A caring presence in the heart of the city.
Worship
Community worship stands at the heart of our life together at St. John’s.
Our Gathering
Each Sunday we gather to proclaim in Word and Sacrament the mystery of God’s love for the world in Jesus Christ. Readings from Holy Scripture (the Bible), the songs we sing, the prayers we pray, and the good news of Jesus Christ himself constitute the Word. The sermon, most often given by our Rector, interprets the readings for our time and place thereby nurturing our formation as present-day disciples of Jesus.
Holy Eucharist
Our celebration of the Holy Eucharist is the chief Sacrament of Sunday worship.
This ritual meal of bread and wine is a commemoration of the meal Jesus celebrated with his first disciples in anticipation of his death and resurrection some two thousand years ago.
In identifying the bread as his body and the wine as his blood, Jesus proclaimed for them and for us his real presence in this holy meal. In eating and drinking the bread and wine, we have communion with Christ, mystically becoming one with Christ and with one another (the Church).
In this holy encounter we celebrate our new life in Jesus Christ, using the Greek word “eucharist” meaning “thanksgiving” to express our joy.
BAS Service (Sunday, 10 a.m.)
We gather for eucharistic worship each Sunday morning at 10 o’clock. Greeters will welcome you at both the Water Street and Duke Street entrances at 9:30 a.m. and following. An elevator at the Duke Street entrance will take you up to the Sanctuary or down to the Sunday School if you are unable to use the stairs.
To guide our Sunday celebrations and many other occasions for worship, we use the texts and directions (liturgy) of The Book of Alternative Services (BAS).
The liturgy for the Holy Eucharist begins on page 185. The shape of this liturgy is dynamic, beginning with the gathering of the community, and continuing with the proclamation of the Word and the celebration of the Eucharist. All three actions culminate in the Sending of all who have been gathered and fed to be the Church in the world.
At the Holy Eucharist, you have the opportunity to light a candle and pray for loved ones and friends. A prayer station with candles is located at the front left of the main seating area in the church.
If you wish to have prayer offered for your own needs, a two-person prayer team will receive you at the St. Aidan’s altar (at the back left of the main seating area).
Candle-lighting and intercessory prayer are offered during the time in the service set apart for Communion. All conversations with prayer team members are kept confidential.
Sunday School (weekly, 10 a.m.)
Sunday School also begins at 10 a.m. with a break during the summer months. We ask that parents and guardians take their children to the Sunday School classroom for an attendance check and to meet the Sunday School staff. All Sunday School teachers are screened and trained according to the Anglican Church of Canada’s Safe Church protocols.
The children spend close to an hour learning Bible stories and their significance for faithful living. Lessons and activities are designed by our teachers for children at different ages and stages of development. At the beginning of the distribution of Holy Communion in the church service, the staff bring the Sunday School children upstairs to rejoin their parents or guardians for the remainder of Sunday worship.
Adjacent the Sunday School is a nursery equipped with cribs/bassinets, nursing pillows, seating, change table, Diaper Genie, and play space. The service is live-streamed so that parents and caregivers can follow along.
Coffee Hour
At the conclusion of the service, everyone is invited to Coffee Hour in the Upper Parish Hall (through the doors at the right front of the main seating area).
This is an informal social time (with refreshments) for all who have gathered for worship, adults and children. Newcomers and visitors find welcome here, longtime and recent friends in Christ reconnect with one another, and there is always an opportunity for conversation with our rector.
BCP Service (First Sunday, 8 a.m.)
Once a month, usually on the first Sunday, the Holy Eucharist is celebrated at 8 a.m. using the traditional liturgy of the Book of Common Prayer (1962).
This quiet and intimate service uses the same readings and has the same sermon as the 10 a.m. service. The language of the Book of Common Prayer reflects an earlier time, inviting an appreciation for our history as a worshipping community. Many also find comfort and meaning in the liturgy and language familiar to their years of formation.
Check the date on the Parish Calendar for the next 8 a.m. Eucharist.
Come to the Table (monthly, Saturday, 4 p.m.)
Also once a month, often but not always on the last Saturday of the month, we gather at 4 p.m. for Come to the Table, an informal service with eucharist for families and others, followed by supper together in the Upper Parish Hall.
Check the date on the Parish Calendar for the next Come to the Table service.
Worship Helps
Each week, we prepare an up-to-date and user-friendly Worship Bulletin containing hymn selections, texts for congregational prayers, responses that are sung and spoken during worship, titles and composers for the music of worship, a list of Sunday’s worship ministers, parish announcements, and more. Hard copies, in regular and large print, of the Worship Bulletin, together with a Taking Worship Home supplement, containing local and churchwide prayer concerns and more, are distributed at worship each Sunday.
You can register to receive a Worship Together emailer arriving each Saturday evening. This email provides links to the Worship Bulletin and sermon (posted before worship), Taking Worship Home Bulletin supplement, weekly Sunday School Registration, a link for the YouTube livestream of Sunday’s service, and a list of different ways to make a financial contribution to St. John’s.
Worship Together is an excellent way to prepare for Sunday worship. To subscribe, simply send a note to the church office.
Choir
Our Choir leads the sung liturgy and hymns each week at the 10 a.m. Sunday Eucharist. This group of approximately 15 voices rehearses twice weekly preparing psalms, canticles, and anthems in order to support and extend congregational song and praise. Typically, the choir sings in four parts – soprano, alto, tenor, and bass – as well as in unison for plainsong settings of the psalms and liturgy.
The Choir also sings Evensong (Evening Prayer) and Compline (Night Prayer) seasonally using traditional prayer book liturgy.
