Worship

At St. Stephen's, we celebrate the way of life that Jesus taught, and we create a sense of community.

We base our worship on the Anglican tradition, which puts the Eucharist (or Communion) first, as a celebration of God’s incarnation in the person of Jesus. Holy Communion also serves to create a community – the body of the Church, as it’s called. Our statement of faith is the Nicene Creed, which dates to the Council of Nicea and puts forward the essential ideas of the Christian faith, with God seen in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Our church also celebrates human reason as God’s unique gift to human beings. God has gifted us with minds that have the ability to make complex moral judgments. In this, we have been created in God’s image. We come to know God’s way by thinking, reading the Bible, consulting various texts (including the Book of Common Prayer, which offers a range of prayers and liturgies for important occasions, such as baptismal, marriage, and burial services), and seeking community in different ways. We reach out to each other in our effort to find God. And so we say that “outreach” is part of our worship, part of our celebration of the way of Jesus, who reached out to help those around him, to show them a way to God.

St. Stephen's, like all churches in the Anglican Communion, recognizes the authority of Bishops (the Greek word for “bishop” is the same as the word “Episcopal”) and so traces its origins to the original apostles of Christ. Our parish consists of an ordained priest and associates as well as a baptized congregation, who are the members of this church. We welcome everyone to our services, with enthusiasm.