Thinking allowed

2020-21 Almanac for Common Worship and BCP

on Thursday, 17 September 2020 at 5.31 pm by Simon Kershaw
categorised as elsewhere on the net, liturgical news, liturgical texts, liturgy, software

Now avail­able for the year begin­ning Advent Sunday 2020: Alman­ac, the cal­en­dar, lec­tion­ary and col­lects accord­ing to the cal­en­dar of the Church of Eng­land, for Com­mon Wor­ship and for the Book of Com­mon Pray­er. Down­load to your cal­en­dar or use the web app.

Down­load is free, dona­tions are invited.

What's new?

The Alman­ac web page has been com­pre­hens­ively updated since last year to make it easi­er and more use­ful. Updates include

• the down­load page and the daily view have been integ­rated into a single tabbed page
• the oremus Bible Browser (which includes the full NRSV, the AV, and the psal­ters from the pray­er book and Com­mon Wor­ship) is added on anoth­er tab
• a resources tab provides dir­ect links to all the offi­cial Com­mon Wor­ship texts, hymn sug­ges­tions (with links through to Hym­nQuest) and some oth­er litur­gic­al resources
• the Alman­ac daily view includes sun­rise and sun­set times, which can be cus­tom­ized to your location
• on phones and tab­lets you can add an Alman­ac icon or tile to your screen so that it is access­ible like an app (details in the Help tab), and you can swipe for­wards and back­wards through the days, and through bible pas­sages in the Bible tab

As usu­al, the Alman­ac is avail­able in a num­ber of formats for adding to Microsoft Out­look, Apple Cal­en­dar, iPhone or iPad, Google Cal­en­dar and oth­er cal­en­dar applic­a­tions. It can be synced from a desktop cal­en­dar to a tab­let or smart­phone (includ­ing Apple iPads and iPhones, Android phones and tab­lets, and Win­dows Sur­face tab­lets). There is also a csv format, which can be opened in a spread­sheet for fur­ther manipulation.

Nat­ur­ally I hope that the Alman­ac is free of errors, but I dis­claim respons­ib­il­ity for the effects of any errors. My liab­il­ity is lim­ited to provid­ing a cor­rec­ted file for import, at my own con­veni­ence. Please help by noti­fy­ing me of pos­sible errors.

Donations

This Alman­ac is offered free of charge, and without war­ranty, but as you might ima­gine it takes some effort to com­pile. If you would like to make a con­tri­bu­tion to my costs then dona­tions may be made via PayP­al at paypal.me/simonkershaw. Altern­at­ively, Amazon gift vouch­ers can be pur­chased online at Amazon (amazon.co.uk) for deliv­ery by email to simon@kershaw.org.uk .

The Alman­ac web page car­ries the date 8 Septem­ber 2000, so, as the Beatles sang, “it was twenty years ago” that I first provided a digit­al litur­gic­al cal­en­dar, which in a couple of years evolved into a fully worked-out lec­tion­ary. There is not and has nev­er been any charge for down­load­ing and using the Alman­ac — this is just an oppor­tun­ity to make a dona­tion, if you so wish. Many thanks to those of you who have donated in the past or will do so this year, par­tic­u­larly those who reg­u­larly make a dona­tion: your gen­er­os­ity is appre­ci­ated and makes the Alman­ac possible.

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.