Thinking allowed

new National Liturgy and Worship Adviser

on Friday, 2 October 2015 at 8.08 pm by Simon Kershaw
categorised as liturgical news, liturgy

The Bish­op of Exeter, Robert Atwell, the Chair of the Litur­gic­al Com­mis­sion has announced that Mat­thew Salis­bury has been appoin­ted to what is now a part-time pos­i­tion as Nation­al Liturgy and Wor­ship Adviser of the Church of England:

Dr Mat­thew Salis­bury has been appoin­ted as the new Nation­al Liturgy and Wor­ship Adviser of the Church of Eng­land. Dr Salis­bury lec­tures in music at Uni­ver­sity Col­lege, Oxford and has con­sid­er­able exper­i­ence of writ­ing and speak­ing about liturgy and wor­ship. He also serves as the Chapel Warden at Worcester Col­lege, Oxford, where he reg­u­larly leads worship.

The Chair of the Litur­gic­al Com­mis­sion, the Bish­op of Exeter, com­men­ted ‘…I am delighted that Mat­thew has decided to put his con­sid­er­able tal­ents to the ser­vice of the nation­al Church. He com­bines enthu­si­asm for com­mu­nic­at­ing liturgy to non-spe­cial­ists with an interest in devel­op­ing and pro­mot­ing wor­ship resources through new media. I am con­fid­ent that he will be a great asset to the Church of England.’

Dr Salis­bury will take up his new part-time role in Church House, West­min­ster (com­bined with his oth­er exist­ing respons­ib­il­it­ies in Oxford) from early Novem­ber, work­ing along­side Sue Moore who has now taken on respons­ib­il­ity for day-to-day oper­a­tions as Admin­is­trat­ive Sec­ret­ary to the Commission.

2015-16 Almanac

on Monday, 31 August 2015 at 4.12 pm by Simon Kershaw
categorised as elsewhere on the net, liturgy

Each year since 2002 I have pro­duced a down­load­able cal­en­dar for the forth­com­ing litur­gic­al year, accord­ing to the rules of the Church of England’s Com­mon Wor­ship Cal­en­dar and Lectionary.

The 2015–16 Alman­ac is now avail­able for Out­look, Apple desktop and iOS Cal­en­dar, Google Cal­en­dar, Android devices and oth­er formats, with your choice of Sunday, week­day, euchar­ist­ic, office, col­lects, Excit­ing Holi­ness lec­tions, for Com­mon Wor­ship and BCP.

Down­load is free, dona­tions are invited.

Thanksgiving for the longest reign

on Saturday, 1 August 2015 at 8.11 am by Simon Kershaw
categorised as liturgical texts, liturgy

The Litur­gic­al Com­mis­sion has draf­ted two pray­ers for use to cel­eb­rate Queen Eliza­beth II becom­ing the longest-reign­ing mon­arch in Brit­ish his­tory, on 9 Septem­ber this year. These have been approved by Buck­ing­ham Palace, and the Com­mis­sion has asked that they be cir­cu­lated as widely as possible.

Pray­ers for use when HM The Queen becomes the longest reign­ing mon­arch in Brit­ish his­tory (9 Septem­ber 2015)

A Col­lect for use after the Col­lect of the Day at BCP ser­vices
Almighty God, who hast set our gra­cious sov­er­eign Queen Eliza­beth upon the throne of this realm, and giv­en her to sur­pass all oth­ers in the years of her reign: Receive our heart­felt thanks for her ser­vice to her people, con­firm and encour­age her in the con­tinu­ance of the same, and keep her in thy heav­enly wis­dom; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who took the form of a ser­vant for our sake, and reigneth now in glory with thee and the Holy Spir­it, one God, world without end. Amen.

