New to Nassau Presbyterian Church?
Sunday Morning Worship: Your First Visit

While a great deal of activity happens at Nassau Presbyterian Church throughout the week, the foundation of our week is Sunday worship at 9:15AM and 11:00AM [10:00AM Memorial Day through Labor Day]. The worship of God is a joy and a gift. If you are worshipping with us for the first time we welcome you and want you to know what you can expect. So, whether you're new to Christian worship, or just new to our particular congregation, here is some information about what you can expect.

• A warm welcome is waiting
• What do to when you arrive
• Finding your way around the church
• Standing and sitting
• Music and Singing
• Communion
• The Offering
• Coffee and Fellowship time
• Children
• Special Needs/Accessibility
• Maps
• Directions and Parking

A warm welcome is waiting
Everyone is welcome to attend our worship service. It doesn't matter if you have no religion, are of another religion, or if you've simply never been to church before. You will be greeted warmly and welcomed sincerely. We are happy you have joined us and we look forward to offering you hospitality. We invite you to fill out information in the fellowship pad found in each pew and to visit our Welcome Corner during fellowship between services in our Assembly Room. (return to top)

What to do when you arrive
When you arrive at the church (see Parking below) you'll want to head toward our worship area, or Sanctuary, where you will be greeted by a church member who will welcome you and give you an Order of Worship or Bulletin that will guide you through our worship service. Feel free to sit anywhere in the Sanctuary, including the balcony. (return to top)

Finding your way around the church

Christians have a unique vocabulary you may not be familiar with. For starters, we have special names to designate various places and objects within the church. Here's an overview to get you started:

It's...	We call it...
The room where worship is held, with all the pews (places to sit)	the Sanctuary
The front raised area in the sanctuary	the Chancel
The entranceway between the outside doors and the Sanctuary	a Narthex
The big table on the chancel – what some Christians would call an "altar"	Communion Table
The big 'lectern' where the pastors and other worship leaders read scripture and preach	the Pulpit
The octagonal stand with the water-filled bowl in the top	the Baptismal Font
Time for educational classes and other activities for children, youth and adults	Sunday School or Church School
The dark blue booklets that are found in the pews where you write down your name, contact information (if you want to), and other information	a Fellowship Pad
Books located in front of each seat	The Bible (with scriptures of the Old and New Testaments and a Hymnal (for singing)

(return to top)

Standing and sitting
In your bulletin, you can tell if the congregation will stand for a part of the worship service if it is marked with a '*' before the item. In addition, watch the pastors and other worship leaders, and you'll see gestures or instructions that also indicate when to stand or sit.

Our church includes people of various physical abilities, and we invite you to stay seated at any time if that is more appropriate or comfortable for you. We also have several pews large enough to accommodate wheelchairs and walkers. (return to top)

Music and Singing
We are truly a congregation that loves music and is blessed with many talents in our music ministry.

For what we sing as a whole congregation together, we appreciate and like to incorporate musical gifts from the many different traditions and cultures within Christianity. On any given Sunday, we might sing some traditional church hymns like "A Mighty Fortress is Our God" or "Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee", an old gospel hymn like "Amazing Grace" or "Blessed Assurance", an African song like "Hallelujah! We Sing Your Praises!" or "Siyahamba", a modern folk-liturgical piece like "Gather Us In" or "Blest Are They", or a chant from the Taize community like "Eat This Bread" or " Jesus, Remember Me". Most often our congregation's singing is accompanied by our pipe organ, but we also sometimes use piano, other instruments, and even occasionally some percussion as appropriate to the style of a song.

In addition to the congregation's own singing, our worship includes pieces in a variety of styles sung by our choirs, songs sung by soloists, and instrumental pieces on handbells, brass, flute, strings, piano, or pipe organ. (return to top)

Communion
On the first Sunday of each month, and on some additional special occasions, we celebrate the sacrament of Holy Communion (also known by some Christians as "the Lord's Supper" or "the Eucharist"). Everyone is welcome to participate. The sacrament is open to everyone--regardless of your religious denomination, church membership, gender, sexual orientation, race, language or age.

If you're not comfortable, or feel that you don't understand the sacrament well enough to take part, just stay in your seat and don't worry. No one will pressure you to take part. But, if you do want to take part but don't know what to do, our pastors will give brief instructions, or you can just do what the people sitting around you are doing. (return to top)

The Offering
The offering is an act of worship and thanksgiving for Christians. It is an action of our belief that everything we have comes from God. It is also an act of generosity. Offerings support the ministry of our church and various outreach and mission programs locally, across the United States and throughout the world. During worship an offering plate is passed down the pews.Visitors are not expected to participate in the offering, and it is perfectly acceptable for you to let the offering plate pass you by. But you are certainly welcome to contribute.

If you decide to make Nassau Presbyterian Church your church home we hope you will consider regular participation in our offering, and you can choose from many different ways to contribute your time, talents, and resources. (return to top)

Fellowship and Coffee time
Between the worship services at 10:15AM (in summer at 11:00AM we gather in the Assembly Room behind the sanctuary for fellowship and refreshments. If you're a newcomer, please feel free to stay and join us. You'll find our Welcome Corner which is a place to stop by, ask questions and find out more information about our church. (return to top)

Children
We are always delighted to welcome children into our worship and children of any and all ages are welcome to stay with their families throughout the whole of the worship service. At 9:15AM most children are in worship for the first part of the service. About 15 minutes into the service, they are dismissed to Church School. There are volunteers to help you find your way to a class.

For the very young among us, we have child care available in the church nursery. In addition, the "old narthex" out the back of our sanctuary makes a great quiet space for parents and children if you need to leave the sanctuary during the service (but a space where you can still see and hear what's going on in the sanctuary).

We have lots of information on this site about our activites for children and youth. (return to top)

Special Needs/Accessibility
Nassau Presbyterian Church is wheelchair accessible. The Accessible entrance to the building is found from the parking lot and through the ramp to our side door. An elevator is located near the ramp entrance and goes both up to the 2nd floor and to the lower basement floor. We also have two wheelchairs available inside the church.

We also provide mobile hearing aids connected to our sound system and large print worship orders. Please feel free to ask a greeter or usher for any specific need you may have.

Our church includes people of various physical abilities, and we invite you to stay seated at any time during worship if that is more appropriate or comfortable for you. We also have several pews large enough to accommodate wheelchairs and walkers. (return to top)