Worship
St. Mary’s is home to a diversity of liturgical expressions, each with their own personality, each offering their unique way to gather and worship our God. As a community, we seek to honour this breadth of liturgical styles, so that everyone may be able to find a sense of belonging and welcome in whichever service they attend.
Weekly Worship
Sundays
8:00 am ~ In-Person
Our 8am service follows a traditional style. We use the Book of Alternative Services. It is a quiet and more contemplative service with no music.
3rd Sunday: Healing Prayer
10:00 am ~ Hybrid
Our 10am service has musical accompaniment from our choir and organist. It lasts for about an hour. We primarily use the hymnals. And during the service, we offer children’s formation.
1st Sunday: Spirit Sunday
3rd Sunday: Healing Prayer
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We celebrate the Holy Eucharist at every service. Both bread and wine are offered, but it’s perfectly fine to receive only one element and not the other. Communion is distributed at the communion rail, where people may stand or kneel to receive. We also have gluten-free bread for those who cannot tolerate wheat. Simply ask an usher on Sunday morning if you need this alternative.
Lent, Holy Week, & Easter Schedule
Most services/events will be offered in-person and online, but those marked with * will be in-person only. For more details about any of the services/events below, (and for Zoom info) simply click on the drop-down arrows.
Lent
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Please join us for a brief but beautiful liturgy and a chance to try something a little different. Iona worship is offered on the 3rd Sunday of the month. At 7:30pm, in the Sanctuary, come nestle in for a time of prayer.
Our upcoming services are April 21st, May 19th, and June 16th.
(Iona Prayer will not take place during July or August)
Wednesdays in Lent:
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Lenten Midweek Eucharist (11:30am*)
This Lent we are offering a simple mid-week Eucharist service. Instead of a homily, each week we will offer a different spiritual exercise or prayer practice for us to try together. This will be an opportunity to gather around the Lord’s table, in the midst of the week.Lenten Lunch (12:15pm*)
After the Lenten Midweek Eucharist, a simple soup lunch will be offered. If you can’t make it to the mid-week Eucharist, you can still come to this for the fellowship. -
Walking a labyrinth has been a spiritual practice for many centuries. St. Mary’s labyrinth will be available for use on Wednesdays from 11am-2pm starting Feb.14th (Ash Wednesday). You can find it through the main building doors, located in the gym.
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Through this six-week series we will explore how we can help meet the greatest challenge in human history. Each participant will receive a devotional booklet and access to various other resources on the web. Through exploring these resources, as well as biblical texts, accessible science, and practical wisdom, we will each create a custom-made, solution-oriented action plan for how WE PERSONALLY can participate in the Spirit’s movement for a clean, healthy world. We will meet either in-person or on Zoom to explore that week’s topic and help each other to develop our own plan for “walking the talk”. Come explore how our faith and the world’s great need can come together. Contact Rev. Roberta to learn more. (rfraser@stmaryskerrisdale.ca)
Holy Week
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Join other young families in exploring the emotions and themes of Holy Week through stories, games, and activities. Lunch is provided. Let us know if you're coming so we can plan accordingly. Contact Kingsley. (kingsley@stmaryskerrisdale.ca)
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Sunday services commencing our journey into Holy Week.
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This service is available in-person and online via Zoom. To join this service, click on the link when it’s time or enter the Meeting ID and passcode.
Meeting ID: 993 030 484
Passcode: 1911 -
The tradition of singing the Passion story began in the early church. To add solemnity to Holy Week, priests would chant the Gospel account rather than read it. Over the centuries, these priestly intonations developed into large choral works with soloists and orchestral accompaniment. These oratorio Passions reached their pinnacle in the great St. Matthew Passion and St. John Passion of Johann Sebastian Bach. Heinrich Schütz, considered the greatest Lutheran composer prior to Bach, composed his Seven Last Words in the early 17th century. He created a composite of all four Gospels in order to include all seven sayings which Christ spoke during the crucifixion. No other composer is known to have created a major choral setting of this unique version of the Passion story until Théodore Dubois, over two centuries later.
