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Eucharist

O Lord, you are the host and the meal; you invite and you are the feast. 

- Maronite liturgy

The Lord gave himself to us precisely as food to be enjoyed.

- Karl Rahner, 20th c.

Our life together as a Christian community centers around the weekly celebration of the Eucharist. In this living encounter with Jesus Christ, we bring our whole selves to experience communion with God, peace with one other, and true freedom within ourselves. We gather to hear the challenging and liberating words of scripture, and to receive the gift of Jesus' real presence among us in bread and wine. 

This pattern of meeting God in word and sacrament is also known as Holy Communion, the Mass, and the Lord's Supper. However it is named, it is the historic pattern of Christian worship received from our ancestors in faith: we are gathered together as the people of God by the Holy Spirit; God's word is proclaimed; we share in the meal of Christ's risen body; and we are sent to serve God in our daily lives. 

If you are visiting us from the Episcopal or Roman Catholic traditions, you will find the liturgy here very familiar to what you already know and very easy to follow. We make every effort to make the service accessible to all, including printing a worship bulletin with music, readings, and responses each Sunday, eliminating the need to juggle and flip through books. Most visitors, even those from other traditions, find that after a few weeks, the service has grown on them and they appreciate the balance between speech, silence, singing, and ritual that create an environment of peace to be the presence of God.

Because the Eucharist is so central to our life as Christians, a time of preparation and instruction often takes place before a person first receives communion. However, there is no “right age” for someone to begin receiving communion. Children become full members of the Church through baptism, not through confirmation or by reaching a particuar age. Age-appropriate preparation is available to any child whose parents feel they are ready to receive at God's table, and parents are encouraged to extend this invitation as early as possible so children feel absolutely included in the sacramental life of the Church.