WHICH ALL SOULS SERVICE SHOULD I ATTEND?
All Souls offers four regular worship services to choose from. The themes and theology of each of the services are the same, but the liturgy and style of the services differ.
Sunday mornings, the 10:00 traditional service is rooted in the liturgical form of traditional American mainline Protestant worship (hymnals, pipe organ, choir in the loft, etc.).
The 11:30 Sunday service is rooted in the liturgical style of a contemporary American Protestant worship service (songs projected on a screen, choir, drums and amplified music in front, animated unison singing at the beginning, etc.).
The first Friday of the month October through May at 7:00 pm, our alternative service, Soulful Sundown, uses mostly secular forms of expression (video, popular music, dance, etc.) to illustrate the themes, principles and theology of All Souls.
Wednesday night chapels (Labor Day through Memorial Day) at 6:30 are short, intimate, informal midweek services that include a wide range of musical styles including folk, bluegrass, classical, jazz, popular and more.
Some people come to one of them - some people come to all of them. 16th century Unitarian Francis David said, "We need not think alike to love alike," and in the 21st century, at All Souls Unitarian Church we need not worship alike to love alike.
WHY DOES ALL SOULS OFFER DIFFERENT STYLES OF WORSHIP?
All Souls began in 1921 with a traditional mainline Protestant style of worship with a liberal religious message. In the 1990's All Souls began an informal, mid-week service on Wednesday nights in conjunction with education programming. Then, in 2001, All Souls began our Soulful Sundown service,
based in secular forms of expression, as a way of offering our message
to the growing group of unchurched people in our community. In 2008, All Souls had the opportunity to begin a contemporary service
with the inclusion of the New Dimensions Chorale and this has allowed
us to offer our message with a new generation of people who have grown
up in contemporary Christian worship, but who are looking for a
liberal, progressive theological message and community.
Today, All Souls
offers the same themes and theology in different liturgical forms in
order to share our message and mission as widely as possible. What we have learned
since 2008 is that there are a lot of religious refugees fleeing the
Non-denominational, Pentecostal and Charismatic churches in Tulsa who
are looking for the relevant and progressive message we offer and yet
who are accustomed to a more contemporary Protestant style of worship.
The growth and popularity of all four of our services has shown us, what other churches discovered years ago. We
believe our message and mission is so important in the present and to
future that we continually seek new ways to offer it.