Beginning this Sunday, August 23, Saint Mark’s Cathedral will resume weekly celebration of the Holy Eucharist each Sunday at 11 a.m., but with a few changes that I hope you will find meaningful and edifying for your worship experience.
None of us could have imagined in March that we would still be in this place, with the buildings closed, at this point in time. But the worshiping community has continued to gather via livestream, and indeed has broadened its horizons to welcome many people from other regions of Washington state, across the nation, and around the world. I just sent a note of thanks to a family in Japan who sent money to Saint Mark’s in gratitude for the livestream!
Here are a few highlights for the service forthcoming:
-
The Eucharistic Prayer centers on a theme of creation care, and draws inspiration and content from several resources across the Anglican Communion, including the Anglican Church of South Africa’s Prayer for the Season of Creation, the Iona Community, and Prayers for an Inclusive Church (a resource by British poet and philosopher Steven Shakespeare that has been used seasonally since 2018 for our 9 a.m. service).
-
After the Breaking of the Bread, we will all be invited to say the Prayer for Spiritual Communion together—those at home and those in the cathedral nave. In doing so, we lay claim to the spiritual presence we have to offer one another as we gather in community, trusting that God’s sacramental grace and love are made manifest in the bread and wine and are conveyed to us all as spiritual nourishment wherever we are.
-
Music will include congregational hymns and a psalm setting that are designed to lift the spirit and invite everyone into the liturgy. Canon Kleinschmidt has some wonderful plans for the coming weeks!
-
We have learned that weekly livestream worship has a different character and rhythm than in-person worship, and, based on feedback, we are adapting the service to be slightly shorter than our historical Cathedral Eucharist—without losing essential elements of the liturgy. (And yes, we will still conform to the doctrines and discipline of the Episcopal Church and The Book of Common Prayer.)
-
The summer provided opportunity for us to try on something old and something new, with Morning Prayer intermingled with the Eucharist. Beginning this Sunday, we will resume our weekly celebration of the Holy Eucharist as the central liturgy of congregational life. Choral Evensong will resume October 4 at 4:30 p.m. via livestream, and continues the first Sunday of each month through May.
