What to Expect
We Are Friedens
When you come to Friedens, here’s what we want you to know.
We are committed to being a safe and welcoming community. You can be yourself without worrying if that will be received with judgment.
Whether you are a member or not, you are welcome to participate (or not participate) in all aspects of worship, including communion.
We’re friendly, but we won’t overdo it! We will not ask you to identify yourself as a guest during worship or anything like that. You can visit without feeling pressured to join or commit.
We’re more interested in living out a way of life rather than believing a certain set of doctrines. Expect more questions and exploration than answers and certainty.
Worship Times - Sundays: 8:30am and 10:30am
Our worship is held in the sanctuary on Sunday mornings at 8:30 and 10:30am. The earlier service is smaller in number and quieter in environment with weekly communion. The later service is larger in number with more children present with monthly communion.
What to Wear
Friedens is a place for each of us to be our authentic selves. That means it is okay if some choose to dress more formally and some more casually. As far as we’re concerned, your outfit is less important than your open mind and warm heart.
Worship Style
Worship at Friedens is liturgical. “Liturgical” comes from the Greek word that means the work of the people. Lucky for us, our work isn’t very hard! We gather to honor, praise, and thank God. Liturgical worship is interactive. Worshipers engage in responsive readings, singing, praying, sharing in rites and sacraments, listening, learning. Then we do our best to live the lessons we have learned. Liturgical worship has been called an acquired taste. It’s a little old fashioned. We don’t pretend to be something we aren’t; we do what we do as well as we can.
We follow an order or liturgy that is rooted in ancient ideas about God and relating to God; mystery is one of those ideas. We do not have God all figured out. So we come to the sanctuary with humility. We are not so much about explaining God as we are experiencing God. Many of the elements of our worship are tried-and-true, even if they aren’t easy to define and figure out. The liturgy we follow, with practice over time, becomes familiar so that we don’t have to think so much but can more easily enter into the mystery with open hearts.
Everyone is welcome. It may take some time to feel at home in the liturgy. So please go at your own pace to discover if our liturgy is home to you.
There are many symbols in our liturgical worship and in our sanctuary. From colored cloths that cover the communion table to the use of candles, from furnishings designed especially for the sanctuary to the sacraments of baptism and holy communion, nothing is without deeper meaning.
Music plays a central role in worship. Music powerfully explores and expresses Divine mystery. We have a unique worship instrument, a pipe organ that brings remarkable versatility to the liturgical experience. From quiet reflection to soaring praise we worship God with congregational singing and choral anthems that span the ages with an intention of expressing our faith with a contemporary sensitivity to inclusion.
At Friedens preaching is geared toward teaching. With the sacred texts as the foundation for this teaching the emphasis is on exploring big questions with practical implications today.
Liturgical worship typically follows the liturgical calendar. This calendar roughly follows the yearly calendar but with seasonal content that follows the life of Jesus as chronicled in the books of Mark, Luke, Matthew, and John.
