Worship

General Seminary is a worshipping community. The daily rhythm of Morning and Evening Prayer, along with the daily celebration of the Holy Eucharist, creates a shared framework for our life together as Seminary community. During the school year our worship schedule includes over 20 services each week.  The integral relationship between worship and academics is a central hallmark of GTS and Seminary’s approach to formation for ministry.

The celebration of the Eucharist on Tuesday evening provides an opportunity for the entire seminary community to come together around the Lord’s Table, with children serving as acolytes, readers and singers.  On other days, a mid-day Eucharist enables the participation of faculty, students and daytime staff.  Sermons are preached by faculty members, senior students, and distinguished guests.  Evensong, a distinctive feature of the worship life of the Seminary over many generations, is sung four evenings each week.  Worship most frequently utilizes the Book of Common Prayer, but the new forms of Enriching Our Worship are also used and each week the Eucharist is celebrated according to the Lutheran rite. All members of the community —students, faculty members, staff, and family members--have a role to play in the worship life at GTS.

Three Seminary  guilds are central to the worship life of the Chapel . The Guild of Sacristans maintain the Chapel  and makes all necessary provisions for the smooth conduct of services.  The Guild of Precentors are cantors who provide vocal prompting at services and gather as a group on Monday evenings to lead the community in singing Compline.  The Guild of Chimers play the Seminary’s historic set of fifteen Durfee tubular tower chimes heard each morning and evening throughout the neighborhood of Chelsea. In a typical week, the community may sing more than sixty pieces of music, often supported by the Chapel’s three-manual 1958 Holtkamp organ, which was fully restored in the spring of 1996.