Worship
Liturgical tradition
Our liturgy involves all our senses. We have a beautiful building, artworks, and ceremonies to see. We offer praise to God in carefully-crafted words, music and silence.
You can smell the burning incense that symbolises prayer offered across the world and in every age. Rituals of making the sign of the cross on ourselves, and exchanging a sign of peace with others, involve our sense of touch. Both touch and taste are prominent when we receive the bread and wine at communion during the Mass.
Liturgy at Old Saint Paul’s is, therefore, participatory. There are many people involved in different roles. Some are clergy, others are in the choir, some assist with parts of the liturgy as servers carrying candles or the cross. Others of us participate from our seats alongside our fellow members of the congregation.
This rich liturgical approach is our way of linking an ancient heritage of Catholic worship with Protestant insights from Anglicanism. Hence it is a tradition that is widely termed, 'Anglo-Catholic'.