Our calendar (in the ‘Events’ section of this website) lists all services at St Nicolas and St Anne’s Churches. Always check this for any changes.
We value an inclusive approach to worship, with services that give people space to encounter God in their own way. St Anne’s and St Nicolas’ congregations currently worship separately, coming together for some special festival services. Our current pattern of Sunday services is given in the table below.
| Regular services | St Nicolas’ Taplow | St Anne’s Dropmore |
| 1st Sunday | 10.45 a.m. Parish Communion | |
| 2nd Sunday | 10.45 a.m. Parish Communion | 9.15 a.m. Holy Communion |
| 3rd Sunday | 10.45 a.m. Parish Communion | |
| 4th Sunday | 10.45 a.m. Worship for All Preceded by Refreshments from 10:15am | 9.15 a.m. Choral Matins |
| 5th Sunday | 10.45 a.m. Parish Communion | 9:15 a.m. Holy Communion |
| Each Wednesday | 12.30 Midweek Worship followed by lunch and ‘open Church’ for meditation and private prayer until 3.00p.m. |
| Special services | St Nicolas’ Taplow | St Anne’s Dropmore |
| Passion Sunday | 10.45a.m.: Holy Communion | 9.15a.m.: Holy Communion |
| Palm Sunday | 10.45a.m.: Joint Parish Eucharist and Palm Procession service for St Nicolas and St Anne’s starting on Taplow Village Green | |
| Holy Week: | ||
| Maundy Thursday | 7.00 p.m. Maundy Thursday Eucharist | |
| Good Friday | 2.00 p.m.: Reflective Worship at the Foot of the Cross. | |
|
Easter Sunday |
5:30a.m.: Dawn Service at Taeppa’s Mound followed by breakfast at the Rectory
10.45: Easter Communion |
9.15: Easter Communion |
| Ascension Day | 7.00 p.m. Festival Eucharist | |
| Sunday closest to St Anne’s Day | 6.30 p.m. Choral Evensong (St Nicolas’ Church choir) | |
| Harvest Festival | 10.45 a.m. Harvest Festival Communion | 3.00 p.m. Harvest Festival with Dropmore School |
| Remembrance Sunday | 10.15 a.m. Remembrance Service with Uniformed Organisations | |
| Advent 3 | 3.00 p.m. Carol Service with Dropmore School | |
| Advent 4 | 6.30 p.m. Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols | |
| Christmas Eve. | 5.00 p.m. Crib Service
11.30 p.m. Midnight Mass |
10.00 p.m. Christmas Communion |
| Christmas Day | 10.00 a.m. Christmas Communion | |
At St Anne’s, current services are based on The Book of Common Prayer with hymns from Hymns Ancient and Modern and 100 Hymns for Today. Psalms are taken from the Book of Common Prayer. The St Nicolas Choir leads Choral Matins on the fourth Sunday of the month.
St Nicolas’ Eucharist services have a robed mixed choir. After services, we gather for fellowship over refreshments. On the fourth Sunday of the month there is a Worship for All service in church which is preceded by refreshments. There is also a bookstall (raising money for church funds) and a monthly Tradecraft stall.
Our Sunday School and Crèche meet during Eucharist services.
INFORMATION ABOUT THE SERVICES AT ST NICOLAS TAPLOW
Special, changed or cancelled services will appear on the calendar; always check this. Also check the posts on our homepage for service updates. The service on Remembrance Sunday always starts 30 minutes earlier than usual i.e. 10.15 a.m. Christmas and Easter services will be shown as special events at the appropriate time of the year.
We try to maintain a quiet and dignified atmosphere to our worship. The robed Choir and organist attend all 10.45am services.
If you are unable to come to the high altar and would like to take communion please let a Sidesman or Churchwarden know before the service starts, so that we can come down and administer to you. After our 10.45am service we stay for fresh coffee, a biscuit and a chat. Please stay if you can – speak to a Churchwarden and they will tell you all about life at St. Nicolas and introduce you to some new friends. If you are to be married in St. Nicolas and have come to hear your Banns read please stay after the service and have coffee. You can have a look round the church talk to the clergy and the organist about music for your wedding and meet some of us! We know it can be a bit daunting if you are not regular church-goers – someone will spot you and make you feel welcome.
If you are new to the area, or visiting, please tell one of the Sidesmen or Churchwardens when you arrive and they will be happy to welcome and assist you. We welcome all people who normally take communion, in any Christian denomination, to join us and receive at the altar rail. For those who are not confirmed we encourage you to come forward for a blessing (please keep you head bowed so we can identify you).
In the Church of England, those who lead worship are bound to use only those forms of service that are authorized or allowed by the Church of England’s canon law.
The Church of England has two different but complementary sets of services: the 1662 Book of Common Prayer and Common Worship.
Book of Common Prayer The 1662 Book of Common Prayer is a permanent feature of the Church of England’s worship. It is loved for the beauty of its language and its services are widely used. It is also the foundation of a tradition of common prayer and a key source of the Church of England’s doctrine.
The first official liturgical text in English appeared in 1544 and the first complete Book of Common Prayer in 1549. The book went through several revisions until 1662, since when the wording of its services has remained unchanged.
The services which it contains – especially Morning and Evening Prayer and Holy Communion – are still used (with minor modifications or additions) in many churches throughout the country.
It has served as a model and inspiration for worship throughout the rest of the Anglican Communion. It is also one of the three ‘historic formularies’ of the Church of England, in which its doctrine is to be found (the other two – the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion and the Ordinal – are customarily published in the same volume). It cannot be altered or abandoned without the approval of Parliament.
Some of the services from The Book of Common Prayer also appear in Common Worship, presented as they are commonly used today and in a more modern layout.
Common Worship supplements the Book of Common Prayer with services and prayers in diverse styles. Most of the material is in contemporary language, but some of the services are based on those in the Book of Common Prayer, incorporating adaptations and additions that have become customary over the years.
The services and resources that comprise Common Worship represent the latest stage of a process of liturgical revision which began in the 1920s.
The Church of England, like other Christian churches, felt the need to produce liturgies that drew on the latest fruits of historical scholarship and at the same time met the pastoral needs of the times.
An attempt to revise The Book of Common Prayer came to an end in 1928, when Parliament rejected the proposals. Most of The 1928 Prayer Book services were eventually authorized for use in public worship in 1966 – some in amended form – as the First Series of Alternative Services.
Some of the ‘Series One’ services continue to be authorized for use in public worship although some do not and a period of experimentation with further Alternative Services (Series Two and Three) began in the mid-1960s and found its fruition in the publication of The Alternative Service Book (ASB) 1980. The Series Three services used contemporary English for the first time.
The ASB was authorized first for ten years and then for a further ten, but from 2000 it was replaced by a new generation of services, under the title Common Worship, which draws together the best of modern liturgy and the tradition of worship stemming from the The Book of Common Prayer.
The services were originally drafted by the Liturgical Commission. The Commission is made up of a variety of people with different expertise, including lay people, parish clergy and bishops, liturgists and theologians. The material was passed on to the House of Bishops, which amended the material as it saw fit. It was then presented to the General Synod.
Most of the Common Worship services are in a modern idiom, with vibrant images that seek to connect the Biblical tradition with people’s own experiences. A key concept is that of the Christian life as a journey – one in which those as yet uncommitted to the faith are also invited to join.
