Shepherd's Voice: From the Rector #5

PATTERNS OF WORSHIP: In recent classes and conversations I have been asked why we do some of the things we do in church: Why do we sing certain hymns? Why do we say certain prayers some weeks but not other weeks? Is there any logic to the cycle of readings? Some of the things we do are because that is how things are done at Good Shepherd, but most of what we do is determined by Christian tradition and the influence of the Church. When there is a shift in worship practice of the Church, that shift affects every church in the world in some way, either by embracing the shift or reacting against it or trying to find some middle ground. The last big shift happened over fifty years ago during what is often called the Liturgical Movement, but the reality of that shift is still being lived out by parishes everywhere. With that in mind, I hope that this (very long) article will begin to answer some of those questions.

Part 1: The Big Picture and Good Shepherd
According to the Book of Common Prayer, 1979, the Holy Eucharist is “the principal act of Christian worship on the Lord’s Day and other major Feasts.” The 1928 Prayer Book and preceding Anglican prayer books, on the other hand, placed the Holy Eucharist on equal footing with Morning and Evening Prayer. All things being equal, many parishes fifty years ago were “Morning Prayer” parishes – churches that celebrated Morning Prayer on Sundays as the primary worship service. Often Holy Communion was celebrated once every month and on other special occasions.

I think it’s fair to say that Good Shepherd, like many parishes, saw the shift in the 1979 Prayer Book language as a reflection of something that had already begun – in some ways the Prayer Book was catching up to the practice of the wider church. For example, the movement from Morning Prayer to the Eucharist as the normal Sunday service was something that took place at Good Shepherd in the 1950s. At Good Shepherd between March 5, 1944 (when our extant service records begin) and December 28, 1947, there were 175 Sunday services offered, of those only 52 were Holy Communion, the rest were Morning Prayer or Holy Baptism - that’s one Eucharist every three or four weeks. In 1948 there were 58 Sunday services, of those only 13 were Holy Communion –still about once per month. When Father K. Gordon Drescher arrived in October of 1953, Holy Communion had been celebrated on Sunday 12 times in the first 9 months of the year. By the end of the year that number had increased to 18 – an immediate jump to twice a month. In 1954 Holy Communion was celebrated 24 times on Sunday – still twice a month. In 1955 Holy Communion was celebrated 34 times on Sunday – basically three out of every five Sundays. By the end of 1956 Holy Communion had been celebrated 58 times on Sunday. In 1957, 66 times; in 1958, 73 times; in 1959, 75 times. The pattern had shifted from one service on Sunday, which was almost always Morning Prayer… to two services on Sunday, one always the Holy Eucharist, and the other splitting equally between the Eucharist and Morning Prayer.

Why did this happen? First, it is important to note that what was going on at Good Shepherd was happening in the midst of church-wide liturgical renewal, of which a part was emphasis on the Holy Eucharist as the primary Sunday worship service. It was not an arbitrary change. Father Drescher didn’t randomly decide to celebrate the Eucharist instead of offering Morning Prayer, just as the BCP 1979 didn’t refer to the Eucharist as “the principal act of Christian worship” out of the blue. Rather, it was a shift and recovery of Christian practice that had been well thought out by Christians in many different denominations.

I’ve always thought that the “big picture” of the Liturgical Movement involved refocusing Christian worship on the visible signs of the risen Lord: in the Eucharist, unlike a simple prayer service, the risen Lord is present in the sacraments of bread and wine, and Christians partake of Christ’s own Body and Blood; the involvement of the congregation in the service is a witness to the reality of the continued presence of Jesus in the corporate Body of Christ, the church; the recovery of more ancient Easter and Christmas cycles refocuses many Christian celebrations on the Paschal Mystery & Incarnation. Candlemas, to use a timely example, had long been celebrated as a feast of Saint Mary and therefore was celebrated mostly by churches that had a particular devotion to Mary; by focusing less on Mary’s purification and more on Jesus’ presentation in the temple the church shifted its emphasis from an event in the life of Mary’s to a celebration that concluded the Christmas cycle. The vast majority of parishes in the Episcopal Church, including Good Shepherd, have continued adopting elements of this renewal.