Théodore Dubois (1837–1924) was an important organist, composer, and teacher of music on the Paris music scene during the late 1800’s. His setting of "The Seven Last Words of Christ" is presented in eight movements. Soprano, tenor, and bass soloists together with a four-part choir recount through music one of the most compelling dramas of all time.
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This service is available in-person and online via Zoom. To join this service, click on the link when it’s time or enter the Meeting ID and passcode.
Meeting ID: 827 3828 1554
Passcode: 2024 -
Immerse yourself in the solemnity of Holy Week by committing to a daily devotion. Each day we will offer compline; a service of the word with the psalms and responses chanted. Compline’s name is derived from the latin completorium, or completion, marking the service at the end of day before one takes to rest.
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This service is available in-person and online via Zoom. To join this service, click on the link when it’s time or enter the Meeting ID and passcode.
Meeting ID: 827 3828 1554
Passcode: 2024 -
This service is a deeply moving service, recalling the night of the Last Supper. At the Last Supper, Jesus commanded that people should love one another. He then washed the feet of his disciples as an act of kindness. Therefore, at this service, there will be a voluntary invitation to have your feet washed, and then to wash someone else’s feet. The service concludes with the altar being stripped, and we leave in silence.
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This service is available in-person and online via Zoom. To join this service, click on the link when it’s time or enter the Meeting ID and passcode.
Meeting ID: 827 3828 1554
Passcode: 2024 -
A shorter, creative service that explores the sadness of Good Friday while still offering and reminding both the children and participants about the hope that Easter gives to us.
Offered in-person only.
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For this service, we arrive and leave in silence. There are solemn prayers and a meditation on the cross to remember the crucifixion of Jesus.
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This service is available in-person and online via Zoom. To join this service, click on the link when it’s time or enter the Meeting ID and passcode.
Meeting ID: 827 3828 1554
Passcode: 2024
Easter
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We journey from darkness to light, as we celebrate Christ’s resurrection. Expect singing and movement, as we recall through scripture the redemption of creation and humankind.
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This service is available in-person and online via Zoom. To join this service, click on the link when it’s time or enter the Meeting ID and passcode.
Meeting ID: 827 3828 1554
Passcode: 2024 -
The culmination of Holy Week is resolved in the triumph of Easter morning. Join us as we recall and celebrate the resurrection. Easter egg hunt to follow 10am service for kids of all ages.
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This service is available in-person and online via Zoom. To join this service, click on the link when it’s time or enter the Meeting ID and passcode.
Meeting ID: 993 030 484
Passcode: 1911 -
Join us for our Easter favourite hymns and all the familiar prayers. Followed by a joyful tea with a chance to talk and meet together. If you would like to attend or know someone who would like to be invited, please contact the office. (office@stmaryskerrisdale.ca)
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This service is available in-person and online via Zoom. To join this service, click on the link when it’s time or enter the Meeting ID and passcode.
Meeting ID: 851 6210 0860
Passcode: 1911 -
Join us for Matins, a service of Morning Prayer (at 10am) in which the versicles and responses, morning canticles, (such as the Venite, Te Deum or Benedicite and the Jubilate), together with the psalm and collects of the day are sung. This service has many parallels with Choral Evensong, but with our presentation of Matins we intend to include more of the congregation’s participation.
Holy Eucharist will be offered at 8am only this Sunday.
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This service is available in-person and online via Zoom. To join this service, click on the link when it’s time or enter the Meeting ID and passcode.
Meeting ID: 993 030 484
Passcode: 1911
During this season, our Soul Work Cart will be available in the Narthex. It contains resources to support a calm body and focused mind during worship. These resources are great for people who are neurodivergent.
Iona Prayer (monthly service)
The daily prayer practice of the Iona Community in Scotland comes from an inspired and beautiful liturgy that St. Mary’s worshippers will find both familiar and fresh. It is a gorgeous way to end the day and a perfect reset for the week ahead.
Offered on the third Sunday of the month, at 7:30pm (in person)
New Dates Announced: January 21st, February 18th
Music Ministry
The music ministry at St. Mary’s aims to provide spiritual nourishment through the God-given gift of music. Throughout our heritage as Christian people, music has played a fundamental role in worship and in being part of our outreach to others. While grounded in the wealth of great choral and organ compositions of the past, the music we offer also embraces works by living composers and of other Christian traditions.
