Category: Worship

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A big bunch of ecumenical liturgy elements

I like ecumenical liturgy for a number of reasons, not the least of which is a human truism that you can “get away” with certain peculiarities if you show your unity in other ways.

I’ve written about this before so I’ll spare you the bla-bla-bla.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has a very nice worship resources site (as a prelude to a revision of its worship book) that has the English Language Liturgical Commission texts of several important texts.

Texts from the English Language Liturgical Consultation

Ironically, they aren’t available at the ELLC’s oh-so-1996 site.

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Accidential clericalism

There’s a curious Unitarian Universalist practice where a good number of ministers use the writings of other Unitarian Universalist ministers “as a reading” for the pulpit, elevating to the defacto level of scripture. Much of what follows also applies to the endless references to popular writers and poets I heard used in Unitarian Universalist sermons.

I know the intent is to bring fresh ideas to the pulpit. I can appreciate that, if not adopt the practice. It seems to drastically compress the process by which ideas are tested as being normative for a group. Next, it allows preachers to cherry-pick agreeable ideas, leading to insularity. Last — and perhaps most pressing — it establishes the insider’s view and rewards prestige and power.

A funny conundrum, that. I’ll stick to the Bible.

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Because your friends won't tell you: Liturgical candle lighting

If you are leading (some part of) worship and this involves lighting a candle before the congregation — this could be an Advent wreath, a flaming chalices, candles punctuating prayer or its alternative, or what have you — light it with some ceremony.

Don’t use a match, a lighter, or one of those clicky-things you’d use to start your barbecue grill.

Do take a page from chanukiah lighting and use a shamash (“servant”) candle to light the “main” candles. Indeed, Chanukah candles are perfect for this, so do get them on sale after the festival is over. If you don’t want to see the flame before the liturgical action, a secure but obscured tea light or votive candle (perhaps in a glass holder with opaque sides) can be rigged before the service.

Do prelight (and extinguish) all candles to be used before the service. The charred wick lights much faster; this is a fact we all know but which never seems to make a liturgical to-do list.

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A rabbi, a priest, an imam, and a minister go to the Astrodome . . . .

If the title sounds like the beginning of an old joke, then it follows a week of the cruelest possible jokes. I suppose some people will find it in poorest taste that a couple of dozen revellers decided to go ahead with Southern Decadence, the “gay Mardi Gras” event, but at least that sounds like New Orleans. Better to laugh than cry, sometimes at least. I suspect the two have blended in the full, coupled with mania, desperation, and perhaps madness.

We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord.
That it may please thee to minister unto such as are any ways afflicted or distressed in mind, body, or estate, to comfort and relieve them according, to their need, giving them patience under their trials, and a happy issue out of all their afflictions.

Just a little something from the litany of a 1894 Universalist prayerbook. I think it’s time to start doing a bit more theology and Christian nurturance, peppered with the occasional comment about the disaster and some helpful tips about preparing against future disaster. (I still think a few thousand pressuring letters to the President would prove useful.)

FEMA photo of religious leaders in worship September 4.

Yesterday, in the Astrodome, there was held some kind of religious service. I know the civil authorities at the Astrodome (which is whom, I wonder) have to be everything to everyone but I’ve been in enough interfaith events to know they’re a bit forced and contrived even in the best and most agreeable circumstances. And given these circumstances, I can’t help but think that it must have seemed awkward and paradoxically both the right thing to do, and perfectly useless.

The photos are from FEMA (public domain), and the one above had the caption

Houston, TX., September 4, 2005 — Archbishop Joseph A. Fiorenza (at podium), Rev. Bill Lawson (left to right), Sheik Mustafa Mahmoud and Rabi [sic] David Rosen deliver Sunday services to Hurricane Katrina evacuees housed in the Red Cross shelter in the Houston Astrodome. FEMA photo/Andrea Booher

What would you do if you were in such a circumstance: either behind podium — a bad visual, I must add — a relief worker on the floor, or one of the thousands brought there? What spiritual gifts and graces would you bring to bear? James at Peregrinato begins this thought.

FEMA photo of people attending worship on September 4.

Houston, TX., September 9, [sic] 2005 — Alezhanjla and Gary Mutin, Hurricane Katrina evacuees, listen to Sunday services given by Rev. Bill Lawson, Sheik Mustafa Mahmoud, Archbishop Joseph A. Fiorenz (left to right),and Rabi David Rosen (at podium) in the Red Cross shelter in the Houston Astrodome. FEMA photo/Andrea Booher

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Gospel Liturgy on eBay

There’s a copy of the Gospel Liturgy for auction at eBay.

And copy of the Unitarian and Free Christian Celebrating Life: A Book of Special Services. Worth having.

That’s all.

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New page on UU best liturgical practices

I detest “joys and concerns”, chalice lightings, “Spirit of Life” — indeed, nearly all the customary trappings of mainline Unitarian Universalist worship, but I would rather they be done well than done badly. (True too of announcements in any setting.)

That’s why I give props to Unitarian Universalist Best Practices: Chalices, Joys & Concerns, and other Sunday Service components, a new site written by Connie Barlow. She and her husband are the people who bring you The Great Story, a naturalistic metanarrative program. Since her observations are based on presentation in a hundred and fifty UU congregations, some of you have surely seen them and they ought to have the raw data to make observations about liturgical practice. (Do comment.) Again, not my thing but the fact that someone is thinking in big terms without the need to water down their own core orientation is noteworthy and should inspire those who work from other starting points.

