formative influences (7?) : loving liturgy

A comment from Mike Morell, put me in mind of this:

Growing up in a decidedly non-liturgical fellowship, occasional tastes of liturgical worship seemed rather wonderful. Not particularly the theatrical aspects: costume, processions, colours, and the rest, but the prayers, the shared affirmations, the structure. Every-member ministry with extempore prayer can be uplifting but can be ... dire. Words that have been considered and weighed by many, over the centuries, carry nuance and force all of their own.

I blogged before about College Chapel: I loved the way that the creed always followed the sermon. No matter how weird, woolly, or distracting the sermon might be (or so I judged it at the time), everyone would afterward stand and declaim together some of the truths of the faith.

Likewise, when I belonged to an Anglican church, I really valued the unifying, normative effect of the liturgy: if there was an element in the service (perhaps the sermon, again) that I didn't value, I was brought to my senses again by the introduction to the Peace, right before Communion:

	Christ is our peace He has reconciled us to God
	in one body by the cross.
	We meet in his name and share his peace.

That was tremendously normalizing, uplifting, resetting, unifying. On the other hand, we held onto the liturgy very lightly in that church. Sections would be omitted on a whim, the vicar would have the whole congregation say parts supposed to be reserved to the priest, he let me lead much of the service, despite not being authorized by the Bishop, and so on. The liturgy was shared and subordinate to the people - not the other way around.

Moving away, and joining a Baptist church I missed much of this. I missed the structure, the meditative elements, the space to pause, the shape of the whole thing. When the church was due to celebrate a major anniversary, my new-found Anglican sensibilities expected that the main service would incorporate sharing communion - what could be more appropriate? Not a chance!

In that church and my current one, has been my privilage to lead worship from time to time. I value the opportunity to introduce liturgical prayers, shared affirmations and other elements. Everyone can participate in these, even those who cannot sing, or do not enjoy music. I'd hate to be hide-bound by these things, but as tools for us to use, they can be superb.