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The 25-voice choir provides leadership in music-making, offering choral music for all our major festivals and special liturgical events. These include
• Advent Lessons & Carols
• Christmas Lessons & Carols
• Ash Wednesday
• Palm/Passion Sunday – our tradition is to focus on the Palm liturgy at the 10am service, and on the Passion readings at a special 4pm service.
• Maundy Thursday
• Good Friday
• Great Vigil
• Diocesan and Archdeaconry events
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Our choir sing at the 10am Sunday morning services, offering both congregational leadership, using the music of Taize, Iona, and other communities, as well as a traditional Anglican repertoire of Eucharist settings, anthems, and motets from the plainchant of the Middle Ages to contemporary works. The choir is led by a core quartet of experienced paid singers.
If you are interested in joining our choir, please contact our Music Director at music@stmaryskerrisdale.ca
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The Family Choir of adults and children has been on hiatus since Covid hit us, and we hope to begin it again to help to lead the monthly Wonder Sunday services. We have a set of handbells that are used for psalmody and special anthems.
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The organ is a 3-manual 1964 Casavant with an older console, 1955. It was modernized in 2010. It is used for the 10am Sunday morning services as well as special services and occasional recitals.
Worship with Children
We believe the way we welcome children in church directly affects the way they respond to church, to God, and to Christ. Help us let them know that they are welcome here.
We encourage you to sit where the children can see and hear the service. We encourage you to sing the hymns, pray, and voice the responses; children learn liturgical behaviour from copying you. If you need to leave the service with your child, please feel free to do so, but please come back!
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God feeds all children. If you want your child to receive the bread (wine too - that’s up to you), please have them put their hands out with you.
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In our Sanctuary we have a safe, comfy space (near the front on the right) for children to be - where children can play, draw, colour, read, and more. It’s an alternative to the pews which some children may find uncomfortable or boring, and offers them a front-row view of the service.
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At St. Mary’s we love incorporating children into our worship. Children can be readers, intercessors (leading the prayers), and servers. We also love to think creatively with a family, on how to incorporate their child when there’s a specific interest of the child’s.
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During our 10am worship on Sunday mornings, we have a Nursery available (for ages 0-4) and a Sunday School program (for ages 5-9) in the Family Ministry wing near the gym.
The only exception to this is on the first Sunday of the month, when our 10am worship becomes a ‘Wonder Sunday’ and children are encouraged to attend this extra-child-friendly service.
Click here to learn more about the other Family Ministry programs we offer.
Liturgical Ministries
These ministry teams help with our worship services each week. Interested in volunteering for any of these teams? Please contact our Volunteer Coordinator, Jean (email).
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Our Servers help worship to flow throughout the service. They help carry the cross and torches in procession, help with setting the altar at the offertory, and generally help the clergy with the liturgy. We are always glad to have more volunteers.
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Chancel Guild members help prepare for Eucharist and other sacraments like baptism and marriage that are vital to parish life. The Guild's ministry includes laundering linens, polishing silver and brass, managing supplies and organizing memorial flowers. Members also decorate the Church for major festivals.
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Our Lectors help with reading the lessons and leading the intercessions (prayer petitions) during worship.
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Our Greeters & Ushers are our ambassadors to newcomers and visitors. They arrive a little early on Sunday and help people find bulletins and places to sit and help with the offertory collection.
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Our Lay Eucharistic Ministers are specially trained to help administer the chalice at Communion.
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Our Choir provides music for the 10am service and special Holy days. It rehearses on Thursday evenings at 6:30pm and on Sunday mornings at 9am. If you can’t make a permanent commitment, you may sing for special Christmas and Easter choirs.
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Our Coffee Hour Hosts set up for coffee hour after Sunday services. They set out cups and napkins, make coffee, and provide half-and-half, pastries, and juice. Hosts are also responsible for clean-up, but often others volunteer to help.
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Baptism
Receiving God’s Love
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Confirmation
Affirming this Love
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Weddings
Joining in Love
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Funerals
Returning to Love
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