A mod­ern-lan­guage pray­er draw­ing on Phil­ip­pi­ans 2
Almighty God, 
whose Son Jesus Christ exchanged the glory of a heav­enly throne for the form of a servant,
we thank you that you have giv­en Eliza­beth our Queen a heart to serve her people,
and have kept her devoted in this ser­vice bey­ond all who were before her:
encour­age us by her example to serve one anoth­er, and to seek the com­mon good,
until you call us all to reign with Christ in your etern­al king­dom. Amen.

A community of forgiveness and reconciliation

on Thursday, 30 July 2015 at 7.30 am by Simon Kershaw
categorised as liturgy, thinking liturgy

Read­ing the gos­pel accounts it is clear that Jesus spent a fair amount of his min­istry eat­ing. Wheth­er he’s hav­ing private meals with his dis­ciples, pic­nick­ing on a hill­side with a few thou­sand listen­ers, invit­ing him­self or get­ting him­self invited to din­ner, or bar­be­cuing fish on a beach, the gos­pels record a sub­stan­tial num­ber of meal­time occa­sions. Clearly there must have been many, many more meals which are not spe­cific­ally recor­ded, but which are part of the same pattern.

For Jesus some of these meals were teach­ing oppor­tun­it­ies, occa­sions to share with his fel­low diners a story or par­able or some oth­er teach­ing. But they were more than just this. Quite a few of the meals are in the houses of out­casts – tax col­lect­ors, col­lab­or­at­ors, the ritu­ally unclean, adulter­ers, and oth­er sin­ners. Jesus preached the good news of joy, peace, social justice, free­dom from our slav­er­ies; that in God’s king­dom our sins can be for­giv­en, are forgiven.

Jesus taught his dis­ciples to pray: ‘for­give us our sins as we for­give those who sin against us’ (Mat­thew 6.12, Luke 11.4); and he also taught them: ‘if you for­give any­one’s sins, they are for­giv­en; if you do not for­give them, they are not for­giv­en’ (John 20.23). For­give­ness and recon­cili­ation hap­pen when people for­give each oth­er. When oth­er people for­give us for the wrongs we have done to them then we are for­giv­en; and when we for­give oth­ers for the wrongs they have done us, they are for­giv­en. Jesus, in his life and death, in his teach­ing and in his actions, lived a life of for­give­ness and recon­cili­ation, even at the last, and inspires us to try and emu­late that life: liv­ing in the king­dom, for­giv­ing and being for­giv­en. In this way we are recon­ciled to one anoth­er and are at one with God. In God’s king­dom such for­give­ness is freely avail­able: all cit­izens of the king­dom will will­ingly and freely for­give the people who have wronged them, and no one will bear grudges or hurts. And every­one will be for­giv­en. (Of course, in God’s king­dom every­one will strive not to do wrong or cause hurt, but that’s anoth­er part of the story.)

So when Jesus sat down and ate with out­casts he showed – to every­one who was pre­pared to see it – how near God’s king­dom was, how it was already here among us. He showed how it was pos­sible to live in God’s king­dom of social justice and recon­cili­ation. For­give­ness was actu­al­ized. In the social aspect of shar­ing a meal togeth­er and being pre­pared to accept one anoth­er, to give and to receive for­give­ness, to be recon­ciled to one anoth­er: in doing these things we can glimpse the king­dom, and indeed not just glimpse it but enjoy a fore­taste – the king­dom in action, right here and now.

And that brings us back to the liturgy. Jesus’s dis­ciples con­tin­ued to share their meals as an enact­ment of the justice and peace of the king­dom of God, and in doing so they recog­nized the con­tinu­ing pres­ence of Jesus as they broke bread togeth­er. This meal con­tin­ues to this day, whenev­er Chris­ti­ans gath­er togeth­er and share bread and wine in remem­brance of Christ: Christ is present, for­give­ness and recon­cili­ation are giv­en and received, the king­dom is brought into existence.

