call for transgender recognition rite
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’.
3 Comments“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.”
Liturgy and the 100 best Christian books
Is a story about something which didn’t happen news?
The Church Times has recently published its list of “100 best Christian books”.
Amongst these 100 works there is not a single volume containing or concerning liturgy. The closest is perhaps at number 37 The Prayers and Meditations of St Anselm.
This might be considered a strange omission in a list, particularly in an Anglican compilation, although the compilers deliberately decided to exclude the Book of Common Prayer (meaning presumably the 1662 edition) and favourite hymn books. Even so, it is surprising that there are no books about liturgy and liturgical practice included.
So I invite readers to make suggestions of books of or about liturgy that they think might have been included, and why.
18 CommentsWorship Matters: an evening event
News of an evening with Graham Kendrick for worship leaders and worship groups organized by LICC (the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity)
0 CommentsWorship Matters:
Leading Worship for the Frontline — 18th September
Worship matters. It expresses our understanding of God, shapes us as disciples and is the core activity of churches. So what does it mean to lead worship in a church that wants to take whole-life discipleship seriously?
Join Graham Kendrick for Worship Matters: Leading Worship for the Frontline — an evening that offers insight, ideas and encouragement for worship leaders and worshippers, who want worship to engage with the everyday experiences of life on our Frontlines.
Why not invite members of your worship team to begin a conversation together about how your church’s experience of worship can be developed to embrace a whole-life perspective.
Hosted by Neil Hudson, Director of LICC’s Imagine Project, the evening will also include input from Antony Billington, LICC’s Head of Theology, who will offer some biblical-theological reflection on whole-life worship. You will be equipped and encouraged as you return to your local churches.
Things you need to know:
Date: Thursday 18th September, 6:30pm – 8:30pm
Venue: LICC, St Peter’s, Vere Street, London W1G 0DQ
Cost: £8 (£6 concession) — includes light refreshments
This event will be streamed live across the internet, if you can’t make it to London why not consider hosting your own group and engage with us on the night via livestream?
Uses for an altar table
Updated
The role (and other aspects) of the altar or holy table will be considered in some detail in a future post. But this story in today’s press is of some interest.
The Daily Telegraph reports that Lincoln diocese has banned [a church] from using altar to serve cups of tea.
According to the report
Worshippers at the St Michael and All Angels Church in Uffington, Lincolnshire, wanted their oak altar to double up as a place to “serve refreshments”.
Update: Law and Religion UK provides some more details. Perhaps most significant is that the altar is one in a chapel, not the church’s main altar, pictured above and in the Telegraph report. The petition was to place a table in the chapel which could be used to serve refreshments, and which would be used occasionally as an altar.
But the Chancellor of the diocese, Mark Bishop,
23 Commentsdecided the altar could only be used for worship, not to serve snacks.
Ruling that “an interchangeable use for the altar” was certainly not acceptable, he said a “decent table of wood, stone or other suitable material” should be provided in every church or chapel for celebration of Holy Communion.
He added: “The table, as becomes the table of Lord, shall be kept in a sufficient and seemly manner, and from time to time repaired, and shall be covered in the time of Divine Service with a covering of silk or other decent stuff, and with a fair white linen cloth at the time of the celebration of the Holy Communion.
“It would be completely inappropriate for an altar to be used occasionally for the celebration of Holy Communion, but more frequently ‘for the service of refreshments’.
“The obligation of the Churchwardens is to ensure that the Lord’s Table is kept in a ‘sufficient and seemly manner’ and I am quite satisfied that what is proposed does not amount to that.”
Liturgy for the reburial of a long-dead king and a liturgical re-ordering project
There probably aren’t many examples to hand for the authorities at Leicester Cathedral, who will be compiling the service for the re-burial of Richard III, scheduled for Thursday 26 March 2015.
In a press release last week the Cathedral authorities say that
- On Sunday 22 March the University of Leicester will transfer the mortal remains into a lead-lined coffin and they will travel from Leicester to Bosworth
- In the evening, the remains of Richard III will be received into the care of the Cathedral
- They will lie in repose for 3 days
- They will be reburied on the morning of Thursday 26 March
- The next days, Friday 27 March and Saturday 28 March, the tomb stone itself will be put in place and revealed and there will be a service to mark the completion of the reinterment.
The reburial service will be broadcast live on Channel 4, with highlights being shown in the evening.
Further details can be read on the Cathedral’s Richard III site.
