FAQs
What should I expect at a Sunday morning service at Light of Christ?
You can expect to participate! We are a liturgical church, and "liturgy" means "the work of the people." Your bulletin will guide you as you sing, respond, stand, kneel (if you are able) and come forward for Eucharist. Children as well as adults, laypeople as well as clergy, are involved in the leadership of our services.
You can expect robes, vestments, candles, stained glass windows, biblical teaching, familiar hymns, and contemporary choruses. It's a feast for the senses, and a way of setting apart our worship time from the casualness of the everyday. We appreciate what C.S. Lewis calls solempne, "the festal which is also the stately and the ceremonial." (He continues "you must think of a court ball, or a coronation, or a victory march…; in an age when every one puts on his oldest clothes to be happy in, you must re-awake the simpler state of mind in which people put on gold and scarlet to be happy in.")
How long does the service last?
Our typical Sunday morning services last about 1.5 hours. We occasionally finish earlier, and our special services and High Feast Days are generally longer.
What should I wear?
Our clergy may wear robes and vestments, but you'll find a wide variety of clothing styles in our congregation. Whether you wear jeans and a polo or sport jacket and tie, you are welcome in our midst.
What about my kids?
At Light of Christ, we encourage families to participate and worship together
during the service. Teens and pre-teens may serve as acolytes, readers,
musicians, singers, nursery workers, set-up/take-down team and altar guild
members. During the sermon, we offer nursery and children's church for
age six and under.
In the
hour before our worship service, we offer Sunday School classes for all
ages. For ages 3-12, we use the hands-on Godly Play curriculum.
How can I get connected?
We encourage you to visit our Connect page to see a list of opportunities for teaching and fellowship. We also host a regular Newcomer's Lunch were visitors can have a meal with church leaders and ask questions in an informal setting.
What do we mean by “Anglican”?
Anglicanism comes originally from the Church of England. It is a sacramental church, maintaining the creeds and forms of the historic Christian faith and practice. It is also an evangelical Church of the Reformation--with a strong emphasis on Scripture, the once-for-all salvation that Christ provided to all on the cross, the need for grace, and a personal reception of that salvation once given.
Anglicanism, with evangelical fervor, brought the gospel and the Scriptures first to its own English-speaking people, and then to many other nations and peoples in their own languages and cultures. As a result, it has become the most populous Protestant denomination in the Global South, and as history comes full circle, we in Kenosha are part of a mission effort of the province of Rwanda. (See The Anglican Mission.)
At its best, the Anglican communion has been an historic church faithfully teaching its members how to receive and incorporate their faith into every aspect of their life, their culture and their times. Part of that work includes an emphasis on beauty and simplicity, which is especially embodied in the simple but poetic prayers of its well-known Book of Common Prayer.
The Anglican Communion is a branch of the Church that emphasizes order as well as spontaneity, tradition as well as faithful new prophetic expressions, regular Eucharist and daily Scripture reading, and community worship as well as private devotion. At Light of Christ, people experience Anglicanism through its commitment to evangelical and scriptural teaching, its liturgical and sacramental practices as a recipient of the ancient and universal practices of the Church, and its use of the Book of Common Prayer.
The rootedness in the ancient, combined with the freshness of new hymns and songs of praise, of poetic liturgical prayers along with spontaneous prayers, create a stable but vital worship and community experience. An occasional visit from our Bishop for confirmations and ordinations also "brings home" our connection to the wider Anglican communion and its historic tradition. For more on Anglicanism, see the links in our sidebar to The Anglican Mission and the Anglican Church in North America.
What is "the Great Tradition?"
The Great Tradition is the beliefs and practices that are rooted in the early Church, from its days as recorded in the New Testament, through the first 5-10 centuries which followed. It was that period in history when the Church was united, before East and West divided into Eastern Orthodox practice and Roman Catholic/Protestant expressions of the faith.
The expression is used by us and many others to indicate our commitment to live and pass on the Christian faith once-given (Jude 3). It's important to us that we aren't "making this stuff up as we go along." Rather, we are beneficiaries of a great gift of faith, a way of worship and life, and we are stewards of the same for those who come after us.
Typically included in the "Great Tradition" are
- Holy Scripture (the authority for all doctrine, preaching and teaching)
- the Creeds and Councils of the early Church (i.e. The Nicene Creed, The Apostles Creed, and the First Seven Ecumenical Councils)
- the worship practices, church organization (bishops, priests and deacons) and liturgies of the early Church
- the teachings of the Church Fathers who held and shaped the beliefs, practices and teachings of the undivided Church amidst much testing and persecution