| Since every Sunday is a "little Easter," our weekly Sunday worship takes the form of a Holy Eucharist, our act of thanksgiving ("Eucharist" is Greek for "thanksgiving") for Christ's sacrificial death, resurrection, and Second Coming. The Eucharist looks to God's action in the past ("Christ has died"), in the present ("Christ has risen"), and in the future ("Christ will come again"). The climax of this service is is the receiving of the Body and the Blood of Christ in Holy Communion, consecrated by the Holy Spirit's action and given to us by Christ as spiritual food for the People of God. The Eucharist is also celebrated on special days in which we remember and honor and event in the life of Our Lord Jesus Christ (Christmas, Good Friday, Ascension Day) or his Saints. The Saints are those Christians who died or suffered for their faith in Christ, or who made invaluable contributions to the Church's witness to God's love in Jesus Christ. Some of these lived many centuries ago (such as Saint Mark, Saint Paul, the Blessed Virgin Mary, or Saint Francis of Assisi,) while others lived more recently (Anglican priest and missionaries John and Charles Wesley, Lutheran theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Archbishop Janani Luwum of Uganda, or Archbishop Oscar Romero of San Salvador). |