We hope that liturgical material associated with these events will be available to link to nearer the time. Here is what the Cathedral is saying right now:
[T]his raises interesting questions about language. Vespers of the Dead is not familiar today and services were in Latin. Praying for the dead can be a controversial issue, but, despite the condemnation in the Articles of Faith, is part of Anglican practice, although not for all. And in law the Church of England is a continuous body since Saxon times, therefore we are the successor of the Church to which Richard belonged, so an Anglican funeral is entirely right, however we choose to diversify within that. … So what we shall do with Richard, is sculpt something which both recognises tradition and Richard’s faith, but speaks also to the modern world.
Meanwhile the Cathedral is appealing for £2.5 millions for the re-ordering project which will include a fitting setting for the King’s remains. Some details of the reordering can be found at the Leicester diocesan website and at the BBC. Although full drawings and images of the current plans do not seem to be generally available, information of the 2013 plans submitted to the Cathedrals Fabric Commission can be found in some detail here. My understanding is that the only substantial change from the earlier plans is in the plinth on which the tomb slab will be placed.
2 CommentsVestments, robes and canon law
The General Synod, meeting at York, on Saturday debated the mandatory use of robes and vestments for clergy at some services. The record of the proceedings states:
Private Members’ Motions
Canon B 8 (GS 1944A and GS 1944B)
The Revd Christopher Hobbs (London) moved:
‘That this Synod call on the Business Committee to introduce draft legislation to amend the law relating to the vesture of ministers so that, without altering the principles set out in paragraphs 1 and 2 of Canon B 8. the wearing of the forms of vesture referred to in paragraphs 3, 4 and 5 of that Canon becomes optional rather than mandatory.’
The motion was voted on and passed by the Synod. The three amendments were not carried.
The audio of the evening session is available here.
The press reports this as the Church sweeping away the rules and allowing clergy to wear what they like
- The Mail — Church gives OK to vicars in shellsuits
- The Express — Church gives its blessing for vicar dress-down Sundays
New Chair of the Liturgical Commission
Following the resignation of the Rt Revd Stephen Platten as Chair of the Liturgical Commission it has been announced that the new Chair is to be Robert Atwell, Bishop of Exeter. He will take up this position in January 2015.
I can find no announcement of this from the Church of England, but the latest issue of Praxis News of Worship indicates that it was announced at a meeting of the Liturgical Commission in early May, by the acting Chair, Robert Paterson, Bishop of Sodor and Man.
Robert Atwell is the author of a number of liturgical books including Celebrating the Saints and Celebrating the Seasons as well as the recent The Good Worship Guide. Previously Vicar of Primrose Hill, and then Bishop Suffragan of Stockport in the diocese of Chester, he was confirmed as Bishop of Exeter on 30 April, and will be enthroned in Exeter Cathedral in July.
1 CommentY Cymun Bendigaid
A package containing a new book landed through my letter box a couple of days ago. It was a copy of the newly-authorized version of the Eucharist of the Church in Wales, published just in time for a meeting of the Church’s Governing Body in September.
(The Archbishop of Wales, the Most Revd Barry Morgan, can be seen at the meeting using what looks like a copy of the altar edition of the book in this picture.)
The arrival of this book was a significant moment for me — because I had designed and typeset it. Having laboured long and hard over the text and layout, over page breaks and line breaks, vertical and horizontal spacing, typeface, kerns and ligatures, page numbers and goodness knows what else, here at last was the finished product.
This is always an exciting event: to hold in your hands the result of your own craftsmanship, your own hard work, and to be able to see for the first time whether it has actually worked, whether you have achieved the effect that you wanted — in this case clarity and beauty combining tradition and modernity.
Of course, many people had contributed to this volume, in ways significantly more important than I had. Liturgists had worked on drafts, revision committees and the Governing Body had considered it, and altered it to produce the final authorized text; others had created the cover (by Leigh Hurlock) and the calligraphy (by Shirley Norman); and the printer (Biddles) had produced the printed and bound books. But I shall remember the time spent designing a layout that works, selecting typefaces, playing with type size, and different combinations of bold and italic and roman, caps and small caps, creating custom ligatures (Welsh requires an ‘fh’ ligature which did not exist in the selected face, so I had to design one myself in roman, italic, bold and bold italic), and of course proofreading the text over and over again. Proofreading, especially of the parallel Welsh text, was also done by people at the provincial office of the Church in Wales. All in all, the result is a book to be very pleased with, I think.
And then after all that, despite all the care that has gone into its production, you begin to notice the mistakes. Here and there, dotted around, are little glitches that have escaped the proofreading. It’s amazing that you can proofread a text so many times, both on screen and on paper proofs, and yet the minute you pick up the finished product you find a few more mistakes.
I suppose life is like that — you cannot produce the perfect work, there are always a few little things wrong. At least with a book there is a chance to correct any errors at the next printing! Mistakes in life, on the other hand, very often have to be lived with.
3 Comments