Join us for Worship on Sundays at 10:30 am and at various other times during special seasons.
Our doors are open to all who come near, and our hearts are open to receive those we meet. If you have been searching for a place to belong, we welcome you to join us and make yourself at home in our midst.
Our worship brings the community together to sing, to pray, to tell stories and to search for meaning. Our worship strives to be both challenging and rejuvenating. As we remember together how God is in our midst, we find new courage and strength to live with love and justice. We believe that this makes a difference in our lives, not just on Sunday, but throughout the week.
Each Sunday our worship includes a variety of music, readings from the Bible, a reflection on how that ancient wisdom might speak to our everyday lives, and time for prayer together. Our service format varies somewhat from week to week depending on the theme of the Sunday and whatever special events might be happening. The order of service for each Sunday is in the week’s bulletin and all the instructions you need to participate are also up on the screens. Usually we stand for hymns and sit for everything else.
Our Mission Statement
Prairie Spirit United Church is an inclusive community of faith, walking the path of Jesus as we worship God. We do this by engaging with our community, by offering our gifts to aid where we can, and by telling our faith stories to all generations.
What to Wear
Our congregation is varied and diverse. On any given Sunday, you will probably find someone in jeans and a t-shirt (shorts in the summer) and someone else wearing a tie. Wear whatever is comfortable for you.
Find Us
Prairie Spirit United Church is located at 207 Thompson Drive, located just off of Portage Avenue (north of Portage, west of Moray Street). Our main daily entrance is the south facing door (at the top of the cement stairs, off of the parking lot). This entrance takes you to the church office. The double doors facing onto Thompson Drive are open for use on Sunday for worship, concerts, funerals, and special events.
Accessibility
Our building is accessible with six handicapped spaces for parking (soon to be expanded) and a handicapped ramp on the south side. The west side main doors are ground level with a handicapped powered access door button. There are accessible washroom stalls in each of the main floor men’s and women’s washrooms and a fully accessible elevator to the lower level. The church also has off-street parking for 80 vehicles.
Assistive Hearing Devices
Assistive Hearing devices are available from the Sound Booth. Please visit there for a device to aid your participation in worship.
Large Print Bulletins
For Sunday services, we produce large print bulletins for those who would like a little extra magnification.
Scent-free
Our building is a scent-free zone. Please refrain from wearing any scented products. This helps all to breathe freely, and extends our care to those with allergies and respiratory illness.
Children
Children are an important part of our community of faith. Children of all ages are always welcome in our worship services.
Family Room
The Family Room is available with toys, comfy chairs, and a speaker that allows you to hear the service. Families with young children are welcome to use this space during the service.
What to Expect When You Arrive
If you come through the big brown doors, you will be greeted by a greeter. If you have any questions or concerns, our greeters are good people to ask.
Then you can head into the sanctuary where ushers will be stationed with bulletins. If you are the kind of person who likes to know what to expect, please ask for a bulletin.
Once you have a bulletin, you can find your way to whatever seat you like. While the ministers love to have people at the front, United Church people are famous for sitting towards the back. So, if you don’t want to sit by yourself, you might want to avoid the first three rows except during busy services like Christmas Eve when the sanctuary is mostly full.
Offering
We collect an offering at every Sunday service and most special services like Christmas Eve as well. The gifts offered by the congregation during worship as well as by pre-authorized remittance (PAR) help us to do the work of the church in this community.
As a visitor, we hope you will feel free to simply touch the plate to add your blessing. No one will notice as many of our regulars give monthly by PAR and don’t put anything in the offering plate either. As you begin to feel connected here, we hope you will want to support our ministry. Any contribution you can make helps.
To receive a tax receipt for your donation, we need to know who you are. You can do that by requesting a box of envelopes from the church office or by giving through PAR. Tax receipts are issued for donations received in the previous calendar year each February.
Communion
We celebrate the sacrament of communion together on the first Sunday of the month. Everyone is welcome – young and old, newcomer and long-time member, those who think they understand what communion means and those who find the whole thing very mysterious. In our communion celebrations, we give thanks to God for the goodness of life and we experience how God’s grace shared together in community can strengthen us for faithful living.
Communion is generally served by “intinction” (or rip and dip). We usually have stations for communion at the front of the sanctuary. After the communion prayers, the servers will be served and then you will be invited to come forward if you wish to receive communion. It is fine to choose not to come forward for communion.
If you come forward for communion, the bread server will rip off a piece of bread from the loaf and hand it to you. Then you will be invited to dip the piece of bread in the cup and eat it before returning to your pew. If someone would like communion, but would rather not come to the front, communion servers will bring them communion in the pew.
Because we believe that God’s invitation to come and eat is for all people regardless of allergies or addictions, we use grape juice at all stations instead of wine and we offer a gluten-free alternative to the wheat-based bread at the centre station upon request (with a separate cup for dipping to avoid cross-contamination).
Fellowship
After worship, we have an opportunity to talk more informally over refreshments usually served in the Narthex.