Thinking allowed

Are individual cups legal for communion?

on Wednesday, 26 August 2020 at 10.45 pm by Simon Kershaw
categorised as liturgical news

Since March, the Church of Eng­land guid­ance issued by the bish­ops has stip­u­lated that com­mu­nion should be received “in one kind” only, and that the chalice, the com­mon cup, should be with­held from all except the priest tak­ing the ser­vice. This has been backed by leg­al advice that a single cup must be used, and if it is impossible to share a com­mon cup, then the cup should be withheld.

Now a group of bar­ris­ters has chal­lenged this leg­al advice that it is unlaw­ful to use sep­ar­ate indi­vidu­al cups, issu­ing a con­trary leg­al opin­ion that the over­rid­ing pri­or­ity is that com­mu­nion should be admin­istered in both kinds, and that this should allow indi­vidu­al cups to be used.

The Church Times reports on this story here.

Centenary of the WW1 Armistice

on Wednesday, 6 June 2018 at 2.28 pm by Simon Kershaw
categorised as commemoration, liturgical texts, liturgy

Over the last few years the Church of Eng­land has pub­lished vari­ous litur­gic­al resources for com­mem­or­at­ing the cen­ten­ary of sig­ni­fic­ant moments in the First World War.

It has now added to that col­lec­tion a set of resources for the cen­ten­ary of the Armistice on 11 Novem­ber, and entitled ‘Steps towards Recon­cili­ation’: a mono­logue inter­spersed with words and music.

How are we to mark the end of a War in which so many lives were lost and dam­aged? We will cer­tainly remem­ber, but we must also com­mit ourselves afresh to work­ing togeth­er for peace. Recon­cili­ation requires an hon­est ‘truth telling’, and the text that fol­lows seeks to respect the fact that we may only be able to take steps towards that goal.

This is an ima­gin­at­ive and thought­ful resource that can be used in a num­ber of set­tings on and around 11 Novem­ber 2018. It has been com­piled by mem­bers of the Litur­gic­al Commission.

The text is avail­able as a pdf file here.

Towards a Safer Church: Liturgical Resources

on Monday, 4 June 2018 at 1.04 pm by Simon Kershaw
categorised as liturgical texts, liturgy

On Fri­day, the Litur­gic­al Com­mis­sion of the Church of Eng­land pub­lished “safe­guard­ing resources, for use in churches across the coun­try, includ­ing Bible read­ings, pray­ers and sug­ges­ted hymns, chosen in con­sulta­tion with sur­viv­ors” under the title Towards a Safer Church: Litur­gic­al Resources.

There is a press release here, and the litur­gic­al resources are avail­able in PDF format here

The Chair of the Litur­gic­al Com­mis­sion, Robert Atwell, Bish­op of Exeter, in an intro­duc­tion to the resources has written:

The Church needs to be at the van­guard of fos­ter­ing a change of cul­ture across soci­ety. Safe­guard­ing is at the fore­front of pub­lic con­scious­ness and the Church needs to embody best prac­tice in safe­guard­ing in our net­work of par­ishes, schools and chap­lain­cies as part of our com­mit­ment to excel­lence in pas­tor­al care.

Many of these resources are already being used widely across our churches, but we thought it would be help­ful to gath­er them into one place for ease of access. Col­lect­ively they are neither the first word nor the last word on this sub­ject, but they are offered in the hope that by God’s grace the Church may become a safer place where every­one is valued.

Libby Lane, Bish­op of Stock­port, has also writ­ten about the resources here

The resources have been com­piled by the Litur­gic­al Com­mis­sion and staff, in con­sulta­tion with sur­viv­ors, who have them­selves sug­ges­ted some of the resources, with the aim provid­ing pray­ers and oth­er resources for vari­ous occa­sions. This includes use with sur­viv­ors and oth­ers dir­ectly affected, as well as events such as the com­mis­sion­ing of safe­guard­ing officers in par­ishes and dio­ceses. Most of the mater­i­al had been pre­vi­ously pub­lished (includ­ing com­men­ded and author­ized litur­gic­al texts), but it has been brought togeth­er in one place so that it is easi­er to find and to use.

(This item has also been pos­ted on the main Think­ing Anglic­ans page.)

2017-18 Almanac for Common Worship and BCP

on Friday, 22 September 2017 at 6.40 am by Simon Kershaw
categorised as elsewhere on the net, liturgy

Once again my annu­al Alman­ac, or cal­en­dar and lec­tion­ary, is published.

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, and the Book of Com­mon Prayer.

The 2017–18 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.

Prayers for Manchester

on Tuesday, 23 May 2017 at 2.31 pm by Simon Kershaw
categorised as liturgical news, liturgy

The Litur­gic­al Com­mis­sion has received a num­ber of enquir­ies today in the wake of yesterday’s events in Manchester, ask­ing for resources for vigil ser­vices. In addi­tion to the pray­ers tweeted by the Church of Eng­land Com­mu­nic­a­tions team, by a num­ber of dio­ceses and by oth­er indi­vidu­als, the links below to the Church of Eng­land web­site give a num­ber of appro­pri­ate pray­ers for the world/society here https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-worship/topical-prayers/prayers-for-the-world.aspx.

and for indi­vidu­als here https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-worship/topical-prayers/prayers-for-personal-situations.aspx.

