And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
– Acts 2:42
New Creation is a liturgical church. This means that when we gather we follow a basic pattern of worship shared by most Christians since the early church. This pattern of worship has been described as the four-fold model (Gathering, Word, Table, and Dismissal). Within this pattern, the story of God is told. We come into the presence of God and confess again our need for forgiveness. We hear God’s Word and sing his praises. We respond with one of the great creeds and our prayers. We are fed and nourished at his Table and then we are sent back out into God’s world to be God’s people!
We also use the historic services of Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer (these are services of praise, Scripture reading, and prayer), as well as the special services of the Church Year (Ash Wednesday, Palm Sunday, Good Friday, etc.).
Words fall short, however. The best way to get familiar with our worship is to come and experience it!
However, it must also be said that every church is a liturgical church in some sense, doing worship according to some kind of order – written or unwritten. Today, many in the Church shy away from, downplay, or look down upon discussions about tradition and liturgy. Here, we embrace such discussions! As church historian Jaraslov Pelikan said, the choice is not between having tradition or not having tradition, but between choosing “good tradition over bad tradition.”
Interested in finding out more about our approach to worship? Check out the article, What Does Our Worship Say?. See also our What Does It Mean to Worship in the Anglican Tradition booklet.