This then is our vis­ion of the Euchar­ist. It is a vis­ion that the Church some­times seems to under­stand only very dimly, per­haps because the Euchar­ist – and Chris­tian­ity in gen­er­al – has become over­laid with so many ideas and prac­tices that add ‘reli­gious’, ‘cere­mo­ni­al’ and ‘ideo­lo­gic­al’ com­plex­ity. Some of those lay­ers can be help­ful, and oth­ers may be less so. Here we are con­cerned primar­ily with liturgy, and how the king­dom of God is pro­claimed and lived through the liturgy. How does the Euchar­ist exem­pli­fy the king­dom? What kinds of prac­tice are use­ful? What do we need to recov­er, in our lan­guage and our cere­mo­ni­al? What do we need to pre­serve, or enhance, what do we need to lessen or jet­tis­on? How has the litur­gic­al revi­sion of the last hun­dred years helped or hindered? Quite likely we shall con­clude that there is no single answer, but dif­fer­ent emphases in dif­fer­ent con­texts, with some lim­its, and sug­ges­tions for a range of ‘nor­mal’ usage.

But this is our start­ing point: the pro­clam­a­tion of the good news and the recog­ni­tion of the pres­ence of Christ in the shared meal where all are wel­come, where the hungry are fed, and where sins are forgiven.

‘Your king­dom come on earth, as in heav­en: give us this day our daily bread and for­give us our sins as we for­give those who sin against us.’

illus­tra­tion by Leigh Hur­lock, from Gath­er­ing for Wor­ship, Can­ter­bury Press, 2005, 2007; used with permission.

An apology

on Wednesday, 29 July 2015 at 8.22 pm by Simon Kershaw
categorised as about Thinking Liturgy, liturgy

It’s been a while since I pos­ted here. That’s because life is busy, and time to write detailed art­icles is lim­ited. Rather than wait any longer I’m going to sketch out anoth­er piece, and at some future point I will add more detail.

call for transgender recognition rite

on Tuesday, 28 July 2015 at 10.18 pm by Simon Kershaw
categorised as liturgical news, liturgy

Under the pro­voc­at­ive head­line “Should church intro­duce trans­gender bap­tism?” the BBC reports that the Revd Chris New­lands, vicar of Lan­caster, has

asked the Church of Eng­land to debate intro­du­cing a cere­mony akin to a bap­tism to mark the new iden­tit­ies of Chris­ti­ans who under­go gender transition.

The idea came after a young trans­gender per­son approached him, seek­ing to be “re-bap­tised” in his new iden­tity. Sim­il­ar cere­mon­ies are already hap­pen­ing in some oth­er Anglic­an churches.

This week­end, Nick Benn and his friends gathered at his church for a ser­vice to mark one of the most sig­ni­fic­ant events in his life so far: the trans­ition from his pre­vi­ous iden­tity as a young woman, to a new life as a man.

At Lan­caster Pri­ory, Chris New­lands is keen for the Church to have an offi­cial liturgy to guide the clergy on such occa­sions. He wants the Church to be able to demon­strate its accept­ance and love, and to help mark a mile­stone for someone trans­ition­ing from one gender to another.

Susie Leafe, dir­ect­or of Reform, is quoted, com­ment­ing on the ques­tion of ‘bap­tism’.

“The Bible gives us the notion that there is one bap­tism, so the idea of ‘re-bap­tising’ people is cer­tainly some­thing that would go against a lot of the deep theo­logy of the Church and would be confusing.”

New baptismal texts; and rules on eucharistic ministers

on Monday, 13 July 2015 at 7.26 am by Simon Kershaw
categorised as liturgical texts, liturgy

The Gen­er­al Syn­od of the Church of Eng­land, meet­ing in York, yes­ter­day gave final approv­al to the addi­tion­al bap­tis­mal texts. The texts are author­ized from 1 Septem­ber 2015.