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Mennonite USA "Best Practices" resources

I’ll be highlighting some denominational resources from other denominations. Some may be used as-is; others will need adaptation. But I think it is probably better stewardship to use (and promote) the good works of others than necessarily recreate them for oneself.

Not software, but free-of-charge best practices papers you can download from the Mennonite Church USA bookstore. The bookstore interface seemed funny until I realize you can get their for-sale items from the same site. I thought the school textbook covers — as an alternative to what the military gives out — was a nifty offering.

To get the DOC file, follow the link for more information.

Best Practices for Leaders

If you don’t have MS Word, use the open-source OpenOffice.org office suite. That’s what I’ve done for years.

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Infection and the common cup

Nature, it is said, abhors a vacuum, and churches abhor ordinary practices that can’t be justified in ways that theological standards are. I sigh when certain Unitarian Universalist ministers (whom I otherwise admire) make outlandish claims about the symbolic — I’ve even heard the word sacramental — importance of taking the Sunday offering. Does this mean direct deposit would be a liturgical reform? A crisis of faith?

I bring this up because of the plain division in communion practices seen in Protestant churches. I’ve only served (and now attend) churches that use small glasses in trays, derisively (if descriptively) called “shot glasses” by the uninformed or dismissive.

I don’t particularly like them. They’re messy, hard to handle, and noisy. If new, they’re expensive or cheaply made. In small churches, they’re overkill. (Though I’ve seen versions that work for very small churches which appeal to the gadget-freak in me. In particular, I’ve seen a rectangular tray with cut-outs for, say, twelve small glasses with a handle that reaches lenghtwise over the top. Imagine if a traditional milkman was doubling as a parson. The ones I’ve seen hearken back to hobbiest woodshops, and I love them the more for it. A smaller version of the one on the left of this image.)

While associated with Protestantism, it isn’t a particularly old use. Look to all that antique communion silver auctioned out of New England Unitarian churches: you find common cups. The common cup is a livelier symbol of the Great Thanksgiving, a more precious emblem for the church, and heck of a lot easier to carry and keep clean. It is — as they say in the software world — a scalable solution. (A flagon helps; indeed, certain Unitarian rites carry over an almost medieval importance to the pouring that I appreciate. Why some Episcopalians make such a deal of the fraction but do nothing with the pouring is beyond me.)

But the reason for the small cups being introduced continues to haunt churches: the fear of contagen. While it may take some convincing, and some basic hygenic steps, the common cup is safe. You probably are at more risk of catching some illnesses by shaking hands or breathing the same air. Receiving an HIV infection isn’t in the cards. (Cholera was probably the disease that first prompted the individual cups.)

While there should be extra precautions for immune-suppressed individuals and for communion in a hospital setting, there’s no reason to paint the common cup with unfounded charges.

Here’s a good briefing paper.

Eucharistic practice and the risk of infection (Anglican Church of Canada)

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Light a lava lamp for me and other unspoken prayers

I’m not sure the Lava Lamp at Emergingchurch.info is pre-post-modern or post-pre-modern, but it is good for literally seconds of pray-fo-tainment.

File it under “proof of concept for non-verbal prayer” except, whoops!, you’re bidden to type your prayers in. I’ve been waiting to advise you kinesthetic folk — line up, single file, no shoving but movement permitted — out there to consider moving representations (pictures, say, but be creative) of your objects of prayer towards an icon of Christ in a prayerful mode. Just let the action be, without necessarily resorting to spoken or mental speech. Nothing unorthodox about this, seeing that Christians proclaim Christ in the flesh as the icon of God. An alternative to lighting candles for everything, and speaks to the “shrine instinct” (for lack of a better term, and no deprecation intended) that some Westerners find appealing in Eastern religions.

In those churches — here I’m pitching directly to the Unitarian Universalists — that still have Christian communion, this presents an opportunity for holy baking in the mode of presenting bread for the gifts in the Eastern churches. As the bread and wine become the icon of Christ in the Thanksgiving, so the prayers (sometimes delivered with the bread written on paper, but there’s no need to get too literal here, literally) are identified with Christ the True Priest in their offering. I know this will read as superstition and folk religion to some, but I’d urge a consideration of the practice based on what we know about learning styles, and thence, to how we apply and proclaim our faith.

Consider this: I was the supply preacher to a little Universalist heritage church in South Carolina before moving to Washington. The bread was smushed Wonder Bread, diced: a format many low church folk will recognize. But the wine was the made by a man, already dead, who was well loved in the church, and they were getting down to the dregs of the last bottle. They used trays and small glasses, and had a grape juice option. A church member brought the wine each communion Sunday and recollected its vintner. The cups were prepared, the prayers said, and the communion shared. And all the excess wine was returned to the bottle for the next month. . . .

You tell me what that was about, if not an unspoken prayer.

Hat tip: Jordon Cooper

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"Book of Prayer" on eBay

A copy of the very, very scarce Universalist Book of Prayer is on eBay. The whole text, less the psalm selections, is here but a number of you have emailed me asking where one could get a copy.

For the time being, if the price is right: Here