For those need­ing a com­plete order of ser­vice, pp. 443–448 of New Pat­terns for Wor­ship has an out­line headed “Facing Pain: a Ser­vice of Lament” — also down­load­able from here https://churchofengland.org/prayer-worship/worship/texts/newpatterns/sampleservicescontents/npw18.aspx

Some of the ‘Cross’ and ‘Lament’ (pos­sibly also ‘Liv­ing in the world’ and ‘Rela­tion­ships and heal­ing’) resources from New Pat­terns for Wor­ship might also be appro­pri­ate for inclu­sion in that ser­vice, or as stand-alone ele­ments in your reg­u­lar service.

Michael Perham

on Tuesday, 18 April 2017 at 10.14 am by Simon Kershaw
categorised as liturgical news, liturgy

The Dio­cese of Gloucester has this morn­ing announced that Michael Per­ham, Bish­op of Gloucester between 2004 and 2014, died on the even­ing of Monday 17 April.

Michael Per­ham played a very sig­ni­fic­ant role in the litur­gic­al life of the Church of Eng­land, and was a mem­ber of the Litur­gic­al Com­mis­sion between 1986 and 2001. He was a con­trib­ut­or to the books that became Lent, Holy Week, East­er, The Prom­ise of his Glory and Enrich­ing the Chris­ti­an Year, and then to Com­mon Wor­ship.

In the announce­ment, Bish­op Michael’s suc­cessor as Bish­op of Gloucester, Bish­op Rachel Treweek writes:

It is with great sad­ness that I am writ­ing to inform you that Bish­op Michael died peace­fully at home on Monday even­ing, April 17, fol­low­ing a spe­cial East­er week­end with all the family.

I last saw Bish­op Michael on Tues­day 11 April dur­ing Holy Week. Not only was it good to share togeth­er in the Euchar­ist on that occa­sion but also to preside at the Chrism Euchar­ist on Maun­dy Thursday know­ing that the Dean would then be tak­ing Bish­op Michael bread and wine from our ser­vice in Gloucester Cathed­ral with the love and pray­ers of the Diocese.

The Roman rite

on Friday, 10 February 2017 at 2.41 pm by Simon Kershaw
categorised as elsewhere on the net, liturgy

This week’s edi­tion of the Roman Cath­ol­ic paper The Tab­let con­tains a couple of inter­est­ing art­icles on the pos­sib­il­ity of fur­ther revi­sion to the Eng­lish ver­sion of the Roman rite.

• An art­icle by Ger­ald O’Collins

• A short­er piece responds that there is little like­li­hood of full-scale revi­sion of the Eng­lish translation

O’Collins begins:

The new Mass trans­la­tion intro­duced in 2010 has few admirers

and ends:

Pope Fran­cis has just appoin­ted a com­mis­sion to revis­it L.A. [Litur­giam Authen­ticam] This could be an oppor­tun­ity for a return to the pas­tor­al good sense of Comme le pré­voit, open­ing the way to finally intro­du­cing the 1998 missal. It needs a few addi­tions, such as the memori­als of recently can­on­ised saints, but it would be a bless­ing for the Eng­lish-speak­ing churches, and it is ready and wait­ing in the wings.

Mean­while Endean concludes:

Talk of a major revi­sion or replace­ment of the 2010 missal is surely unreal­ist­ic and pre­ma­ture. But the frus­tra­tions that that missal is caus­ing remain real, and a pro­vi­sion for oth­er approaches would do much to relieve them. Moreover, we would be help­ing a new gen­er­a­tion to con­duct a health­i­er and less con­ten­tious revi­sion pro­cess next time round.

Remembrance resources

on Friday, 11 November 2016 at 9.44 am by Simon Kershaw
categorised as commemoration, liturgy

Church House has released this pic­ture and video to mark Remembrancetide.

The video can be viewed here on YouTube

2016-17 Common Worship almanac

on Friday, 30 September 2016 at 6.48 am by Simon Kershaw
categorised as elsewhere on the net, liturgy

Once again my annu­al Alman­ac, or cal­en­dar and lec­tion­ary, is published.

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, and the Book of Com­mon Prayer.

The 2016–17 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.

Further resources for the Queen's 90th birthday

on Friday, 6 May 2016 at 1.27 pm by Simon Kershaw
categorised as liturgical texts, liturgy

Church House has pub­lished online a set of Litur­gic­al Resources for the Cel­eb­ra­tion of HM The Queen’s Nineti­eth Birth­day con­tain­ing: Notes of Guid­ance; an out­line ser­vice; col­lects and graces; and sug­ges­ted readings.

The resources are avail­able as a PDF here.

The notes say:

It is hoped that many churches and com­munit­ies will be able to cel­eb­rate the nineti­eth birth­day of Her Majesty the Queen. This leaf­let con­tains, by kind per­mis­sion of the Dean and Chapter, the Out­line of the Ser­vice of Cel­eb­ra­tion and Thanks­giv­ing which will be held at St Paul’s Cathed­ral on Fri­day 10 June 2016. Churches are invited to use ele­ments of this out­line in their own pre­par­a­tions, espe­cially the bid­ding pray­er, inter­ces­sions, and act of thanks­giv­ing in the appen­dices. In addi­tion to the resources below, St Paul’s has com­mis­sioned the Mas­ter of the Queen’s Music, Judith Weir, to com­pose a chor­al anthem, I love all beau­teous things, which can be used in the con­text of a cel­eb­ra­tion ser­vice and is now available.

Also included here are the Col­lects which The Queen has been pleased to approve for use in ser­vices cel­eb­rat­ing her birth­day, and Graces for use at church and com­munity gath­er­ings. Finally, the Litur­gic­al Com­mis­sion sug­gests a num­ber of appro­pri­ate read­ings suited to a cel­eb­rat­ory service.