United Apostolic Church Europe

Divine Service

The divine service is the main medium of the preaching of the gospel in our congregations. Normally every sunday morning a divine service takes place in all our congregations. In several of them there is also a service on
wednesdays which is sometimes in a different form (devotion, discussion, meditation). Every first sunday of a month there are district services in some regions in the afternoon. Our services take place in a simple way. The sermon dominates, symbols are inferior.

The apostolic sunday service has its climax in the Holy Communion after the sermon.

Now we want to give you a short summary of our sunday service:

• Singing of the congregation while the ministries enter
• The office in charge of the service goes to the altar looking at the congregation (The Elders are responsible for the rotating service of the ministries
• Opening prayer, spoken freely by the ministry in charge
• Reading of a passage of the Bible, which is chosen by the Apostles for the whole of Europe
• Singing of the choir
• Free preach of the ministry in charge (about 20 minutes)
• Singing of the church choir or the congregation
• Preaching of one or two more ministries
• Common prayer of the "Our Father" as creed for the foregiveness of sins
• Announcement of the foregiving of sins through the minister
• Free prayer and consecration of wine/juice and wafer for the Holy Communion
• Communion of the ministries with wafer which is dipped in wine/juice
• While the congregation is singing together the longing go to the altar and receive dipped wafers also
• Back at their place the believers commence their own silent prayer
• Thanksgiving prayer final blessing of the minister which is answered by a threefold sung "Amen"
• A final singing of the whole congregation or the church choir

Parallel to the sunday service there are special divine services for our children (sunday school).

After the service in many congregations the brothers and sisters gather for a coffee and a discussion about the service.

It is normal that throughout the year some services are held in a different manner (family services, thanksgiving, discussion, meditation). In spring and autumn there are also supraregional special services for the youth, where
they participate in the preparation.