Part 2: Why we do what we do in church
This brings us to the specific details. The service leaflets provided each week ensure that everyone in the room is on the same page: everyone from the priest, to the lifelong member, to someone new to Good Shepherd or the Episcopal Church, to the first time visitor. I think that those leaflets eliminate confusion and delay (to use my favorite phrase from my son Liam’s Thomas & Friends TV show), but the leaflets, like the Prayer Book, do not always explain why certain things are done or not done, why certain hymns are sung, or why certain lessons are read. Those details are not arbitrary, just like the movement towards the primacy of the Eucharist was not arbitrary. The details support and flesh out the big picture. Hymns and prayers chosen at random can cause a disconnect with worshippers just like a radio station playing Christmas carols in June or National anthems on Halloween would likely confuse listeners. Likewise using the same prayer, reading or hymn over and over might work for a while, but eventually, like Christmas music on the radio in January, something seems off. The prayers, readings and hymns that we say hear and sing mark the liturgical season and highlight the themes of the day or of the season.

Part 2a: Prayers
The basic structure of the Eucharist doesn’t change during the year. Occasionally there is an addition, like the blessing of the Crèche at Christmas or the healing service offered at Good Shepherd at the beginning of each month, but in general, the structure remains constant. Within the set structure the Prayer Book offers a variety of Eucharistic Prayers and Prayers of the People. Unlike the Collect of the Day (the opening prayer said right before the first lesson), one of which is mandated for every service of the year, there is no mandated time or season for the different Eucharistic Prayers and Prayers of the People. That said, some match certain days and seasons better than others.

We have been using Eucharistic Prayer B and Form VI of the Prayers of the People during Advent, Christmastide and Epiphany Season. Prayer B has a greater emphasis on the Incarnation of the Word made flesh than the other Eucharistic Prayers do, which seems particularly appropriate during the Christmas cycle when we are celebrating the Incarnation. Likewise Form VI has an optional confession embedded within it, which allowed for a mostly seamless transition from Advent, when there is a confession, to Christmastide, when there is no confession, to Epiphany Season, when the confession is once again said.

We will use Eucharistic Prayer D and Form III of the Prayers of the People during Lent and Easter. Prayer D is the most ancient Eucharistic Prayer in the Prayer Book. It is known as the Ecumenical Eucharistic Prayer and as St. Basil’s Eucharistic Prayer. It is particularly appropriate during Easter, which is and always has been the heart of the Christian year, because it paints a very complete and also very ancient picture of salvation history in Jesus Christ. Prayer D is very long and includes a shortened form of the Prayers of the People within it. For that reason we will use Form III because it is the shortest form of the Prayers of the People.

We used Eucharistic Prayer A and Form IV of the Prayers of the People during the summer throughout the Season after Pentecost. Prayer A is the shortest Eucharistic Prayer and the closest in phrasing to older Anglican Eucharistic Prayers: it is short and sweet which works very well in the summer. The same can be said for Form IV.

We will generally not use Eucharistic Prayer C for three reasons. The first is that its focus seems to be more on creation and salvation history seen in the Old Testament than on the salvific acts of Jesus Christ. There’s nothing wrong with that, per se, but the church doesn’t really have a Creationtide that focuses on the world behind us and around us… rather we have the Season after Pentecost when the focus is on the presence of God in Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives today. The second is that the language is dated, but not ancient. The Prayer sounds like it came from the 1960s and 1970s; “the vast expanse of interstellar space”, to my ears, sounds more Star Trek or Buck Rogers than Sunday morning. Finally, its many responses are traditional of the Eastern churches (like the optional opening song of praise Trasagion), and for better or for worse, our worship life for centuries has been part of and shaped by the Western rite. The two rites tend not to mix well and feel unfamiliar to the majority of Episcopalians, Mainline Protestants and Catholics.

