Comments on: Further thoughts on a Good Friday Wake

By: Pamela Smith

Pamela Smith — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 20:06:41 +0000

What seems distinctively Anglican in your Good Friday wake - (1) The presence of a distinct liturgical arc, even in this open and participant-created experience.
(2) What Allchin calls “the living presence of the past” - in constructing a new structure, you have referred to / reformulated / re-used pieces of the traditional structure,
(3) with confidence that you are entitled and empowered to do so.

I speak here as someone who - during the early Nixon years - once led a chapel service at Mount Holyoke that involved pinning prayers onto an armchair I had hauled out of the trash. I would characterize this experience as not being in constructive dialogue with the past and not having the presence of a liturgical arc.

By: Phil

Phil — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 02:56:42 +0000

I’m curious about what seems distinctively Anglican to you. I’m not sure I see it. Not that I wouldn’t be happy to have it there.

The incense is entirely optional. I don’t want very much, just a tiny bit. And that’s assuming that I can find the necessary accoutrements on short notice, and that it won’t irritate smoke detectors.

I’d not heard the exact phrase “Open Source Liturgy” before, though I’ve been trying to follow some of the emergent church discussion about liturgy. I remain uncertain about many aspects of emergent liturgical practice, but I feel like I should give it a fairer chance.

By: Pamela Smith

Pamela Smith — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 11:28:34 +0000

After having read the script -
[http://doingpublicwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/2008_good_friday_wake_script.pdf]
- I’m enjoying thinking about the very different liturgical spirituality present in this service - something like what the emergent church people call “Open Source Liturgy” yet still distinctively Anglican. I’m glad to know that that combination can be accomplished - up to now, I have been finding the Open Source Liturgy concept pretty unsettling.

Having said that, Phil, you lost me at the incense…
I’m never going to be a Real Episcopalian.

By: Phil

Phil — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 04:57:34 +0000

We’re going to do it not in our living room, if we can find a campus space. We’re still waiting to hear on that–should know something by Monday.

By: Pamela Smith

Pamela Smith — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 23:45:31 +0000

So where have you decided to do this?

By: Phil

Phil — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 03:41:24 +0000

Hmm, I guess I hadn’t thought of “Within our darkest night” (Taizé, i think, not John Bell) because we used it during kindling of new fire at the Easter Vigil, but perhaps that would make for a nice continuity?

Yes, the unstructuredness was also part of the idea, thanks for the reminder. A somewhat more open space–physically and emotionally–to interact with the story. I think that’s part of way the tea and buns are important–they help unstructure a little.

By: Pamela Smith

Pamela Smith — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 11:45:00 +0000

“Within our darkest night”? - John Bell, I think, and a haunting melody.
Within our darkest night, you kindle a fire that never goes away.

What I like about the Wake - from your descriptions of it - is its unstructuredness. PS/HW/Easter is wrapped in structure in our tradition.