Worship & Prayer
Sunday Worship Service Schedule
9:25 a.m. Choir Practice
in the Sanctuary. This is an open invitation to anyone who likes to sing.
9:30 a.m. Adult Christian Education (Forum)
Our Sunday begins with an Adult Forum discussion, which meets in the Fellowship Hall. The minister or a Chapel volunteer guides the discussion on a variety of topics.
10:30 a.m. Coffee and Fellowship
This is an informal time to meet in our Fellowship Hall and get to know others. Coffee and snacks are complimentary.
11:00 a.m. Worship Service Click here for schedule and special programs. Children's Sunday School (age 3+) available during the service. Chapel volunteers use a curriculum that explores key Bible stories, both in the Old and New Testament. Parents are always welcome to come and observe!
Following the 11:00 a.m. worship service, there is a simple lunch (every other month is potluck) in the Fellowship Hall for visitors and anyone that would like to know more about our Chapel family and give us an opportunity to get to know you better. We would love to have you!
Join our Chapel Centering Prayer Group
Tuesdays at 9 a.m. in Upper Room of Narthex/Chapel Entrance
For God alone my soul waits in silence; from God comes my salvation. God alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall never be shaken.
PSALM 62:1-2
Are you looking for a way to explore or deepen your relationship with God?
An Invitation
The practice of Centering Prayer is simply offered to those who feel called to a deeper life of prayer and who are looking for a method that will help them to do so in the context of a very active life in the world.
"Christian contemplation is rooted in scripture and the principal mystics of the Christian tradition. Our contemplative heritage unites the members of the Christian denominations who share the same Baptism, faith in the living Christ, and trust in God." Contemplative Outreach, Ltd.
Centering prayer is both a relationship with God and a discipline to deepen that relationship. It requires from us only the intention to grow closer to God and its practice. Centering Prayer is a movement of Divine Love designed to renew the Christian contemplative tradition. It is also inspired by writings of major contributors to the Christian contemplative heritage including John Cassian, the anonymous author of The Cloud of Unknowing, Francis de Sales, Teresa of Ávila, John of the Cross, Thérèse of Lisieux, and Fr. Thomas Merton.
The practice of Centering Prayer is basically waiting upon God with loving attentiveness, fulfilling the Gospel injunction, “Watch and Pray.” If one can accept the notion of prayer as primarily relationship with God, it becomes obvious that one’s relationship with God can be expressed without words, simply by a gesture or even by one’s silent intention to consent to God’s presence.
Background of Centering Prayer:
In the 1970s, answering the call of Vatican II, three Trappist monks at St. Joseph’s Abbey in Spencer, Massachusetts, Fathers William Meninger, Basil Pennington and Thomas Keating, looked to these ancient Christian sources to develop a simple method of silent prayer for contemporary people. The prayer came to be known as Centering Prayer in reference to Thomas Merton’s description of contemplative prayer as prayer that is “centered entirely on the presence of God.” The monks offered Centering Prayer workshops and retreats to both clergy members and laypeople. Interest in the prayer spread, and shortly after the first intensive Centering Prayer retreat in 1983, the organization Contemplative Outreach was formed to support the growing network of Centering Prayer practitioners.
Centering prayer is designed to deepen the theological virtues of faith, hope and charity and to develop the most ancient of all Christian methods, the practice of Lectio Divina leading to contemplation. It is a traditional form of Christian prayer rooted in Scripture and based on the monastic heritage and is the most traditional way of cultivating contemplative prayer (resting in God or contemplatio, contemplation).
Centering Prayer is not to be confused with Transcendental Meditation or Hindu or Buddhist methods of meditation. It is not a New Age technique.
Centering Prayer is based on the wisdom saying of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount:
"When you pray,
go to your inner room,
close the door,
and pray to your Father in secret.
And your Father who sees in secret
will reward you."
Matthew 6:6
Centering Prayer is a receptive method of Christian silent prayer which deepens our relationship with God. In Centering Prayer, we are moving into the secret room and moving to the spiritual level of awareness - we move from conversation with God to communion with God.
Today Centering Prayer is practiced by people all around the world, creating local and global networks of Christians in communion with Christ and each other and contributing to the renewal of the contemplative dimension of Christianity.
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"Silence is God's first language. Everything else is a poor translation."
Fr. Thomas Keating, O.C.S.O. spiritual guide and one of the principal architects and teachers of the Christian contemplative prayer movement.
“The more we journey towards the Center the closer we are both to God and to each other. The problem of feeling isolated from both God and others is overcome in the experience of the Center. This journey into God and the profound meeting of others in the inner ground of silence is a single movement. Exterior isolation is overcome in interior communion.”
Martin Laird, OSA, theologian, and author known for his accessible yet profound writings on Christian contemplative practice.
"Contemplative prayer is not just about petitioning God for external goods, but about deepening our relationship with God through purification, recollection, and surrender. It is a journey inward to meet God’s love, which then becomes the source of our strength and direction in the world."
Thomas Merton, American Trappist monk, theologian, mystic, poet, and social activist.
"The Father spoke one Word, which was His Son, and this Word He always speaks in eternal silence, and in silence must It be heard by the soul."
John of the Cross, one of the greatest mystical writers in the history of the Church. His teachings on the spiritual life continue to guide Christians today, particularly those who seek a deeper relationship with God through prayer and contemplation.