"O Lord, Open Thou my lips." The prayer of the Psalmist is the prayer of the congregation at Memorial Lutheran Church as we gather to receive God's good gifts in Word and Sacrament. Divine Service at Memorial Lutheran Church is first God's gift to us, then our response to our Lord through prayer and song in the liturgy. Our practice is shaped by the very Word of God Himself: to quote the introduction to Lutheran Worship, "Saying back to him what he has said to us, we repeat what is most true and sure. Most true and sure is his name, which he put upon us with the water of our Baptism. We are his." (Introduction to Lutheran Worship, p. 6).
The congregation at Memorial Lutheran Church cherishes the heritage we have received from the saints who have gone before. Our sense of continuity within the succession of the saints is demonstrated in the high regard in which we hold the familiar liturgies that have been handed down to us. Our practice is not simply veneration of relics, however. Careful use of expressions crafted in the succeeding years after The Lutheran Hymnal and Lutheran Worship, as provided by Synod's Commission on Worship, are part of our practice. Memorial Lutheran Church diligently protects our deliberately Lutheran identity in the public practice of our congregational worship life.
