Worship at Seabury-Western
The center of Seabury-Western community life is worship, the crucible where life and joy and concern are brought together and offered to God in thanksgiving. Worshiping as an academic community of faculty and students, joined from time to time by staff, family members, friends, and other visitors, we affirm that the work of praising and serving God is the foundation for our studies and for our corporate life in its entirety.
Visitors are always welcome at our worship.
Students, assisted by faculty, plan fourteen worship services each week, exploring the possibilities of The Book of Common Prayer and other authorized liturgical resources (link to books used for worship), and the rich varieties of liturgical expression in the Episcopal Church. Except for presiding at the Eucharist, Seabury students serve in all liturgical capacities, providing invaluable experience preparing for future roles as parish leaders.
Worshipers in the Charles Palmerston Anderson Chapel of St. John the Divine sit facing one another. The brilliant lancet windows that illumine the chapel show ten of the Church's most noted theologians on one side and ten of the most faithful missionaries on the other. Encompassed by scholars and missionaries who have prepared our way—and confronted by our companions—the very structure of the chapel demonstrates that community is not simply something that we strive to create. It is also something that is graciously given—a gift to celebrate and to offer.
Bells call the community to worship each day, Monday through Friday. On some festive occasions, the Laurance Hearne Armour Memorial Carillon is played as a prelude or postlude.
