Category: Worship

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The lost would-be Unitarian hymnal

The old joke that Unitarians believe in “one God at most” lives again in the paucity of resources we develop, projects we plan or visions we tolerate. Today, it’s “one idea at most” — and they’re rarely new.

One option at most for anything with Unitarian Universalism, even though our ancestors both on the Unitarian and Universalist sides were able to produce a variety of hymnals and different worship resources for differing churchmanships and congregation size, and with fewer people and at higher cost. We even had hymnals for church schools and social groups. Imagine what they would do with word processors and an on-demand book publisher like Lulu.com. The difference is will.

For years but particularly recently, I’ve been trying to figure out what would have been the trajectory of Unitarian (and) Universalist hymnody if it had not gone down a path lain down by Kenneth Patton, the influential editor of the “old blue” Hymns for the Celebration of Life. One practical reason is that such a hymnal might work better for Christian Unitarian Universalists.

And recently, I was in Massachusetts for friend, minister and blogger Victoria Weinstein’s installation, and spent a day researching at Harvard Divinity’s archives: I have and shall report out from those discoveries. But the library closed long before my train left Boston, so I went to the Harvard Co-Op to right a wrong. I had to buy the fourth edition (2007) of the Harvard University Hymn Book. I had opted against it the last time I was there.

When I came home, I started using old directories for background research, and look what I found. From the 1892 Year Book.

Selection_076

The Harvard University hymnal was once considered a suitable hymnal for Unitarian churches. “Of course it was,” I mused. 2014-04-01 23.53.27

And the more I look at it, I see the new edition would work in a liberal Christian church, including a Unitarian (or) Universalist one, the name notwithstanding. But here are a few (and hardly exhaustive) things I like about it, both serious and frivolous:

  1. It’s in very good taste and well typeset.
  2. It’s full of Unitarian standards like “Holy Spirit, Truth Divine” “Lord of All Being, Throned Afar” and “Life of Ages, Richly Poured”
  3. It has a good assortment of “canonical” spirituals and gospel songs, like “Shall We Gather At the River” “Lift Every Voice and Sing” and “There Is a Balm in Gilead.” “What Wondrous Love” keeps the Lamb.
  4. In good Hymns of the Spirit (1938) style, “God of Grace and God of Glory” is matched to Regent Square, not Cwm Rhondda, which we see fitly with “Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah.”
  5. It has good hymns newer than 1938. “Hope of the World, Thou Christ of Great Compassion” and “For the Fruit of All Creation” — ok: not many.
  6. Older hymns are altered more gently than say, in the UCC’s New Century Hymnal, while newer hymns are more gender-inclusive. (I’ve not made a close read of inclusive language for human beings, which I think is a more pressing claim for revision.)
  7. No need to tip in “Christ Jesus Lay in Death’s Strong Bands” (which always makes me cry) “O Sacred Head, Now Wounded” and “We Three Kings”

But

  1. There’s no responsive readings or service elements.
  2. No “Morning So Fair to See” “Eternal Ruler of the Ceaseless Round” or “O Life That Makest All Things New”
  3. I could do without the patriotic songs at the back.
  4. At $30, it isn’t cheap.
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"The Worship of a Unitarian Church" (1901)

I’ll be refering to this chapter (“The Worship of a Unitarian Church”) from the 1901 Handbook for Unitarian Congregational Churches for a few, scattered blog posts,to consider what habits and attitudes in worship and organization remain with us, if perhaps under a different cover.

So I present the following for your reference.

The Worship of a Unitarian Church

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It's not polity LARPing or worship re-enacting

Here’s the word: Christians and the nameless group who appeal to accustomed polity standards (like plain congregationalism) not play-acting. We have something to say and something to offer.

I’ve been in this game for a long time now. And so it’s not hard to tell when I’m being sidelined or even gently insulted, although I didn’t understand this at first.

  • Oh, you’re a nineteenth-century Universalist.
  • I didn’t know there are any Christians left.
  • That’s fine for traditionalists like you but what you suggest isn’t practical.

There’s the insinuation that anyone who’s a Christian is being obstinate, or that our presence is indulged as some sort of polite inheritance. The same goes for anyone who insists that the processes within our religious institution should be held to a higher standard of democratic and spiritual accountability, using historic models of how Unitarian and Universalists organize. What better way to sideline people than to tell them they don’t belong, or that they belong to another era.

There’s the cruel insinuation that our religious lives are some kind of live-action role playing (LARP) game and that the way we worship is more about re-enacting then having moments of profound spiritual joy or insight.

