HolyTrinityChapel - Saint Brendan's Online

Holy Trinity Chapel at Saint Brendan's

Thank you for your interest in Holy Trinity Chapel at Saint Brendan’s. Whatever your church background or experiences may have been, you will probably find things that are familiar and things that are different at Holy Trinity Chapel.

Holy Trinity Chapel is where Eucharistic worship is celebrated at Saint Brendan’s, a monastic, oblate, and retreat mission in the Celtic and Benedictine traditions. Holy Trinity Chapel is under the episcopal cover of the United Anglican Church, an Anglo-Catholic Communion within the larger, world-wide Anglican Church. Words that would describe us are: traditional, historic, conservative, evangelical, sacramental, liturgical, and charismatic. These various elements are woven together to produce a “cord of three strands which is not easily broken” (Ecclesiastes 4:12). What are these three strands? Keep reading!

Historic/Sacramental

From the beginning of the Church, following the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the faithful have always understood that they were a part of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church (‘catholic’ in this sense means “in accordance with the universal, undivided Church from the beginning”). From the richness of this heritage we are seeing a recovery of the beauty and authenticity of the ancient liturgies, symbols of worship, and the regular celebration of the Holy Eucharist (or Communion) which the earliest Christians observed every week. While some believers call the liturgy a “dead form” of worship, we hold that these ancient forms are neither dead nor alive, but only true or false; it is the people who are spiritually dead or alive. When spiritually alive people worship God in a true form of worship according to Apostolic Tradition, exciting things happen! Our Celebration of the Eucharist is based on a contemporized version of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer.

Evangelical

As part of the ancient faith of the Church, we confess the Holy Scriptures to be the inspired, infallible, and authoritative Word of God, containing all things necessary to salvation and godly living. We are committed to faithfully reading, studying, teaching, proclaiming, and living in obedience to the Scriptures. We also embrace the Evangelical message of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ lived out in holy life, discipleship, evangelism, and missions. Holy Trinity Chapel subscribes to a Statement of Faith that can be found here.

Charismatic

Holy Trinity Chapel does not strive to be 'trendy' but we do have opportunity in our worship for the use of contemporary praise music as well as the invitation to pray for people with anointing and the laying on of hands. Another distinguishing mark of Holy Trinity Chapel is our openness to the work of the Holy Spirit. God’s people have always been a spiritually gifted people. From the first Apostles on the Day of Pentecost to the Spirit-filled believers of today, Christians have been graced with charisms from the Holy Spirit for edifying the Body of Christ and for validating the authenticity of the Gospel. This means we not only allow, but anticipate the move of the Holy Spirit through His presence and power in the biblical operation of the spiritual gifts, both in our worship and our daily acts of service. These gifts may include prophecy, discernment, healing, wisdom, tongues, etc.

A Different Kind of Faith Community

In addition to our blended worship, Holy Trinity Chapel is fervently committed to the spiritual formation and discipleship of its members. This is an outflow of our monastic work at Saint Brendan’s. What does this look like? As German theologian Dietrich Bonheoffer once wrote, “When Jesus calls a man, He bids him come and die.” This kind of message—this call to be a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1-2)—stands in such contrast to America’s contemporary Christian message that it sounds like a foreign concept. We want to grow in this kind of intentional discipleship by inviting everyone who attends the Eucharist to stay after the service for fellowship and a detailed study of the lectionary Bible texts for that day, working together to ‘build’ the sermon and to seek the Holy Spirit’s guidance in how it applies to our lives and faith.

For the present time, Holy Trinity Chapel is located in the Priory House, meeting at 38 Cemetary Road in Dennysville. Sunday Eucharist begins promptly at 10:00 AM.