Muslims, Jews, Catholics, etc, this one is for you?

Question

Just wondering, what does your weekly worship service comprise?
What day of the week is your service?
I'm an evangelical christian and attend a non-demonational church which lasts for about 2 hours. This is what we do: first we sing praises to God as a congregation, then the announcements are read from the pulpit, then a selection or two from the choir, then the offering is collected, then the pastor preaches using the bible as a reference. At the end of his message he invites anyone to come forward if they want to be saved and we pray for them. Then we pray and go home. So, how different/similar is your worship service?

What about my question was so hard to understand? I'm getting responses but no answers! By the way, anyone who attends a weekly religious service may ANSWER this question. :)

thanks for answers, starting with #5

Answer 1

I am Catholic but on the Greek side of the Church, I will describe both the Roman and the Greek services. I cannot describe the Maronite, Coptic, Chaldean (Iraqi), or the services of the Thomas Christians.

All Catholic services can be traced to services left to us by Peter, Mark or James. They are fundamentally the same service, but do vary.

All Catholic services read the entire bible over a fixed period of time. The Roman service is designed to read the bible over three years if you attend every Sunday or two years if you attend every day. The Byzantine service reads it over less than one year, but you have to attend church more than once per day. Otherwise it takes years to hear the entire bible, but not a specified number of years as in the Roman service.

The Byzantine Service, which comes from James begins with the deacon announcing that it is time for the Lord to act and instructing the presbyter (priest) to begin the service.

The priest announces "Blessed is the Kingdom of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit!"

The congregation responds with "Amen!"

Prayers are then said to petition the Lord for mercy and place the world in His hands. At the end of this series of prayers we commend ourselves and one another and our whole life to Christ our God.

Parts of two psalms or three psalms are sung antiphonally as would have been the case in the synagogue. Just a note, we still use the Hebrew canticallation but use the Pythagorean system of musical notation. It is rather like Jazz canons in concept, if you have any idea of music theory rather than a fixed melody. Every community sounds different when it sings the service.

Then we sing the hymn to the Only Begotten followed sometimes by a third psalm.

We then begin what is called the little entrance. The Gospel book is brought into the Church. The priest announces "Wisdom, be attentive!"

The congregation responds with "Come let us worship and bow before Christ! O Son of God, Risen from the Dead, Save us who sing to You!"

The congregation then sings the tropars and kondaks appropriate to the day. The tropar is a song appropriate to the day. A kondak explores the mysteries of the scripture reading of the day. It is a song on the scriptures sort of.

Then we either sing "Holy God, Holy and Mighty, Holy and Immortal, have mercy on us!" or during certain days such as Pentecost "All of you who have been bapitzed into Christ have put on Christ Allelluia"

The first scripture is then read followed by the prokemenon which is a psalm. Then the allelluia is sung followed by the singing of the Gospel(s).

After the reading of the Gospel the priest does a homily. A homily is different from a sermon in this way. A sermon uses scripture to support what someone wants to say and are not used in Catholic worship. A homily explains the meaning of the day's scripture so you can use it in your life and makes it real. Priests do not get to pick the scripture reading because they would then favor the readings that fit what they want to talk about and ignore ones they don't want to talk about. There are exceptions for things like natural disasters etc hitting a community, but in normal circumstances the readings are prescribed.

We then finish the cherubic hymn, where we like the angels in Heaven gather to sing God's praises. We then begin the Great Entrance. The song appropriate to the entrance is "That we may welcome the King of all, invisibly escorted by angelic hosts. Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia."

We then prepare for communion with another set of petitions for God's mercy, ending with "The doors, the doors, In Widsom be attentive!" The doors part is optional outside periods of persecution. It is originally the notice to the doorkeeper to watch for Roman soldiers, but to be attentive because what is occuring inside is more important than what being arrested by the Romans.

We then do the prayer of peace followed by the Nicene Creed. It is the only part of the service not taken from scripture. It is a profession of faith and it is:

I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And I believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God. Born of the Father before all ages. God of God, Light of Light, true God of true God. Begotten, not made, of one substance with the Father. By whom all things were made. Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven. And He became flesh by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary: and was made man. He was also crucified for us, suffered under Pontius Pilate, and was buried. And on the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead. And of His kingdom there will be no end. And I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. Who together with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified, and who spoke through the prophets. And one holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. I confess one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. And I await the resurrection of the dead. And the life of the world to come. Amen.

There are a few prayers sung by the congregation and then the consecration of the communion bread and wine is done. The Holy Spirit is invoked over the bread and wine.

We then say a prayer honoring the Virgin as a model of our life.

