Communion

Anne Howard Chapel
Communion is offered every Sunday morning in the Anne Howard Chapel, adjacent to the Sanctuary, at 8:15 am.
   
Sanctuary and New Room
Communion is offered the 1st Sunday of each month during our regular 10:00 am worship services in both the Sanctuary and The New Room.

Prayer and Healing Worship Service
5:30 p.m. in the Trinity Sanctuary, 1st Wednesday each month

There are times in life when we feel broken, either physically, or mentally. The Healing Prayer Service is an opportunity to gather with close family and friends for prayer, communion and song to experience closer communion with God.

The Baptismal Covenant

Baptism is not only a sign of profession and mark of difference whereby Christians are distinguished from others that are not baptized; but it is also a sign of regeneration or the new birth.

In both the Old and New Testament, God enters into covenant relationship with God’s people. A covenant involves promises and responsibilities of both parties; it is instituted through a special ceremony and expressed by a distinguishing sign. By covenant God constituted a servant community of the people of Israel, promising to be their God and giving them the Law to make clear how they were to live. The circumcision of male infants is the sign of this covenant (Genesis 17:1-14, Exodus 24:1-12). In the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God fulfilled the prophecy of a new covenant and called forth the Church as a servant community (Jeremiah 31:31-34, 1 Corinthians 11:23-26). The baptism of infants and adults, both male and female, is the sign of this covenant.

Therefore, United Methodists identify our ritual for baptism as “The Services of the Baptismal Covenant” (The United Methodist Hymnal, pages 32-54). In baptism the Church declares that it is bound in covenant to God; through baptism new persons are initiated into that covenant. The covenant connects God, the community of faith, and the person being baptized; all three are essential to the fulfillment of the baptismal covenant. The faithful grace of God initiates the covenant relationship and enables the community and the person to respond with faith.

For details on adult, youth, children and infant baptism, please email Jan Hicks or call her at 256.883.3200, ext 275.