We hope you will join us for Sunday worship either in-person or on Zoom at 9:30am.
For the link to join the service, email us by clicking on the button below.
St Nicholas Church is wheelchair accessible. This includes our sanctuary, gathering room (for fellowship and other uses), and our restrooms. People are able to participate in worship and other aspects of the life of the church, as well as attend other events held at our church. Bulletins are emailed in advance, and all Sunday services are accessible live on Zoom.
Worship at Saint Nicholas Episcopal Church: a statement of principles to guide our decisions about liturgy and to inform people who are not members of our congregation
To worship God and to encounter Christ, the Saint Nicholas Church’s congregation gathers for a service at our church every Sunday morning at 9:30. Our worship is grounded in the Book of Common Prayer enriched by other resources of the Episcopal Church. It is traditional but also innovative. It is distinguished by simplicity of rite and ceremony. We strive for inclusiveness and collaboration. The congregation and clergy participate as partners.
Our priest presides at services and preaches a sermon, which more often than not is based on the day’s Bible readings. Lay people play important roles in a service. They read lessons from the Old Testament, psalms, and epistles and lead the Prayers of the People. Our deacon proclaims the gospel. Music is part of our worship. Our music director plays the piano at the beginning and at the end of a service and accompanies the congregation’s singing of hymns.
Note that our Sunday service is Zoomed. Friends worship with us each week from as far away as Florida and California. For the link to join the service, email us at stnicksmaine@gmail.com.
In recent months we have adapted our worship to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of us wear facemasks while we are in church, though masks are no longer required. We have arranged our seating so that individuals, if they wish, can leave space between themselves and others. At communion, congregants go to the altar and pick up a plastic mini-wineglass (known as a fellowship cup), which holds a morsel of bread and a sip of wine. Then they return to their seats and consume the elements together. All this is instead of the conventional practice of receiving wafers from a paten and wine from a common chalice and consuming them while standing around the altar which used to be our practice.
As with our worship, our sanctuary is marked by simplicity. The airiness of the high curved ceiling, along with the large clear windows which provide views of the natural world outside, make it a pleasant place in which to worship.
In summary, worship at Saint Nick’s is simple and reverent. We believe that it strengthens our relationship with Christ and our love for one another. Please join us some Sunday in person or via Zoom. We will welcome you warmly.