The syn­od­ic­al report reads:

CHRISTIAN INITIATION: ADDITIONAL TEXTS FOR HOLY BAPTISM IN ACCESSIBLE LANGUAGE (GS 1958B AND GS 1958X)

Art­icle 7 busi­ness Final Approval

The Bish­op of Sod­or and Man (Chair of the Steer­ing Com­mit­tee) moved:

‘That the litur­gic­al busi­ness entitled “Chris­ti­an Ini­ti­ation: Addi­tion­al Texts for Holy Bap­tism in Access­ible Lan­guage” be finally approved for a peri­od from 1 Septem­ber 2015 until fur­ther Res­ol­u­tion of the Synod.’

The final vote was approved after a divi­sion of houses, with the vot­ing fig­ures below:

House of Bish­ops: For – 23, Against – 1, Absten­tions – 1,
House of Clergy: For – 114, Against – 6, Absten­tions – 5,
House of Laity: For – 126, Against – 10, Absten­tions – 6,

The Syn­od also approved new reg­u­la­tions on the author­iz­a­tion of people to assist in the admin­is­tra­tion of Holy Com­mu­nion. The rules allow the bish­op, on the applic­a­tion of the incum­bent or priest in charge, to author­ize named indi­vidu­als. The bish­op may also give the priest gen­er­al author­ity to allow people to admin­is­ter (with PCC agree­ment), and this may include chil­dren who have been form­ally admit­ted to Com­mu­nion before Con­firm­a­tion. Chil­dren in church schools may be author­ized with the agree­ment of the head teach­er rather than the PCC. The full rules are in the linked file. The new reg­u­la­tions come into force on 1 Octo­ber 2015, and revoke the old 1969 rules.

ADMINISTRATION OF HOLY COMMUNION REGULATIONS (GS 1992)

Reg­u­la­tions under Can­on B 12 Art­icle 7 business

The Bish­op of Sod­or and Man (the Rt Revd Robert Pater­son) moved:

‘That the Admin­is­tra­tion of Holy Com­mu­nion Reg­u­la­tions be approved.’

which was approved.

Topical prayers from the Liturgical Commission (2)

on Friday, 26 June 2015 at 4.10 pm by Simon Kershaw
categorised as liturgical texts, liturgy

The Litur­gic­al Com­mis­sion has provided pray­ers and oth­er mater­i­al for a num­ber of forth­com­ing occasions.

These are:

• The Bap­tism of Prin­cess Char­lotte of Cam­bridge (on 5 July)
• The 70th anniversar­ies of Hiroshi­ma and Naga­saki (6 and 9 August)
• The 70th anniversary of VJ Day (Vic­tory in Japan) (2 Septem­ber 15 August)
• The cen­ten­ary of the exe­cu­tion of Edith Cav­ell (12 October)

The text of the mater­i­al for the first three is in the pre­vi­ous post. This post con­tains the mater­i­al for Edith Cavell.

(more…)

Topical prayers from the Liturgical Commission (1)

on Friday, 26 June 2015 at 3.58 pm by Simon Kershaw
categorised as liturgical texts, liturgy

The Litur­gic­al Com­mis­sion has provided pray­ers and oth­er mater­i­al for a num­ber of forth­com­ing occasions. 

These are:

• The Bap­tism of Prin­cess Char­lotte of Cam­bridge (on 5 July)
• The 70th anniversar­ies of Hiroshi­ma and Naga­saki (6 and 9 August)
• The 70th anniversary of VJ Day (Vic­tory in Japan) (2 Septem­ber 15 August)
• The cen­ten­ary of the exe­cu­tion of Edith Cav­ell (12 October)

The text of the mater­i­al for the first three is in the full post. The mater­i­al for Edith Cav­ell is sep­ar­ated into a post of its own.

(more…)

Liturgy for the reburial of a king

on Friday, 27 March 2015 at 7.43 am by Simon Kershaw
categorised as history, liturgical texts, liturgy

The remains iden­ti­fied as those of King Richard III were re-interred yes­ter­day in Leicester Cathed­ral in a ser­vice broad­cast live on Chan­nel 4.

The order of ser­vice for the re-inter­ment is avail­able as a pdf file on this page, or (dir­ect link to pdf) or here.