All choristers volunteer their time and musical gifts as part of our parish’s worship ministry. St. John’s does, however, support a choral scholar program to assist university music students. A maximum of two choral scholarships are awarded annually by audition. Choral scholars join the Choir as full members but receive a modest stipend to further their studies.
The choir season runs approximately 10 months of the year from the beginning of September through the feast of Holy Trinity in June. If you can read music and are interested in joining the St. John’s Choir, please contact Director of Angus Sinclair to discuss choir membership. To reach our Director of Music, please consult our Contact page.
Worship Space
The Church Sanctuary has lively acoustics that greatly enhance vocal, instrumental, choral, and congregational music. Several choirs from the wider community choose St. John’s as a concert venue.
St. John’s also has two pipe organs, a 1947 (rebuilt in 1962) Casavant and a 1977 Gabriel Kney mechanical action instrument. A fine Yamaha C3 grand piano is used both for concerts and the music of worship. A Zuckerman harpsichord, fully rebuilt and improved in 2022 by organ builder D. Leslie Smith, is used for the performance of chamber music.
Music in Our Community
The Spiritus Ensemble under artistic director and St. John’s parishioner Ken Hull is a professional community choir that has called St. John’s home since 2009. Twice a year, Spiritus offers a Vespers service at St. John’s, the centrepiece being a Bach cantata with full choir, soloists, and orchestra. One of the St. John’s clergy officiates at these services, and the congregational singing, led by the choir and accompanied by organ and orchestra, rattles the rafters. A freewill offering is received at Spiritus Vespers.
Spiritus also presents two full concerts at St. John’s each year – an Advent-Christmas concert in December and a Lent-Easter concert in the Spring. There is an admission charge (tickets) for the concerts.
In 2023, parishioner-chorister-teacher-flautist-composer Bruce Gremo curated and launched the first series of Musical Flora concerts at St. John’s. Since then a breadth of instrumental, vocal, and orchestral music, traditional and modern, popular, classical and jazz, European and Chinese, has greeted the ears of audiences several times a year over three years. In describing the series, Bruce sees every concert as a flower or bouquet or garden; a place for musical communion, contemplation, exposure and pleasure.
Often Bruce will introduce the Musical Flora concerts with a special article in The Music Times or in On Eagle’s Wings, St. John’s monthly parish newsletter. Musical Flora is now part of our parish’s music ministry seeking to bless more and more people with beauty, wonder, and richness of the Spirit’s gifts.
Musical Flora and events featuring other musicians from St. John’s are profiled in the Facebook group Music at St. John’s DTK. Administered by parishioner-chorister Karen McLeod and director of music Angus Sinclair, you can request membership at any time to stay abreast of all things musical at St. John’s, Downtown Kitchener (DTK).
Worship Support
The worship life of St. John ‘s is supported by an extraordinary number of people distributed over a number of important ministries. Each of these ministries would welcome your interest and participation.
Servers Guild Our servers assist our presider at Holy Eucharist. They may carry the cross, tend the candles, carry the Bible or help with the unfolding drama of communion. Contact Karen Sunabacka to get involved.
Altar Guild Members set the table for the Eucharist and in countless other ways serve to set the scene for worship. Contact Gladys O’Hara via the church office to you’re your time to this important work.
Chalice Bearers Members assist the presider, who offers the bread at Communion, by offering the cup of wine to the people. Contact Ann Coughlin for more information.
Readers, Intercessors and Prayer Writers The readers bring God’s word to life and life to Gods’ word. The writers of the Prayers of the People bring the cares and concerns of the parish and the world to worship while the intercessors give voice to these prayers. Contact André Lavergne to get involved.
Intercessory Prayer Ministry During Holy Communion, members offer confidential intercessory prayer for people who bring their own cares and concerns to worship. Contact Syd Reginato for more information.
Greeters Our greeters meet worshippers, whether first-timers or long-time members, at the two church entrances and assist people to get to worship with a hearty welcome and a copy of our Worship Bulletin (link to archive). Contact Charles Stuart to get involved.
Coffee Hour Team Members arrive early to prepare for, and offer some fellowship over, coffee, tea, juice and treats following our 10 a.m. service. Contact Eleanor Brown at (226) 750-8738 to participate.
Technical Support Team Our tech people enhance the sound at worship and create a live YouTube video feed and archive for our Sunday services. Contact Jonathan Malton for more information or to get involved.
Angus Sinclair was appointed Director of Music of St. John the Evangelist on February 1, 2023. Having graduated in 1981 (Honours B.Mus.) in organ performance from Wilfrid Laurier University, he went on to distinguish himself as a church musician, recitalist and accompanist touring in both Canada and the UK. For over 40 years Angus has served parishes and congregations throughout Southwestern Ontario as director of music. He experiences his present appointment to St. John’s as a welcome homecoming, both spiritually and musically.
As our parish musician, he provides both support and leadership so that a variety of parish programs can find musical expression and attract participation. When our handbell choir is in season, he is one of our ringers. At parish dinners, he provides popular piano music for the guests to dine by. For both worship services and concerts, he will rehearse and accompany vocal and instrumental soloists from our congregation on piano, organ, or even accordion.
Angus Sinclair was appointed Director of Music of St. John the Evangelist on February 1, 2023. Having graduated in 1981 (Honours B.Mus.) in organ performance from Wilfrid Laurier University, he went on to distinguish himself as a church musician, recitalist and accompanist touring in both Canada and the UK. For over 40 years Angus has served parishes and congregations throughout Southwestern Ontario as director of music. He experiences his present appointment to St. John’s as a welcome homecoming, both spiritually and musically.