “this is my Blood.” Therefore, if it is your wish to receive Holy Communion in an
Anglican church, we ask that you carefully pray and decide if the Real Presence is your belief about
Communion before coming to the rail. Whether you believe it or not, it’s still true!
Mystical
Mystical? Modern people, even Christians, are skeptical of “mystical” because it sounds like “magical”
and seems too preoccupied with the supernatural. We tend to just believe in what our senses tell us.
Could this be why so much Christian worship is presented in forms familiar to our experience out in
society? But worship should not be concerned with making peace with this world but preparing us for
the world to come; it’s not about offering “sacred entertainment” but opening the transcendent. This is
what we mean by mystical. Worship should bring us into a different reality. If we reflect on the Gospels,
isn’t this why Christ came? Isn’t this what He preached? Jesus taught us about the Kingdom of Heaven:
who we must become and how we must speak and act to live in it. The Kingdom of Heaven is where
God rules and all His citizens love Him and mirror Him in their lives. It’s a state of wonder, light, and
perfection. That’s what worship is all about. When we enter a church, see how it’s built and adorned, and
witness how people act and pray, we should feel like we’ve left this world and gone to heaven. That’s why
since the beginning Christians have believed, taught, and conveyed through liturgy and sacred art that
the Holy Eucharist should be heaven on earth.
The liturgy is about Christ, so our worship should connect us to what Christ is doing now. But what?
The book of Hebrews tells us that even now Christ is mediating for us in heaven as our great High Priest.
He prays for us and offers to His Heavenly Father the evidence of His Sacrifice in His wounds. However,
since we cannot perceive this with our senses, eyes of faith help us to see how worship reveals Christ
in the work of the priest and the prayers and hymns of the liturgy. Although we have not joined the saints
in heaven, the Mass should make us feel like we’re already there in their presence. Amazing, isn’t it?
Worship should be like our home away from home! This is why instead of praise bands, big screens, and
microphones, you will find priests wearing fancy garments, an organ, and maybe even incense and sacred
images. All these things reflects the majesty of God and the beauty of what surrounds His glory. Unlike
so many churches today, what we see, hear, and smell isn’t there to amuse us but to translate us into
the Kingdom where God reigns. Even pictures and statues you may see are not idols to be worshiped but
reminders of the sacred space worship helps us enter. The angels and faithful departed worship with
us and can’t wait for us to join them! We hope you find the Mass an uplifting experience that brings you
nearer to a life that God calls normal and good.
Finally, ususally in conjunction with the liturgy, the Sacraments help bring near the power and presence
of Christ. Although He is in heaven, through His ministers He continues to bring healing and salvation for
us on earth. Why do the Sacraments have power? Because, when you consider it, Jesus is Himself the
chief Sacrament! When the Son of God took on flesh, He became the visible evidence of God’s dwelling
with men and His saving grace. As St. Paul comments, Jesus is, “the image of the invisible God”
(Colossians 1:15). This is how the Sacraments work. They are also tangible signs of God’s working--
“means of grace”--that through the priests have power to defeat the old nature and bring about a new
creation in the life of a Christian. We believe that personal faith cooperates with this grace to realize
the Sacraments in their full effect. Anglicans recognize all Seven Sacraments honored since ancient
times: Baptism, Confirmation, Holy Eucharist, Penance, Marriage, Holy Orders, and Unction (Healing).
Biblical
As with everything else, our Christian worship would be lost without the Bible. In liturgy, too, we remain
“the people of the Book.” What does this mean? That in all aspects of worship, we remain informed
by Holy Scripture. Why settle for slavery to the pragmatic attempt to cater to people’s shifting appetites
when the Bible teaches us how to worship suitably? God directly taught the Israelites through Moses
how He desired to be worshiped, and He has similarly taught the Church through the guidance of the
Holy Spirit. Over the centuries, Christians have learned from His illumination how to read the Bible and
apply it in the liturgy. Very often, you will find that the rite and ritual is able to convey truth even more
powerfully than the written Word can.
Being Bible-based in our worship means two things. First, it means that we actually use Scriptural texts
to compose the rites themselves. As you hear one of our liturgies, you will notice that much of it contains
either direct Biblical quotes or summations that convey the sense of one or more passages from the
Scripture. Why take time for such precision? Because going to this effort, it makes the liturgy God’s
words and not our own. All the liturgy seeks to do is communicate God’s revelation and apply the
commands and implications of Scripture through worship. Yes, the Bible needs the liturgy and the
liturgy needs the Bible! Without the active participation of the liturgy, the Bible can become unrealized
words on a page, and without the Bible, the liturgy can become man’s effort to represent God and/or
worship Him according to his own selfish designs.
And second, being Bible-based means that the character and content of our worship be consistent
with examples of worship in the Scripture. This means that:
(1)
Anglican liturgy exhibits how Christ’s fulfillment of the Law is accomplished through the
declaration of New Testament enlightenment and demonstration of the Church’s open access to God
through Jesus’ intercessory work. In other words, far from just abrogating the symbols and
expectations of the Old Testament, our liturgy proves through rite and ritual, sacred objects, and art
and architecture that Christ is the promised hope of Moses and the Propehts. This means taking
cues from the books of Exodus and Leviticus, but showing how Jesus transforms them into an
illumined and Spirit-filled relationship with God.
(2)
Anglican liturgy gives us a peek into the worship of God’s heavenly Kingdom. Do you want
to know what heaven will be like? We find our best evidence in the books of Isaiah, Hebrews, and
Revelation. Seeking to see “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven,” we
try to imitate as much as possible the heavenly liturgy described in these books. How? By simply
showing forth how God is most glorified in these texts. We do this by treating the presence and Name
of God with the utmost reverence (like Holy Holy Holy), and showing deference to what liturgical actions
or sacred objects represent Him or something that Jesus has done/is doing. Like St. John before the
“Alpha and Omega” we emphasize majesty and awe over casual familiarity. We even use hymns, chant,
gestures, and sometimes incense modeled upon how the saints and angels praise and adore God around
His heavenly throne. And we also do this by recognizing that the Mass is not celebrated alone.
Hebrews 12 tells us that we are “surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses.” The Mass is not an earthly
effort, but something based on and done with the inhabitants of heaven. Hebrews goes on to explain
that in worship we come “to the Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and
to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the first born enrolled in heaven....”
Imagine! Beyond our sensory limits the apostle tells us that we are right now in the company of the
Kingdom! Based on these Scriptures, we agree with the ancient Christians that our liturgy should reflect
this. This is why in some of our churches you may see stained glass, icons, and statues that teach us
that we always worship toward God and in the fellowship of the spirits and faithful Christians already with
God. Don’t see them as distractions to avoid, but as family members to love and appreciate.
To learn more-- Come and worship with us! We here at Holy Trinity or at another traditional Anglican
church will be glad to welcome you and answer your questions. There is always a Faith Formation Class
or some literature available to help you understand our why’s and wherefore’s even better!