Part 2b: Readings
Like the Collect of the Day, the church assigns readings for every Sunday and Holy Day (and beyond that to every service offered during the week). The Gospel reading matches the theme for the day. The two events around which the church year revolve are the Resurrection and the Incarnation, Easter and Christmas.
During the Easter cycle and the Christmas cycle, the primary themes are the resurrection and real presence of Christ in the world. Since there are only so many Gospel accounts of the resurrection, Sundays in Easter also feature Gospel accounts from Saint John which teach about the presence of the risen Lord in the Eucharist or in the church. Lenten Gospel readings look ahead to Easter. The Gospels illustrate signs of the resurrection, events that happen before the Passion and teachings that are appropriate in Lent.

The Christmas cycle begins with Advent. In Advent, the Gospels prepare for the coming of Christ in different ways (The Second Coming, the witness of John the Baptist to the One who will follow him, the Annunciation and events leading up to Jesus’ birth). During Christmastide, the readings focus specifically on the Incarnation (the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem and other events from the Infancy Narratives and the Word made flesh).

Two other seasons fill out the rest of the year, retold by Matthew, Mark, and Luke in a three-year cycle. Epiphany Season marks the transition from the infancy narratives to the ministry of Jesus. We move from the Magi to the Baptism of Jesus at the Jordan to Cana and beyond. The Gospel readings usually focus on some way that Jesus is revealed as the Messiah to those around him. The Gospel on the final Sunday after Epiphany is the Transfiguration, when Jesus is revealed as Son of God on the mountaintop. During the Season after Pentecost, which lasts all summer and most of the autumn, the Gospel passages are read in sequence. The story picks up, basically, where it left off when Lent began. By the last Sunday after Pentecost, Jesus’ teaching ministry is concluding.

Holy Days have Gospels that match or illustrate the theme of the day. Some of these days are connected to other seasons – Candlemas is an extension of Christmastide – others stand on their own and are usually associated with an important date in the history of the Church.

The Old Testament passage always matches the Gospel. Either the Gospel will be prefigured in the OT passage (e.g. Jesus transfigured on the mountain paired with Moses or Elijah witnessing the presence of the Lord on the Mountain), or the Old Testament is directly quoted in the Gospel. The psalm likewise matches the Gospel, there will usually be an obvious echo in the psalm of one of the Gospel themes. The New Testament passage matches the Gospel or the theme of the day during the Easter and Christmas cycles and on Holy Days. During Epiphany Season and the Season after Pentecost (whenever the vestments are green) the New Testament is read in sequence. For example, right now we are reading through 1 Corinthians; in Lent, the NT will match the Gospel or have a Lenten theme.

Part 2c: Hymns
There are a lot of great hymns, but they don’t all work for every occasion. In fact, most hymns are only really appropriate once or twice each year. The Hymnal 1982 contains many great hymns for a wide variety of liturgical days and seasons. It allows for the lyrical content of the hymns to match the readings and themes of almost every Sunday.

In general, during Advent, we sang hymns each Sunday that were particularly appropriate companions to the readings and themes each Sunday. During Christmas, we explored many, but not all of the great Christmas carols in the Hymnal, and when we did repeat hymns we often sang versions with slightly alternate lyrics. Epiphany Season (like the Season after Pentecost) is traditionally known as Ordinary Time, referring to the sequential way that the Sunday Gospel is read each week, and commonly called Green Time. This allows for more of what I call the “Greatest Hits of Green Time”. When a specific Gospel or other reading matches a specific hymn, it might be ideal to make that match, but it’s not always possible because the hymn might be accompanied with difficult or unfamiliar music. When a day of the year focuses on a specific theme, like a saint or a certain national day, it’s nice to try to highlight that theme with an appropriate hymn.

A good example of why certain hymns are used on certain days will come up in a few weeks on the Last Sunday after Epiphany which always includes the reading of the Transfiguration at the Gospel. The hymns that day will focus on that event and also make clear that Lent is a very different season and things will be toned down for weeks to come. For that reason, the hymns will often include “Alleluias” which are not sung during Lent.

