Christians witness to their belief in God and their commitment to the service of Christ by ordering their lives in a way which reflects that Faith. Saint Matthew's Church sustains a busy routine of events and activities, involving individuals and groups of people, which endeavour to give concrete expression to the Gospel, which we proclaim. Details of some of these are included on other pages of this website.
At the centre of our life together is the worship that we offer day by day, week by week and year by year. This Liturgy (the services of the church) is the focus of our congregational existence and draws into itself all the various aspects of our community.
Saint Matthew's has always striven to offer the highest possible standard of worship within the Catholic tradition that inspired the architect, who designed the building. The Liturgical life of Saint Matthew's comprises a number of interweaving cycles and rhythms.
At the heart of the Liturgical routine is Sunday, the first day of the week. Jesus Christ rose from the dead on the first day of the week - the first Easter Day. From the earliest times of Christian history Sunday has been reckoned as a commemoration of Easter Day. The local Christian community has, therefore, gathered to celebrate this central event of our Faith, in much the same way that families and friends gather to celebrate the important events of a person's life (birthdays, weddings &c).
The Mass is the central act of worship of the Christian Church. Before He died, Jesus commanded His followers to continue the practice of a shared meal with the blessing of bread and a cup of wine in thanksgiving for all God's blessings. After the Resurrection, Christians were aware that in the celebration of the Eucharist (as they called the Mass), Christ's presence was particularly intense, especially in the elements of bread and wine (which Jesus had identified with His Body and Blood) and in the reading of Holy Scripture. The form and style of the Mass varies from place to place and occasion to occasion.
On Sunday mornings at Saint Matthew's, generally there is a Sung Mass at 9am and a High Mass at 10.30am.
The Sung Mass at 9am is fairly simple and straightforward in its identity. We hope that it gives people who are unfamiliar with Church life an opportunity to engage with their God.
More formal than the earlier service, the High Mass at 10.30am draws much more heavily on the glorious treasury of two thousand years of liturgical inheritance from across the world.
There is no one right way to worship God (though there are quite a lot of wrong ways!). How you choose to draw near to your God will depend on the type of person you are and, sometimes, on the occasion. We hope that the different styles will provide a range of opportunity for people who come to Saint Matthew's
The Church offers prayer in a sequence of psalms, readings and intercession at various times during the day, called the offices of the day. The principal offices are Morning Prayer (matins) and Evening Prayer (Evensong of, sometimes, Vespers). On Sundays, those offices are sung with a degree of ritual and, on such occasions, are designated as "solemn".
Matins is not normally sung publicly on Sundays owing to the number of other services; but, from time to time, a version of it replaces the Sung Mass at 9am on days when we hope to welcome visitors who are not communicant members of the Church. Since it is our conviction that it is very important for Christians to attend Mass and receive Holy Communion on Sunday, there is a Low Mass (see below) at 8.15am.
Solemn Evensong is sung usually at 6.30pm on Sundays.
Both offices are occasionally sung solemnly on other days.
The late night service of Compline is also sung publicly from time to time and usually at 8.30pm on the first Wednesday of every month.
Superimposed onto the weekly observance of Sundays is the sequence of Church seasons, centred on the two great events of our Faith - the Death and Resurrection of Christ (Easter) and His Incarnation or Birthday (Christmas).
Easter Day is the first festival of the Christian year. We rejoice in Christ's passing through death and so bringing us the prospect and hope of being released from the suffering and evil of this world. Eastertide is the season of the "great fifty days" of celebration of the Resurrection of Christ. We reflect on Christ's risen presence with us through His Ascension into Heaven on the fortieth day after Easter day. Eastertide then continues for another ten days until Pentecost Sunday, the third festival of the ecclesiastical year, when we celebrate the presence and activity of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Church.
Easter Day is the culmination of Holy Week, which precedes it. During Holy Week we commemorate the events of Christ's last days leading up to His Resurrection:
The Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday
The Last Supper on Maundy Thursday
The Crucifixion on Good Friday
The Resurrection in the dark hours between dust on Saturday and Sunrise on Easter Day.
Lent is the season of preparation before the celebration of Christ's Resurrection at Easter. It is characterised by a heavier emphasis on penitence before God.
"Stations of the Cross" is a service commonly undertaken during Lent, though there is no reason why it should not occur at other times. It can either stand alone or be integrated into another Liturgy. During Stations of the Cross, we reflect on Christ's journey from his trial to His Burial after the Crucifixion.
Christmas is the second most important festival of the Church's year. It is the time when we celebrate the Birth of Christ and the inauguration of His Ministry that culminated in His Sacrifice on the Cross and Resurrection. In the person of Jesus Christ, we believe that God walked and talked amongst humanity, teaching us the Godly way to live. Through this Incarnation (= enfleshment) of the Divine, we learn that God is not remote from us, but with us at all times. The Presence of Jesus Christ in the Liturgy is a sign of God's Presence with us.
Christmastide is a rather complicated season, in some ways running until the feast of the Baptism of Christ early in the New Year and in other ways continuing to the feast of Candlemas on 2 nd February.
Advent is a four week season at the beginning of the Church's year to prepare to celebrate the Birth of Jesus Christ at Christmas. At the same time, we reflect on the coming of Jesus into our own lives. In the Christian tradition, seasons of preparation are marked by a slightly gentler mood, when, in the context of celebrating our faith, we put slightly more emphasis on our unworthiness before God.
Ordinary time is that period of the year that is not a church season - sometimes called the "green Sundays" (because of the colour of the vestments). It is a time for us to reflect in a slightly more relaxed way on the things that we have experienced in the more intense periods of Lent, Easter, Advent and Christmas.
Dotted through the year are festivals, some of which commemorate events in the life and ministry of Christ, or the lives of the saints. Some of these are similar in significance for Christians as a Sunday and are considered "Holy Days of Obligation". As with Sundays, these are days on which it is good and appropriate for the Christian community to gather as a whole for celebration. Usually, at Saint Matthew's, there is a High Mass on these days.
Other festivals, though of less importance, are marked by a Sung Mass. These days are not "of obligation", but we hope that folks will come it they can.
Yet other saints' days are observed simply by the choice of readings and prayers during the daily round of prayer.
Saint Matthew's endeavours to offer opportunities for prayer every day. At the centre of this is the Low Mass. The Low Mass is a Mass with no singing and shorn of much of the ritual characteristic of High and Sung Masses. These Masses are celebrated are different times through the week to enable as wide a range of people as possible to take part in the daily Liturgy of the parishes.
Home page: http://stmatthewsnewcastle.org.uk/