They're probably not talking about the Universalist General Convention. CC-BY-SA, Wikipedia/user, JensNiros
They’re probably not talking about the Universalist General Convention. CC-BY-SA, Wikipedia/user, JensNiros

To me, the issues are fundamental. Does Unitarian Universalism include a assortment of customs and churchmanships (we need a new word for that) that can cooperate without trying to undo each other? Meaning that there needs to be room for each to grow. Unitarian Universalism is increasingly a brand name: a kind of politically-involved, community-focused, liberal eclecticism, within in the bounds of respectability.

Or are we just subject to the American fascination for the new? Unitarian Universalists have the uniquely unsavory prospect of outliving what they have come to know is good and true.

I bring this up now because I have been posting so much historical material lately. I don’t necessarily feel old works should be used as-is, but the tendency to write off any resource or development (except trust funds) that’s more than a few years old means that we don’t dwell with our ancestors long enough to learn from them. Would it hurt to try? We don’t get inside their heads to see what they valued and what they rejected; we don’t understad their process. And because we don’t understand well what made them tick, it’s hard to see the arc of Universalist or Unitarian culture, past individual personal preference. How we do what we do is not an accident, but in many cases an inheritance. (I’ll post a couple of examples of “living fossils” within Unitarian Universalism when I come across them again.)

And once we understand how our traditions evolved, it become easier to draw on old cultural resources, adapting them to our own time. This is a serious practical matter. We have a thinner corpus of go-to worship, education and (perhaps) administration resources than we did 25 years ago. Through the Internet, the cost of storage and “duplication” has dropped to nearly nil, so we should be awash in resources, but we aren’t. It makes sense to reuse and recycle; I suspect money’s going to get tighter in the next 25 years. Room for everyone, and resources for all.

 

 

 

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"A Hundred Unitarian Sunday Circles" (1895)

Moving back another generation from the Lay Centers I wrote about last week.

A HUNDRED UNITARIAN SUNDAY CIRCLES

What is the next aggressive missionary movement for the Unitarians of this country to give their attention to? I believe it is the establishment of religious Sunday circles, or what I may call simple parlor churches, in a hundred–yes, in five hundred–communities where there are now no liberal religious churches or services.
Continue reading “"A Hundred Unitarian Sunday Circles" (1895)”

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Please don't worship in the round

Small congregations, or small groups within congregations, have the tenacious habit of pulling a set of chairs into a circle for worship. The idea is that this is intimate, thus warm and friendly. Thus good.

But there’s another way of looking at worship in the round that argues against it.

1. The circle is invariably closed. It needs to be broken open to admit participants, which is awkward for newcomers or latecomers. It is fixed in size, meaning it literally must be deformed to accommodate more. Both requires the cooperation of others, who will be strangers if you are new. And draws attention.

2. If the service has one or two speakers, up to half of the group will get a rear or sharp side view, and most people will be twisted in their seats.

3. Not a problem for everyone, but you will watch people pray, or make an effort to not do so. And others will watch you. No room for a private thought, a private tear.

It’s worth remembering that newcomers may not be there too meet you in worship. Even for small groups, sitting in rows has its well-deserved place.

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Use Universalist celebrations to flesh out your church year

Even though you occasionally hear about Unitarian or Universalist preachers using a lectionary — indeed, a handful of churches have a well-established lectionary tradition — most UU preaching is topical, with the sermon and other observances hanging off of a holiday. If there is one to be had. Otherwise it’s Preacher’s Choice: which can be magical from a great pulpiteer, but too often the effect is uneven or eccentric.

In which case, it makes sense to rehabilitate the observances commended by the Universalist General Convention generations ago. In any case, it provides an excuse to put an idea on the calendar, and that can be one less blessed thing to think about.

Links refer to prior blog posts on the subject; for Japan Sunday, you might read ICUU or IARF. Presented here are set opportunities for new member welcome or recognition; religious education; child dedication or baptism; remembering the dead in our circles from the last year; the common origins and destiny of humanity; our foreign work; and (well) Christmas.

