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On the manner of Eucharistic sharing

Note: I actually wrote this way back in May and somehow never got around to posting it… but I keep pondering the question, & would love thoughts from others.

Experiencing the Eucharist in some settings outside my home parish recently has caused me to ponder ways to get the bread and cup to everyone. I’m pretty comfortable with the familiar model in which people in robes (clergy, LEMs) carry the bread and cup around to the laity, who are kneeling or standing along an altar rail or in a line or arc. But I’m aware that this practice reinforces the message that there are people who are privileged to dispense holy things, and others who are not – even more so if there’s an altar rail separating the hoi polloi from the holy folk. Most days this doesn’t bother me much, but I’m not terribly satisfied with it, either. How else can we do this? Continue reading ›

2009 09 17 Miranda Uncategorized Comments (2) Permalink

Emergent Episcopal worship in Boston

Recently, while in Boston for the Music that Makes Community conference (see my post about that wonderful experience here on my church blog), I took the opportunity to attend the Crossing – an emergent community based at St. Paul’s Cathedral, and led by the Rev. Stephanie Spellers and an able team of lay associates. This community shares distinctive, well-crafted liturgy – clearly within the Episcopal tradition, but with its own flavor. Having worshipped with them, I offer here my thoughts on a few of the key elements that give their worship its particular feel.  Continue reading ›

2009 06 13 Miranda Uncategorized Comments (0) Permalink

Tobias Haller on Truth and Tradition

Tobias Haller has a thoughtful post up over on his blog, In a Godward direction:

“Ideas are not true because they are old, though they may be old because they are true. The paradox is that how long a given idea has been around is of no use in proving its truth, and past staying-power is not cause for something to continue to stay.

Tradition is not self-certifying evidence of truth, but a testament to those who passed along what they believe to be true.

. . . in the long run, the truth itself — the dogma or theory — may remain relatively untouched, but be understood and expressed in new ways. The best and most vital doctrines — the deepest truths — are capable of such costume changes.”

Read the whole thing over on his blog. I’m thinking this over as I contemplate a post on when & why liturgical change should & shouldn’t happen.

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2009 04 04 Phil Introducing Change Comments (0) Permalink

Getting our feet wet: Ideas for Maundy Thursday?

I’m working on this year’s Maundy Thursday order of service – combining existing customs here with some elements of a particularly effective Maundy service I attended a couple of years ago. I’m grappling with one significant logistical question: how to arrange the footwashing.

My basic parameters: It has to include as many people as possible, while still giving those who really really don’t want to do it a comfortable “out”; and it has to fulfill Jesus’ commandment on the subject: “You also ought to wash one another’s feet” – not, “your clergy…” or “your vestry should wash your feet,” which tends to reinforce hierarchy (through inversion, but still unmistakably) instead of mutuality. Oh, and it can’t be too elaborate or messy… 

What have you seen, or done, that worked well?

2009 02 17 Miranda Uncategorized Comments (4) Permalink

Survey Says . . .

I’ve seen now a number of references to a study conducted by LifeWays Research claiming that the “unchurched prefer cathedrals to contemporary church designs” (as the LifeWays report/press release put it), or that unchurched people prefer “traditional” churches to “contemporary” ones.  Often, this study is used as confirmation by those who prefer “traditional” church architecture themselves, while more interesting discussions center on speculations as to why this preference might be.  But the before we can understand that, we need to understand what the survey really tells us.

The framing in the study results made me suspicious. “Traditional” and “contemporary” are words that can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. So probably the first useful piece of context for this study is that LifeWays Research is primarily associated with the Southern Baptist Convention. The next question is, what do they actually mean by “traditional” and “contemporary” and how did they determine these preferences? I dug up the original report, and the slightly more informative powerpoint deck, which you too can get from the LifeWays site. Only don’t, because I’ve already waded through them so that you don’t have to. Which you should thank me for, because the PowerPoint deck is like a case study in how not to present survey data.

Here’s how the survey actually asked about preferences in church architecture: Continue reading ›

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2009 01 26 Phil Liturgical Spaces Comments (0) Permalink

Epiphany Baptisms

The New York Times had an interesting article recently, describing the Russian Orthodox practice of “Epiphany Baptisms”, which apparently involves cutting a cross-shaped hole in the ice on a river or lake, and then taking a plunge in:

“Monday was Russian Orthodox Epiphany, and roughly 30,000 Muscovites lined up to dunk themselves in icy rivers and ponds, city officials said. The annual ritual baptism, which is believed to wash away sins, is enjoying a boisterous revival after being banished to villages during the Soviet era.

This seems like an interesting religious/aesetic version of the same impulse behind the swedish sauna and the tradition of “polar bear clubs” in various cold climates. I’m curious about the origins of this practice, and also generally in the idea that this would be an annual recurring practice.

