Growing up in the Episcopal Church I have experienced the
liturgy designed by ancestors. I lived
through the prayer book changes of the 1970’s and the hymnal change in
1982. I have participated in liturgy
from the Book of Common Prayer, New Zealand’s version and the newer Enriching
Our Worship liturgy. I have said thee’s
and thou’s; identified God through masculine and patriarchal language; sung hymns
written since the 1600’s, folk songs made famous by people like Pete Seeger,
worship songs from many different progressive hymnals and cultures; and I have
found refuge in understanding the Anglican Communion to be a world-wide
community of Christians who worship in a distinct pattern.
I could be called an Anglican snob and maybe a liturgy junkie.
I am serving as a transitional deacon, kind of a cross
between a priest-in-training and a priest-assistant. (Deacon: “An order of the ordained ministry, charged
particularly with a servant role in behalf of those in need, and to assist
bishops and priests in the proclamation of the Gospel and the administration of
the Sacraments.” The Episcopal Handbook, page 215.
“Transitional” means I am on a bridge between a deacon and a priest, my
call is to be a priest. It’s about
process.) The church I am at has three Sunday
morning worship services and each has its own style. The 7:45 a.m. is traditional and quiet with
very little music; it is a small group of people. The 10:30 a.m. service uses traditional
liturgy as well but the choir usually sings and there is music throughout the
service; it is a medium sized congregation.
The 9:00 a.m. service is what I would call “experimental liturgy.” This is the service with the most
people. The liturgy is often written by
the priest using Episcopal liturgical structure—liturgy of the Word and liturgy
of the Table—but rewriting creeds and prayers, reading the Gospel but
incorporating other readings as well, involving movement through music and
having the congregation leave their pews to participate in the table
fellowship, i.e. Eucharist or Communion, surrounding the altar and receiving
Communion in the round.
It is fascinating to me to watch how people respond to the
experimental liturgy. It is interesting
to me to pay attention to how I am responding.
And I spend plenty of time thinking about this, because, as I have
admitted, I am an Anglican snob and a liturgy junkie. I like what the ancestors designed! But I am finding how willing I am to redefine
that liturgy because it is what is needed for people to understand who God is
and who they are to God.
This 9:00 service is not put together without considerable
thought, prayer and collaboration. A
team meets somewhat regularly to discuss what is working and what is not, or
what needs to change and what should not.
We talk about what we experienced, observed and heard. There are email exchanges asking for
feedback. As the newest person, I bring
a different perspective. I was not
around when folks discussed their first ideas, nor for the five years their
community spent figuring out how to make this work, or for the discussions
regarding adding a worship service without disrupting what has been. I wasn't there when they began their
experiment, but I get to pose questions, make comments and tell of my
observations, and it is okay when I do—it helps me learn their process but it
also helps them know how others perceive what they are doing.
Again, I am an Anglican snob. I like ritual and routine. So this experiment, where the Bishop placed
me in a community who experiments with some of the things I hold closest as an
Anglican, is making me think long and hard about what is really important in
worship. Is it in holding close the
traditions? Is it in the recitation of
Creeds, prayers and the Eucharistic Prayers found in the Book of Common
Prayer? Or is it more important to
experience the Holy Spirit at work through some changes in the way we “do
church?”
The way we “do church” has to be contextual. The community of faith must be able to talk
about who God is and where and how God is found in living as a faith
community. It does not necessarily look the
same, but the Anglican Communion, the Episcopal Church, has a set of guidelines
and ancient rules that are important in our identity as Episcopalians. There is beauty in those guidelines, in the
Book of Common Prayer, in the Hymnal, but at the same time we are a Church that
acknowledges the world and the way the Holy Spirit works in the world is not
stagnant. The way the Holy Spirit is
experienced, particularly in worship, needs to be part of how we design the way
we “do church.”
So I sit here trying to balance tradition with innovation,
history with now, strict guidelines with letting the Spirit move us; and my
mind, my gut and my spirit are twisting and turning because I understand it all
but I don’t know, right now, where I fit.
I KNOW the Spirit is present in all of the different ways we worship. I feel her presence and I see her impact
among the people there. The beauty of
these three services is that people can find the place they feel most fed in
their relationships with God because they have options. They get to experience and experiment to find
what works when all the while they are part of one another and a part of the
greater Church and the worldwide community of faithful folks.
None of these ways of worship is perfect. How we each enter the sanctuary for worship
affects the way we are open to the worship experience. That goes for clergy, too. I enter each service open to the
possibilities, willing to experience and experiment and grow because of it
all. I know this because I do not take
any of the worship for granted.
Something, sometime impacts me.
Sometimes it is the six month old who “sings” with the congregation;
sometimes it is the faces of the children, surrounding the altar, with the
candlelight illuminating their upturned faces as they watch the bread as it is
broken; sometimes it is in fellowship following a service or in the willingness
of another to confide in me; sometimes it is in watching two or three people
supporting one another. No matter what, I know the Holy Spirit is present and
that God holds us and that Jesus smiles when we are told that the bread and
wine are “Holy Food for Holy People;” because forever and for always, this is
Holy Ground. It is in how we experience,
explore and experiment that we are offered the excitement of being God’s
people!