When we move into Lent we will explore the glory of those forty days by singing hymns primarily, but not exclusively, from the Lenten section of the hymnal. This year the weekly Doxology will change in Lent. Instead of Praise God from whom all blessings flow, we will sing Therefore we before him bending. There are reasons for this particular change. The first reason is that the tune, Pange lingua, is associated with Holy Week. It will be sung (with different words) on Palm/Passion Sunday, on Maundy Thursday, and on Good Friday. Lent is a season of penitence, but it is also a time of preparation for Holy Week and Easter. Maintaining a strong musical connection to Holy Week throughout the season makes sense. Every Sunday during Eastertide some hymns will be from the Easter section of the hymnal.

There are reasons for everything that is done in church. If you aren’t sure why we are doing something, please feel free to ask! There are no secrets when it comes to why we do what we do in church.

Part 3: Living into the pattern
My own formation as a Christian has been greatly deepened because of the patterns that I worshipped in. Once I understood that there was a pattern, that every detail had been carefully thought out by Christians living into that pattern (in different ways, at myriad churches), that nothing was haphazard but rather with purpose, then I realized that digesting one small detail opened my eyes to something else. Did you ever notice that those famous hymns about the Magi offer theological teaching on the different gifts they bring? Did you ever notice that Glory to God in the highest rings out in a particular way on Christmas Eve – because it has not been sung for four weeks, of course, but especially because it is the song heard on the lips of angels at Jesus’ birth! Did you notice on The Baptism of Our Lord that the psalm we sang prefigured the voice from heaven: We sang again and again about the “voice of the Lord” and then we heard a voice from heaven proclaim Jesus the Son and beloved of God. Whenever I notice these connections my understanding of Scripture grows and my faith is deepened. Two years ago I noticed that the hymn Songs of the thankfulness and praise has the same tune as the great Easter hymn At the Lamb’s high feast we sing. Now, when I sing Song of the thankfulness and praise on the last Sunday before Lent my mind leaps ahead to Eastertide! It clicked that the connection wasn’t arbitrary, but intentional, and it opened my eyes to the fact that the church is constantly pointing us toward the Risen Lord Jesus Christ.

Everything is linked and organized for a reason. Of course, there are different ways to worship: patterns that play out in different yet equally appropriate ways in diverse Christian communities, but they all feed into the primary pattern of Christian worship: The Holy Eucharist on Sunday morning celebrating the Resurrection of the Son of God and what that means for us as his Body in the world. It begins and ends with Easter Day and the celebration of the Resurrection. From that focal point, the Spirit moves among us every time we gather and allows us to see, hear, and understand God’s love for us in the Resurrection in new and different ways.

Why I Love Good Shepherd #3

“WHY I LOVE GOOD SHEPHERD” (February 2010)

This article is the third in a series presented by the 2010 Stewardship Committee. If you are interested in submitting an article for the series, please contact Father Matt, we’d love to print your submission! This month we continue the series with a note from Phil Levy:

I have been a member since 1952 – a long time to stay at one church. If you look at the service book from when we dedicated the building in 1954 you will see my name as an active member. I have 12 years of Sunday School pins. I was an acolyte, and I even sang in the choir: maybe not in 1954 but soon after. I took off from 1967 to about 1982 or so.

Once I came back I became part of the church’s inner workings. There are a few of us still here that have served the church in the vestry as voting and nonvoting members for many years. I loved being loved… who wouldn’t? Good Shepherd is a place where you can make a difference. Being in a leadership role here helped me get where I am today in the work place. We each have our ways of serving God and his family. I like knowing what is going on and being part of it all.

We may only see each other on Sundays, but we are a family in God. We each have our parts. I have never felt the need to look for a different church. Even through the hard times. I felt even more needed then to help hold it all together. Being on the vestry helped me learn what God meant when he said we are all one body. I would sometimes make suggestions to do something that I wanted to see done and done my way, but putting it out on the table would have everyone’s input and maybe my idea was not so good or there was a better way to do it. The point is that it takes all of us to keep God’s place of worship going. These are some of the reasons why I love the Good Shepherd.