My Experience Of Worshiping At St John Eastbourne

Introduction

This theological reflection affirms that liturgy is the church’s primary tool for mission. It makes use of my experience of worshiping at St John’s, Eastbourne. It discusses how mission and worship works at St John’s and proceeds to discuss the relationship between Christian worship and Christian mission with consideration to St John’s and the origin of Christian worship. It explains why the essay affirms that there is a positive correlation between mission and worship and discerns the need to be aware of the relationship between the two.

St John’s Church

St John’s, Meads is a church with approximately 250 adults on its electoral roll, the average age of the church population is 70 and the average age of the parish is 72 [2].

Bradshaw points out that it would have been logical for the early church to continue their Jewish traditions of gathering for worship in temples and in synagogues during the usual times of worship, they would also have continued the reading of Scripture (Jewish Torah), the chanting of the Psalms, and prayers. A separation between Judaism and Christianity developed because the church was greatly persecuted and were no longer welcomed to the synagogues by the non believing Jews, and because of the widespread conversion of gentiles. The Gentile church had no ties to the forms and format of the Jewish tradition of worship, they did not keep the Sabbath but gathered together on Sundays for worship, although their gatherings were not strictly patterned after the synagogue custom, they still had the reading of scripture, prayer, chanting (influenced by their cultures) and the Eucharist. Bradshaw points out that the form of worship practiced would have differed amongst early Christian communities and no single pattern would have been used by all early Christians. Justin Martyr’s writings on Christian worship in his community give us an insight into what was practiced in a particular community [4]. As the early church adapted their patterns of worship to their communities and continued in the apostles

The church as a body of Christ is called by God on God’s mission and the church is also called to worship, and both entities result in transformation.

The relationship between worship and mission can be viewed in two perspectives. Firstly, we can view worship as a tool used in the church to transform individuals (the body of Christ) and these individuals become agents of transformation, transforming their communities and the world at large. Therefore the body of Christ participating in the “Christ Event” and this is reflected in its practice (Baptism and Sacraments). Secondly, we can also view worship as an activity done by the church that invites non Christians to share in God’s mission of transformation which is a means of engaging with the community in the “Christ Event” also leading to transformation. There is evidence that the early Christians related worship and mission together