We then again pray to be made worthy by Christ to receive communion. We then pray the prayer the Lord left us and give thanks for His peace. We sing a communion hymn and we then begin the only spoken part of the service, the rest being sung. I will remind you that while your theology may disagree with the next section, it is unchanged since the earliest of days of the faith. It is:

O Lord, I believe and profess that You are truly Christ, the Son of the living God, Who came into the World to save sinners, of whom I am the first. Accept me as a partaker of your mystical supper, O Son of God, for I will not reveal Your mysteries to our enemies, nor will I give you a kiss as did Judas, but like the thief will I confess to You.

Remember me, O Lord, when You shall come into Your kingdom.

Remember me, O Master, when You shall come into Your kingdom.

Remember me, O Holy One, when You shall come into Your kingdom.

May the partaking of your holy mysteries, O Lord, be not for my judgment, or condemnation, but for the healing of soul and body.

O Lord, I also believe and profess that this, which I am about to receive, is truly Your most precious Body and Your life-giving Blood, which, I pray, make me worthy to receive for the remission of all my sins and for life everlasting. Amen

O God, be merciful to me a sinner.

God, cleanse my sins and have mercy on me.

O Lord forgive me for I have sinned without number.

We then take communion and finish with songs of thanksgiving and praise. We ask the presbyter for a blessing and then he blesses us and we dismiss.

The above varies on certain days of the year such as Easter (Pascha). It is also not done during the week during the Great Fast, instead and entirely different service is sung.

If you live near Pennsylvania, you can hear the entire various forms of morning, Eucharistic, daily and evening prayer over Labor Day at Mt. St. Macrina's monestary in Uniontown PA.

Now as to the Romans. They begin with a prayer followed by a petitions to the Lord for mercy, they publicly acknowledge their sins to each other and ask for prayers for their fogiveness. They read an old testament reading, a psalm, one of the New Testament letters and a Gospel reading. Before the Gospel reading the allelluia is sung, except during Lent. They then prepare for communion and say the Lord's prayer. They invoke the Holy Spirit upon the gifts and ask for the Lord to heal them from their sins and then the presbyter blesses them and dismissess them.

Answer 2

I go to a Methodist church. Here's a typical running order, although it can vary.

1. Announcements.
2. Hymn.
3. Prayers.
4. Children's talk.
5. Hymn.
6. Pray for the children then they go out to Sunday School.
7. First Bible reading.
8. Second Bible reading.
9. Hymn.
10. Sermon.
11. Hymn.
12. Prayers of intercession.
13. Closing hymn and offering.
14. Dismissal.

Afterwards we meet for tea and coffee so we can have fellowship, and the minister shakes hands with everyone.

It can vary, for example the offering can be earlier, there might not be a hymn in between readings and sermon, the children won't go out if it's a family service. If it's a communion service we follow an order in a book similar to that above, and the celebration of communion, which includes prayers of intercession, happens after the sermon.

Answer 3

1. God wants spiritual fruit, not religious nuts.

2. Dear God, I have a problem, it's Me.

3. Growing old is inevitable .. growing UP is
optional.

4. There is no key to happiness. The door is always
open.

5. Silence is often misinterpreted but never
misquoted.

6. Do the math . count your blessings.

7. Faith is the ability to not panic.

8. Laugh every day, it's like inner jogging.

9. If you worry, you didn't pray . If you pray,
don't worry.

10. As a child of God, prayer is kind of like calling
home everyday.

11. Blessed are the flexible for they shall not be
bent out of shape.

12. The most important things in your house are the
people.

13 When we get tangled up in our problems, be still.
God wants us to be still so He can untangle the knot.

14. A grudge is a heavy thing to carry.

15 He who dies with the most toys is still dead.

Answer 4

As a Christian you percentage with the Catholic and the Jew a faith. First The Catholic is the bridge among the Christian and the Jew. The Bible, the Holy Word of God, has the Old Testament that's the Torah, the Jewish Bible, it used to be given to the folks through the Catholic Church however translated through Luther. If you do not think me ask a preacher. As for the Muslims they realize approximately the Jews and the Christians however say they're fallacious in the best way they pray to God or Allah. As for the Atheist they don't think in God till confronted with demise, a announcing within the military "there are not any atheist in a fox gap!" As for the pagans so far as I realize the think in lots of gods.

Answer 5

I am Jewish but I am only 13 so what I do varys from what the adults do.

1. The kids go to something that is very similar to sunday school.

2. We pray and what not

3.Our rabbi speaks a bit

4. When we get home we have candle lightings.

oh and our Holyday is Saturday

Answer 6

Muslims pray five times a day, and on Friday at noon there is a ceremony followed by prayer.

Answer 7

i am a muslim
all times are god's time
all people must to service to help for other people
friday is holyday in islam but doctors , police and more muslim working for other people night or holyday

Answer 8

we pray all the time not only once a week.

Answer 9

Sorry, the question is not for me, as I am neither Muslim, nor Jew ans nor Catholic.