We gather for worship at two services every Sunday, each geared to a specific language and culture. We also believe that Sunday’s worship needs to overflow into the deeper experience of small group meetings, and the personal discipline of daily, individual worship practice.
Worship is more than just singing a few songs. It is an intimate encounter with God that changes us into the likeness of Jesus. In order to create an environment for such an encounter, we draw on the ancient practices of the Church and combine them with new expressions of worship.
To learn more about our worship, click on the links to go to each section:
10:00 English Worship and Sunday School
12:00 Vernacular Worship and Sunday School
10:00 English Worship and Sunday School
This is what to expect if you join us at 10:00 for our English worship service:
- Our worship consists of both traditional and contemporary music, which helps to ground us in our heritage and inspire us to live our faith in today’s world.
- Our worship includes different kinds of prayers – praise, confession, thanksgiving, requests, etc. – which bring the different experiences of our lives to God and help us to recognise how God meets with us in all of these parts of our humanness.
- We also pray in different ways – sometimes together, sometimes by listening to the worship leader, sometimes responsively with different people saying different parts of the prayers. This enables us to participate in the worship and not fall into being spectators.
- Our worship often includes various symbols and images which help us to focus visually on what we believe God is seeking to communicate with us each week.
- In all of these ways, our worship seeks to engage our whole being – mind, heart and body – and to teach us the habits of living like Jesus.
As you worship with us, we invite you to participate as much as you feel comfortable. If you know the songs, sing along. If you don’t, allow the words and music to speak to you as you listen. Join the responses in the prayers and try to experience the words in your heart as well as in your mind. Be aware of those who worship with you, and try to experience your connection with them, and with the God who loves us all equally, just as we are. And through it all, open yourself to God’s Spirit who seeks to transform you into a person who reflects the love, grace and justice of God into the world.
Our services always start with the children present. They get a chance to experience what “big church” is like, and then we have a moment that is geared especially to the children in both word and music. Then, the kids leave us to enjoy time in their own, age-appropriate learning space, along with our passionate and dedicated teachers, led by Jacqui De Lange.
12:00 Vernacular Worship and Sunday School:
This is what to expect if you join us at 16:00 for our isiXhosa worship service:
- Our worship is geared to the culture of isiXhosa-speaking Methodists. This means that the worship is led by Local Preachers (even when a minister is present for the monthly Holy Communion service).
- The framework for the service is the isiXhosa liturgy (Umbedesho) and is fairly traditional in format.
- The hymns are sung acapella, accompanied only by the traditional “beat” (a cushion that is used to add percussion to the music) in isiXhosa, and with the congregation, led by the choir, creating the beautiful harmonies for which Africa is known.
A fairly recent development at this service is that we now have a Sunday School that runs at the same time as the adult worship, following the same curriculum as the morning Sunday School.
Small Groups:
Linked with our English Worship Service we have three small groups which carry our worship into a more intimate environment:
- 19:00 on Wednesday Night at the Church House (behind the sanctuary on Mount Nelson Road).
- 19:00 on Thursday Night at 21 Clifford Road.
- 09:30 on the last Friday of each month at Sea Point Place.
We are working to continue the Methodist tradition of the “class meeting” in which we hold one another accountable, wrestle with the questions of our faith and the Bible together, and provide care and support for one another.
Linked with our Vernacular Worship Service we have a number of class meetings that gather at various times and places. (For more information contact the Church Office).
Personal Daily Worship:
As part of our commitment to nurture our worship life, we also provide print outs and links to the well known Daily Worship guides from Sacredise (a ministry of Rev. John van de Laar).