Festival Service Booklet (Red) can be downloaded here.
This Service Book will be used on all the Festival occasions that do not fall in the fifty days of Eastertide, including the major feasts of Pentecost, Trinity Sunday, Corpus Christi, All Saints' Day, Christ the King and certain saint's days. It will also serve Christmas Day and the period that follows Christmas, including Epiphany, when we celebrate God's presence among us in the person of Jesus.
All festivals celebrate some aspect of the presence of Christ among us or the work of his Spirit among us. Saints' Days too are a celebration of the work of Jesus in human lives.
Ordinary Time Service Booklet (Green) can be downloaded here.
It has been said that “joy is the serious business of heaven.” The same could be said of worship: Worship is “the serious business of heaven.” If that is true then two conclusions follow. First our worship here and now is the most important, most vital of our undertakings; it is the activity in which we are most truly Christian and most truly human; it is when we worship God that we become most truly ourselves. Second, our worship here and now should be an occasion for joy and should be characterised by joy. If our worship is to be joyous then it must also be honest. We must bring to God in our worship all that we are--even those areas of our lives of which we would rather hide from Him, from others and from ourselves.
Lent Service Booklet (Grey) can be downloaded here.
“Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return; turn away from sin and be faithful to Christ”
Lent is a season of preparation, a preparation for our joyful celebration of the resurrection of Christ at Easter. To prepare for that celebration, we must first walk with Jesus to the humiliation and shame of the cross. In one sense Lent is a reminder of what we as Christians must do everyday of our life. For Jesus said, “If anyone wishes to be my disciple, let him deny himself, and take his cross daily, and let him follow me” (Luke 9:23). The whole of the Christian life is one of learning to deny oneself, take up one’s cross and walk with Jesus. One cannot do this without discovering just how insistent is the self-centredness with which we are all infected. In Lent the liturgy, readings and hymns remind us that the path to Easter cannot avoid self-denial or the cross. Easter can only be reached by way of the cross. If we will not deny ourselves, if we will not accept as our own the cross with all its humiliation and pain, we will never know the joy of resurrection.
Eastertide Service Booklet (Yellow) can be downloaded here.
Alleluia, Christ is risen! He is risen indeed, alleluia!
With these words we greet one another during Eastertide. We repeat the message of the angels to the women who came to the tomb that first Easter Sunday: “He is risen!” (Mark 16.6; Matt. 28.6; Luke 24.6). In Eastertide we celebrate that Christ has conquered death and sin, Satan and the grave. As an Orthodox hymn puts it: “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death; and upon those in the tombs bestowing life.” Easter is the centre of our faith and the reason that we meet Sunday after Sunday, throughout the year, to worship God. Had Christ not risen from the dead it is certain few people today would even have heard of Jesus of Nazareth and no one would meet to worship God in his name. Christ’s resurrection demonstrates that he was and is the Son of God, and that his mission was not a failure. Christ’s resurrection also offers to us hope; by sharing in his victory we too may be victorious over death and sin, Satan and the grave. That being true, we cannot but celebrate during the season of Easter. Alleluia, Christ is risen!
Advent Service Booklet (Purple) can be downloaded here.
The season of Advent is a time of preparation, in which we share once more in the longing for God's coming (advent), both His coming in Jesus Christ at the first Christmas and His coming at the end of history to be our judge. It is a way of experiencing more fully how God comes to us in our darkness.
The Liturgy of Advent combines the very human emotions of expectancy and gathering excitement with the natural fear and trepidation at meeting with our God. In keeping with the reflective nature of the season, we do not sing or say the Gloria during Advent. To help us prepare for the coming of Christ, the Light of the World, we shall use the ceremony of the Advent Candle. A new candle is lit each week to remind us of the coming of the Light amidst the darkness of the World's sin - our own and that of humanity.
Compline Service sheet can be downloaded here.
It is a short service of quietness and reflection before rest at the end of the day.
Choral Evensong booklet can be downloaded here.
A sung service with the choir with readings and prayers.