Worship
Sundays at 10 a.m.James 4:8 Draw near to God, and God will draw near to you.
Latest Worship Service
God’s love includes everyone
Unconditional love. God accepts us as we are. There are no hoops to jump through or rules to follow. The question for us is: How will we respond?
Worship offers a time and place to consider this. We are invited to think, feel, and explore our relationships with God and each other and what that means as we go out into the world.
Sunday Worship
Worship at St. Stephen reflects the values of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Canada. Following God’s model, where God’s love includes everyone, we try to make everyone feel welcome.
Music is usually accompanied by organ or piano, often with hand percussion thrown in. We are encouraging anyone who is interested in taking up an instrument and joining in to talk with Elizabeth or Pastor Ronnie.
The choir invites participation of anyone who enjoys singing, and the bell choir gives a marvelous opportunity to make beautiful music to supplement festival days (and sometimes they play with the band, just to see how that would sound). There is a bell for you if you would like to give it a try.
Once a month our band, The Rocks, brings a different life to traditional music and uses music that you would expect to hear on the radio to look at the experience of living deeply.
After Worship on a Sunday
All are invited to connect over some cookies and a cup of coffee, tea, or juice after the service. It’s a great time to catch up with friends or make new ones and talk about our experiences in everyday life.
Every third Sunday of the month join us for a Birthday Celebration after worship. The conversations are pretty much the same, but we sing a song and we get to eat cake.
Children’s worship
Jesus said, “Let the children come to me, and do not stop them, for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs.” – Matthew 19:14
We strive to have children at the heart of our community, and welcome them to be a part of our worship experience. In the sanctuary they may prefer to be in the regular pews, or in the cozy area at the back of the sanctuary where we have rocking chairs, pillows to build a fort, and a table with supplies for colouring.
While we love to hear the sound of children, some parents may feel self-conscious. In that case, the Fellowship Hall has windows into the sanctuary and there is sound piped in, so that parents can be comfortable with their children expressing themselves.
Our Labyrinth is a Place to Pause and Breathe
Our world is filled with the noise and business of life. It can be hard, in the middle of all that, to find moments of peace. We can try to leave the chaos behind and go someplace else, but it is hard to bring that sense of peace back with us when we rejoin everyday life. Our labyrinth does not try to be removed from life. It is in the middle of it all, beside the busy intersection of Highland Road East and Stirling Avenue South. You are invited to seek peace in this space, not despite the noise, but while immersed in the noise.
Our labyrinth is a compass. One enters the labyrinth by walking west, toward the setting sun. One can then spend a symbolic “night” in the middle, in contemplation. One emerges from the labyrinth by walking east, toward the rising sun of a new day. The labyrinth is oriented as it is with the hope of supporting those whose practice is to pray or do other observances in a particular direction.