The observances:

  • Easter Sunday: a Service of Recognition be held, “at which time persons baptized in childhood, and others, may be welcomed by suitable rites to membership of the Church.”
  • Educational Sunday: the third Sunday of May,  “for the presentation to the people of the educational interests of our Church…”
  • Children’s Sunday: the second Sunday in June, “that parents and guardians be encouraged and invited to bring their children to the altar on that day for baptism or dedication to the service of the Lord.”
  • Memorial Sunday: the first Sunday of October, “for commemorating those friends who, during the year, have been taken away by death.”
  • All-Souls Sunday: the first Sunday of November, “for a special celebration of our distinguishing doctrine, the Scriptural truth that all souls are God’s children, and that finally, by His grace attending them, they will all be saved from the power of sin, and will live and reign with Him forever in holiness and happiness.”
  • Japan Sunday: the fourth Sunday in November, “for the presentation of the claims of our Foreign Work and for soliciting pecuniary aid therefor.”
  • Christmas Sunday: Sunday nearest Christmas, be “observed by appropriate services”

 

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Accidental Google auto-complete liturgy

bitb_google-liturgy_1_20140211Google Poetics is a Tumblr that presents a series of auto-completed Google searches, and relishes the accidental poetry it creates. Sometimes in borders on the profound — the wisdom of the crowds manifest? — but often there’s a screwball punchline. I recommend it.

I thought I’d try it, using a couple a well-worn Unitarian Universalist liturgical phrasings; success!

We light it up
We light a thousand candles bright
We light the candles
We light em up

bitb_google-liturgy_2_20140211We light this candle
We light this candle in memory of
We light this chalice
We light this chalice to celebrate Unitarian Universalism

What do you think? Have you tried a phrase?

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Voice of America hint for church reading

A thought about worship technique. Too many times I’ve heard a reader or preacher speak too quickly, too indistinctly or both to be easily understood. A large room and poor (or missing) amplification and you can give it up.

If this is your problem to overcome, I’d like to commend listening to the Voice of America’s Learning English (formerly Special English) broadcasts. They are spoken slowly, clearly and in a simplified vocabulary. It’s really quite easy to listen to, and this particularly notable when an interview subject mumbles, speeds or makes verbal curlicue. The pacing isn’t always right for worship, but the price is.

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Following on Mandela: how a small church can hold a vigil

Last time, I mentioned I took my prayerbook to the South African embassy to pay my respects after the death of Nelson Mandela; I used it too, reading part of the funeral office near the embassy.

On my walk back I thought of all of the public calamities and thanksgivings and losses a church might face, and thought of the problems it would have putting on such an observance. Not that a church should have an act of worship at such times, but the very practical issue of how. Sitting and hearing a sermon thoughtful words isn’t gong to cut it.

I think a procession would be a good way for a small church or pair of churches to hold such an observance. With a single church, the participants could meet near the front door making a statement of purpose rallied around some relevant artifact, like the photo of the deceased or basket to collect goods for some disaster plagued area. The group then could process to the front of the church with their artifacts and hold the ceremonial parts of service. With two adjacent churches, the joint congregation could start at one, process to the other, and there end the service. If the commemoration is likely to spread past the particular congregation(s), and the buildings are not hidden, then an outside garden is the better place.

And what to say, sing? It can — indeed, should — be simple: movements make up the heart of the service. After the statement of purpose, the participants draw close to focal point. The leader may pray in commemoration of the event, then lead the people in their procession. If there is a suitable prayer, hymn or chant, let it be sung. It should be simple and rhythmic. At the destination, be it an altar-like space at the one church, or at the second church if there are two. A brief passage of praise, but if there’s a sung anthem it should be stirring and short. We have participants here, not an audience. And let the participants make their offerings — flowers, food. candles. notes. A blessing may follow, at which the leader should withhdraw. But keep the space open for silent prayer and — as may happen — tears.

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If you don't have millions to buy a Bay Psalm Book

This week one of the eleven surviving copies of the 1640 Bay Psalm Book, the first book printed in English North America, sold at auction.

The owner was Old South Church, Boston, and the sale reminded me of all the old Unitarian communion plate that was sold to keep the staff paid, the furnace stoked or the roof on.

Though I respect our history, I respect the institutions more. And there’s something sad when a communion cup or psalter becomes so valuable as an artifact that it loses its intended use; it’s like the Velveteen Rabbit in reverse. As treasure, the silver and the printed pages become less real. They were real because they were instruments of praise and thanksgiving. Better then, I think that they can be sold, conserved and placed on display, as indeed the new Psalm Book’s owner, David Rubenstein, intends to do. (He owns two of the eleven.)

Better still to keep the Great Thanksgiving at table, and our praises in song. And if you want to pray from the Bay Psalm Book… well, then thank God: you can read it online, in this 1903 facsimile reprint.