Welcome to St. Chad's Church Edenvale

Who are we?

The worship of our Lord Jesus Christ

We have a fairly structured worship service embedded in the Anglican tradition and heritage. Newcomers to the Anglican Church are always fascinated by the way we worship – this fascination can also be described as awkward or uncomfortable. We understand this and that is why over the years the Anglican Church, especially in Southern Africa, went to great lengths to incorporate others forms of worshiping styles to compliment the traditional form. Our worship here at St Chad’s follows the traditional Anglican form of worship, but also incorporates more modern Songs (e.g. Songs of Fellowship) that leads to a more vibrant and diverse worshiping experience to the glory of God. The brief comments that follow will give you a deeper sense of our worship that will enable you to better appreciate and enjoy the service.

Why we worship?

We congregate every Sunday in the tradition of the Early Church awaiting the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Head of the Church. While waiting we worship Him as our Crucified and Resurrected Lord. God called us out of the world to be a people “in this world but not of the world”. We meet together in worship in obedience to God and to give him all the honour and glory. Worship is therefore primarily for God not us. It is the individual’s approach to God, God’s response to him/her, and the resulting mystical union of human with God.

Central to our Anglican Worship is the Holy Communion, also known as the Eucharist, the Last Supper or Mass. This is a ceremony derived from the Last Supper which Jesus held with his disciples on the night before his arrest, trial and crucifixion (cf. Matthew 26:17-30; Mark 14:12-26; Luke 22:7-38). The belief is that this ceremony creates a special union with God, which helps to strengthen us as Christians. The Holy Communion involves the giving out of bread (wafer) and wine which has been consecrated, or made holy, with special prayers (prayer of consecration). Only baptised Anglicans may receive Communion but we also invite those of other Churches who receive Communion in terms of their traditions to receive. As Anglicans we believe that Communion is a valuable component of our relationship with God adhering to Jesus’ words to “do it as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

Our Liturgy

Our Anglican Services are extremely varied and flexible and there is much variation in style between individual parishes. We follow a specific Liturgy on a Sunday from the Anglican Prayer Book (APB) 1989 which consist of The Introduction (Greeting); Praise; Penitence; Proclamation (The Word of God); Creed (Affirmation of Faith); Prayer (local, national & international prayer requests); Peace, The Lord’s Prayer and Holy Communion. This Prayer book is based on the Book of Common Prayer that is still regarded as the official expression of Anglican Faith and Belief. Our Services also include the saying of an appointed Psalm and the singing of Hymns and Songs, which may be either traditional or modern.

The structured liturgy of the APB ’89 employs the Biblical teaching principles of instruction, discipline, and ritual. Its design and aim is to allow the worshipper a holistic worshipping experience, culminating in the receiving of the Holy Eucharist and to be sent out in peace to love and serve the Lord. Throughout the week our thoughts and emotions may become cluttered and disorganized by our busyness. A structured liturgy redefines and redirect our thoughts that we can again focus on our ultimate task of building God’s Kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven. This also helps us in our patterns of thinking and living, and to set our hearts in a proper and reasonable order. The liturgy also leads us in a biblical pattern of worship in order to renew our covenant with God.

A total worship experience

Our Church is blessed by God with a rich liturgical and musical history (our Choir is a member of the Royal School of Church Music) and our desire is always to combine elements of our traditional Anglican heritage with some of the contemporary music of today. The result is a vibrant but diverse experience of both traditions steeped in and undergird by the working of the Holy Spirit.

Initiation into the Anglican Church

There are two ceremonies relevant to becoming a full member of the Anglican Church. The first is Baptism, and the second is Confirmation. Baptism is a ceremony representative of spiritual cleansing, ‘renewing’ a person upon entry into the Church. Our baptism involves a ceremonial sprinkling of water on the head, and special prayers. We do hold to two ways of baptism, i.e. Sprinkling and/or Total Immersion in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and we belief in one baptism only. Confirmation is where a person expresses a mature commitment to Christ and receives strength from the Holy Spirit through prayers and the laying on of hands by the Bishop. In both cases, baptism and confirmation a candidate is normally required to follow a series of classes as a way of preparation.

Other practices

A distinct feature of our Anglican tradition is the different colourful Liturgical Vestments describing the different Liturgical Seasons. Below is a description of these practices..

Vestments

Vestments are the special clothing that those leading the service wear. In biblical worship, priests in the Old and New Covenant (Revelation 4:4) wear distinctive garments to cover their clothing because they represent someone beyond themselves, namely Jesus Christ. The vestments point away from the minister to Christ. The priest is set aside (Ordained) to fulfill this special ministry of the sacraments. He holds an office as a priest of God and the clothing signifies that office. The basic colour for worship is white representing the light and glory of the resurrection; so, priests and parish ministers’ robes are primarily white.

The long narrow strip of cloth around the neck of the priest is called a stole. It represents the yoke of Christ (Matthew 11:29-30) and it is a sign of his office as priest. When Jesus speaks of “My yoke,” He means that He literally carries the burdens of this life and likewise when the priest wears the stole, h/she is preaching a visual sermon, reminding God’s people that Christ bears their burdens. There are other vestments that a priest wears during the ministration of the sacrament of the Holy Communion like the chasuble which are normally in the colour of the season.

Liturgical colours

White

Signifies light, revelation, glory, brightness and purity. It is used for Christmas, Epiphany, Easter, Trinity, Feast of Christ the King, baptisms, weddings, and funerals.

Red

Signifies fire and the blood of the Martyrs that died for their faith over the years. It is used for Pentecost, Saints (like the Apostles), ordinations and any special days commemorating God’s work through His servants in history.

Green

Signifies life, growth, nurture, and stewardship. It is the colour that is used for most of the Church’s Calendar from the season following Pentecost until Advent and from after the Christmas season until Lent.

Purple

Signifies royalty, penitence, and fasting and is used during Lent (a season of repentance and fasting) and Advent (also a penitential season). Advent remembers Christ the King’s first coming as our Incarnate Lord, acknowledges the continual coming of Christ and His Kingdom, and looks forward to His second coming, or Advent.

Liturgical Gestures

Kneeling or Genuflect

It is clear from Scripture that kneeling is a part of our worship of God. Kneeling is a basic posture of worship, the posture of humble submission and thankful reception of God’s providence and a sign of humility and repentance (Ezra 9:5); a sign of utter submission to God our King (Isaiah 45:23, Philippians 2:9-10, Romans 14:11)

Bowing

Bowing is described in the Scripture as a posture of worship as well. Psalm 95:6 says, “O come, let us worship and bow down; Let us kneel before the LORD our Maker.” People bow at different times during the service, especially at the mention of the name of Jesus. They bow when entering the Church and are not “bowing to the cross” but bowing to God whose presence they are entering. We believe that God is omnipresent but for the purpose of order and convenience in worship, we choose to symbolically acknowledge the Lord’s presence with us by bowing to the cross.

The Cross and “crossing” ourselves

The cross reminds us of obedience and disobedience, the deadly consequences of our sin, and the love of God that surpasses all our understanding. It reminds us of the heart of the gospel, the mystery of our faith: “Christ has died; Christ has risen; Christ will come again.” It vividly reminds us of the nature of our discipleship (“pick up your cross daily”) and our promises at baptism to serve the risen Christ. People place the sign of the cross on themselves not because it is the “religious thing to do”; but is a very ancient practice that is rich in symbol, which reminds that everything comes to us and is received through the cross. As we make the sign of the cross we focus our thoughts, our emotions, and our lives on the nature of our relationship with God in our Lord Jesus Christ.

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