Worship is a time to celebrate in community the goodness and faithfulness of God -- a time to open to the fullness of the expression and movement of the Spirit. It is a time to laugh together and cry together. Worship is a time to sing, pray, and rejoice; it is a time to learn and be challenged, to discover anew our purpose in our world. It is a time to be called forth, to gain strength, to hear God's call to make a difference within ourselves and beyond ourselves.
Here are some thoughts on why we do what we do in worship.
We desire that worship be a safe, welcoming, and inviting place for children. It is our hope and intention that children will learn that they belong in worship by their participation. Our vision is that children can have a joyful learning experience of who God is, and that our worship is enhanced by their presence.
As we are created in the image of God, our bodies are good, beautiful, and worthy. The Spirit of the Living God is alive in our bodies and breathes life into each of us. Embodiment acknowledges that the Aramaic language of Jesus did not have separate words for body, mind, heart, or spirit, but understood human beings to be one unified essence. We live this out by involving our bodies in the creative, vibrant worship of God, understanding that the Spirit can be experienced in our movement as well as our stillness.
Because we believe in the "priesthood of all believers," the congregation participates in the blessing and consecration of the bread and cup through singing. We hold many different beliefs and ideas about communion and what it represents. You are invited to come to this community meal with whatever belief you hold. We celebrate an open communion at every Sunday Worship Celebration and everyone is invited and welcome to participate.
From antiquity to the present, candles have been used to highlight time and space for spiritual observance, ritual and celebration. They are a contained form of the element of fire, which is symbolic of many entities including the presence of the Holy Spirit, the wisdom inherent in the divine and imparted to us, and hope for ourselves and our world. We begin our worship lighting candles as a reminder of God's presence and our intention to be open to the presence of the Spirit, inviting the children to show us the way.
Because language and the way it is used has tremendous power in our culture, we strive to exercise great care in how we express ideas in the worshipping community. Preference is given to names for God that portray God's inclusivity and reflect the multi-gendered and multi-faceted nature of God. For example, God/Goddess reflects our understanding of God as feminine, as well as masculine; "God of many names," "Divine Wisdom," or "Spirit of the Universe" speak to the incomprehensible goodness and presence of God in all things. Seeing ourselves reflected in the Divine and vice versa is paramount to spiritual healing and growth. Therefore, we seek to eliminate words that carry sexist, racial, and patriarchal overtones. We defer to usage that is inclusive rather than exclusive, and seek to use language that can enlarge our spirituality and understanding of God rather than diminish it.