Worship ministries

St. David’s offers a number of ways you can participate in worship ministries. There’s a place for you!  If you would like to participate in any of these ways, call the church office.


Altar Guild
Most Altar Guild work goes on behind the scenes, preparing the church for worship services. Members care for all linens and vessels used in the Eucharist, and are responsible to purchase flowers, wine, and other supplies. A team of bakers make our Eucharistic bread. The altar guild helps with baptisms, weddings, receptions,  and funerals, and decorates the church for special occasions.  New members are always welcome.
Altar Guild References


Chalice Bearers
Chalice bearers are lay people who serve the communion wine and lead the Prayers of the People at our Sunday services.  Some of our chalice bearers also serve as Lay Eucharistic Ministers, taking communion to our sick and shut-in members.

Lectors
Lectors read the Scriptures and lead psalm-reading at our worship services. There is a microphone in the church, so even those with soft voices can be lectors.


Music
Music at St. David’s ranges from traditional to contemporary. Our worship space features a a digital Johannus organ purchased in 2000 and a baby grand piano.   We often have percussion on a djembe and/or bodhran (hand drums) and chimes to accompany the piano. Our handbell choir and vocal choir offer music every few weeks except in the summer.  


Celtic Liturgy Planning Team
Eight times per year we have evening Communion services designed and led by a team of experienced lay people, working closely with our priest.  They choose the readings, music, and decorations for each service, tying them to the seasonal theme and the Gospel.  They also play a major role in leading the liturgy.  New members are paired with more experienced ones while they "learn the ropes."  
CLPT References


Visual Arts
St. David's has many artists within its community, and has always enjoyed its members' artistic contributions to our worship space and other areas of our facilities.  It reflects the beauty of God's world.  Examples of artwork enhancing our worship space include:

  • Wood carving on the Christus Rex behind the altar, the reredos around it, the side tables, and the altar.  There are also designs carved into the wooden eave boards on the north and south exterior of the church.

  • Painting on the reredos behind the altar.  Note that among the grapevines ("I am the vine, you are the branches"), symbols represent important  events at the beginning and end of Jesus's life -- clockwise from lower left, they are:

Fleur-de-lis -- represents the Trinity, which was in the beginning.
Rose -- Annunciation to the Virgin Mary
Star -- Christ's birth
Scallop shell -- Christ's baptism
Chalice -- the Last Supper
Crown of Thorns -- the Passion
Cross -- the Crucifixion
Butterfly -- the Resurrection

  • Stained glass -
    • A window to the left of the altar depicts the Annunciation. After vandalism, it was repaired and reinstalled with a protective outer covering in 2023 by Alex Brannin of American Art Glass in Spokane.  
    • The windows at the back of the church include the symbols from the reredos.
    • The memorial window in the main stairwell shows the descending dove of the Holy Spirit. 
    • A panel of the Nativity hanging in the chapel area at the back of the church.
    • In the narthex (just inside the front doors) is a stained glass window by artist Charles J. Connick of Boston, depicting Service.   Story of the Service window: It is one of a set of three created in 1921 for the vestibule of Boston University's Robinson Chapel; they depicted Service, Truth, and Worship.  When the Robinson Chapel was replaced by the Marsh Chapel in 1950, the three windows were reinstalled in the ground-floor Meditation Chapel room. Some time between 1950 and 1956, the Service window was installed in the original St. David's building. (We do not know when or why the windows left Boston, or where the other two windows went.  Bishop Cross had connections with the Connick Studio, who did many of the windows in St. John's Cathedral, so perhaps he was involved in obtaining it - ?)  When our current church building was erected in 1956, the Service window was moved to the main stairwell next to the original front doors.  In 2023 it was cleaned and restored by Alex Brannin of American Art Glass in Spokane, and installed in its current shadow box for protection.

  • Needlework done by our altar guild members adorns the kneelers and chair cushion.  The designs include the symbols from the reredos, the four Gospel writers, St. David's shield, the diocesan shield, and other themes.  Our members also embroider altar linens and create banners, seasonal hangings, and vestments.

  • Woodwork - Several of our members are talented woodworkers. They have built tables, pre-dieu (kneeling desks), pedestals, a standing cross we use on Good Friday and Easter, and other furniture for our worship space.

  • Metalwork - Silver and brass metalware decorate the church and are used during services. The metal window candelabra we use at Christmas and Easter include the symbols from on the reredos. Intricate patterns from nature decorate the niches in our columbarium.  A small metal shield on the trusswork above the front entrance includes symbols of the episcopate, the Holy Spirit, Jesus, and St. David.  

  • Brickwork - on the north exterior wall of the church is a Jerusalem cross worked into the wall structure.

  • Paintings, photographs, quilts, and other visual arts decorate the parish hall and are used in the church during special seasons.