St. Stephen’s DC using ‘Rite 4: An Experimental Liturgy for the Eucharist’
St. Stephen & the Incarnation Episcopal Church, Washington DC, Trinity Sunday 2025, Rev. Yoimel Gonzalez Hernandez presiding.
St. Stephen & the Incarnation Episcopal Church, Washington DC, has begun using Services A & B from Rite 4: An Experimental Liturgy for the Eucharist, Based on the Book of Common Prayer.
St. Stephen’s began introducing the Rite 4 texts into its English-language services on Trinity Sunday 2025. Rector Yoimel Gonzalez Hernandez commented, “As a parish long known for Christian witness and liturgical reform, we are pleased and grateful that the Bishop has allowed us to experiment with this inclusive- and expansive-language liturgy. We hope to broaden the St. Stephen’s worship experience, to offer useful feedback, and perhaps also to develop a Spanish-language version of Rite 4.”
Meticulously updating the Book of Common Prayer, Rite 4 offers inclusive, graceful texts and a flexible, modular framework for the Eucharist liturgy of the Episcopal Church. The Base Texts update historical BCP forms in an inclusive but fairly traditional idiom, while the Contemporary Texts are further adapted to contemporary language and sensibilities.
Services A & B present the Rite 4 texts under the rubrics of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer. Service A presents the Contemporary Texts under the rubrics of Rite II, while Service B presents the Base Texts under the rubrics of Rite I. Either service may be used alone or as a menu of alternative texts to selectively replace the corresponding texts in a Rite II or Rite I service. In addition, corresponding words or phrases that differ in Services A & B may usually be exchanged between them, allowing limited customization of individual Rite 4 texts.
St. Stephen & the Incarnation Episcopal Church / San Esteban y la Encarnación, Washington DC, is a diverse, welcoming church community that feeds the spirit and the body in building the presence of God through worship, service, learning, and striving for justice. St. Stephen’s was the first racially integrated Episcopal church in DC; the first in the nation where a woman publicly presided at the Eucharist; and the instigators of the first same-sex holy union ceremony. Worship includes English- and Spanish-language services. Loaves & Fishes, St. Stephen’s main service ministry since 1968, provides 250 meals each Saturday, Sunday, and federal holiday.
Trinity Press is a small independent publisher located in Washington DC. Rite 4: An Experimental Liturgy for the Eucharist, Based on the Book of Common Prayer was developed by J.A. Frazer, a lay member of St. Stephens. Publication is expected in late 2025 — but until then you can download free PDF booklets with the current forms of the Rite 4 texts at www.TrinityPress.org.