There also seems to be a increasing level of Russian nationalism associated with the icy plunge:

These days, it is a ritual with high production values. Several sites in Moscow were furnished with no-slip carpeting, heated tents and supervisors with megaphones. Politicians have seized on it as a photo opportunity; the theatrical ultranationalist Vladimir V. Zhirinovsky took his plunge this year at Bottomless Lake, a Moscow River tributary, flanked by 15-foot tubes of fluorescent light.

‘It has become a show — not only that, but a patriotic show,’ said Boris F. Dubin, a sociologist with Moscow’s Levada Center. The immersion ritual satisfies a public hunger, he said, for ‘something that is truly Russian, ancient, real. For what distinguishes us from other people.’ “

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2009 01 26 Phil Epiphany Comments (0) Permalink

Liturgy for church committee meetings

If liturgy is public work, and vestry and committee meetings are where some of the work of the church gets done, then why do we run our church meetings using more of the rituals of commerce and government than rituals of the church?

Charles Olsen of the Alban Institute offers some suggestions for Ways to Pray in a [Church] Board Meeting. Here’s an excerpt:

Resistance to infusing the work of a board with prayer tends to come from the conviction that “there is a place for everything and everything should be in its place”—that worship belongs to Sunday and sanctuary and prayer belongs to worship. But an inspirational moment in a meeting does wonders in loosening the strings of resistance, and those inspirational moments will come once worshipful work is attempted. Let the only rule be “meetings are worship.” All else will flow to and from that fountain. Then we can drink from its fullness!

Some interesting ideas here. Maybe we should develop an Order for Vestry (and other!) meetings. We could even have a new supplemental book, the Book of Regular Meetings, perhaps? A Worship committee seems like a good place to start. Other ideas?

(Via Episcopal Cafe.)

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2009 01 12 Phil Liturgy
Liturgy Planning Comments (1) Permalink

Talitha cumi

One of my favorite things about the nave at my church is the “Talitha Cumi” window. Mark’s story of Jesus’ raising a twelve-year-old girl from death is one of my favorite Gospel stories. And this is a wonderful image, presented in deep, rich colors: Jesus stands over the little girl, holding her hand, while her anxious parents kneel at the foot of the bed. I’ve loved this window since my first visit to the church, and I have an excellent view of it from my seat on the deacon side of the front of the church.

This morning, during the sermon, my eyes wandered over to that window. And lo! it was transformed. This particular day, this particular moment, the rising sun was shining right through Jesus. His face was almost too bright to look at. Continue reading ›

2009 01 10 Miranda Liturgy Comments (0) Permalink

When nobody shows

If you hold a liturgy and nobody comes, is it a failure?

My parish has held a Christmas morning service for years. Sometimes one person came; sometimes nobody. This year, as the new Assistant on staff, I offered to take charge of Christmas Day and do something different: a 4pm festal Evening Prayer service, followed by a 5pm community dinner.

At our mission parish in North Carolina, the Episcopal Church of the Advocate, this was our standard Sunday arrangement: worship at 5, dinner afterwards. We chose to follow a similar schedule on Christmas Day and Easter, with the idea of providing a friendly and familial gathering for folks in the congregation who didn’t have local family or other plans. It worked well; we consistently had small but cheerful gatherings for those occasions, and plenty of good food. Our household always participated.

So for Christmas Day at my parish, we put the word out about the new plan. I carefully crafted a cheerful little Evening Prayer service, using some of the wonderful seasonal liturgy resources from Common Worship. And I made vast quantities of lasagna, and a big green salad. And we trooped over to church – my husband, my son, my visiting brother, and I – and waited to see if anyone else would show. Continue reading ›

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2009 01 03 Miranda Hospitality Comments (1) Permalink

Human hands have made?

Ever wonder about where communion wafers come from? Both the The New York Times and the Boston Globe have had recent stories about Cavanagh Company, a family business based in Rhode Island that supplies 80% of the communion wafers used in the United States, Canada, England, and Australia.

I must confess I have long found the widespread use use of individual wafers that bear little or no resemblance to even unleavened bread to be a somewhat strange development in Eucharistic practice, even though I think I understand some of the reasons for that development (among other things, a strict avoidance of leavening, and a theology which made crumbs a serious problem). But this is just getting really peculiar:

The family markets its bread as “untouched by human hands” until they are delivered to parishioners in the Communion line. “You just want to make it as perfect as possible,” said Andy Cavanagh, a member of the family that runs the business.

This is especially strange because the Cavanaghs, and a large part of their clientele, are Roman Catholic, and the Roman Catholic eucharistic prayer includes this passage:

Blessed are you Lord God of all creation
Through your goodness we have this bread to offer
Which earth has given and human hands have made.
It will become or us the bread of life.

But human hands don’t make the Cavanagh wafers. Robots do:

Continue reading ›

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2008 12 26 Phil eucharist Comments (0) Permalink