Setting the scene

Friday, June 13, 2008

Setting the scene

The other day I led a (special) service and received a compliment afterwards for my introduction which (apparently) helpfully set the scene. In effect I reminded people why we were gathered, welcomed special guests to the service, and announced that after the service there would be a further gathering (i.e. supper).

A special service will normally constrain the leader towards setting the scene - welcoming chief mourners to a funeral, welcoming the couple to their wedding service etc. But a lot can be achieved in setting the scene at a general Sunday service. With a few sentences acknowledgements can be made which welcome outsiders, affirm insiders, connect the congregation to other congregations within and without the parish, and engage minds with the learning content of the service. Here are a couple of examples.

'Welcome this morning to St. Swithins. A special welcome to visitors, we hope you can remain with us for a cup of tea afterwards. Today is a special day for Bob and Mary Jones who celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary this weekend. This is also the day when seven children at our later service will receive their certificates for completion of our 'Understanding Communion' course. Our theme today is 'World mission'. Let's stand to sing our first hymn ...'

'In a few moments we are going to sing our opening hymn, 'Let all the world in every corner sing ...'. We have a number of people here from different parts of the world: a special welcome to you. Please stay with us for refreshments after the service. Today our theme is 'World Mission' and we welcome Jemma Smith, a mission partner from Burundi as our preacher. We will also be praying for our youth group which heads off to Winter Camp next weekend. Let's stand to sing our hymn ...'

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Welcome

Welcome to this blog about Preaching and Worship.

I also have two other blogs which may interest you:

Anglican Down Under

Hermeneutics and Human Dignity

On Preaching and Worship - Anglican style Down Under I aim to post weekly, usually on or about Sunday. Mostly I post on some aspect of preaching and worship, often with a 'how to' angle (sometimes, especially if talking about my mistakes, with a 'how not to' angle)!

I see this blog as complementary to a very important website on worship matters, Liturgy, presided over by my friend and colleague Bosco Peters.

In my present role as Director of Education for the Diocese of Christchurch (NZ) I am not tied to one parish so some Sundays I am a parishioner in the pews and other Sundays I am preacher or presider or both. If you have been to church with me recently please do not think I am blogging about that service (unless I explicitly do so). It is likely, however, that something in the service has got me thinking about how we can better prepare for worship, lead liturgy, and preach God's Word. We serve God. Why not aim to do it to the very very best of our ability?

Key Terms

Two Year Cycle - the cyle of readings in the NZPB associated with Sunday themes, Sentences and Collects
ACANZP - Anglican Church of Aotearoa New Zealand and Polynesia
NZPB - A New Zealand Prayer Book (or the 1989 'Red Book' of ACANZP
RCL - Revised Common Lectionary (3 year cycle)
Continuous - (in the RCL) mostly continuous reading of the Old Testament with that reading independent of New Testament readings
Related - (in the RCL) Old Testament reading and the psalm are related to the Gospel reading of the day

Words to encourage liturgy and preaching

It helps enormously to have not only the discipline of the daily Offices, the daily Eucharist here, but actually a praying community. Prayers are offered quite early. Every morning, therefore, I have an opportunity to remind myself that what matters is not the Church of England or the Anglican Communion but the act of God in Jesus Christ for the salvation of the world. When I am inclined to think that the whole thing is falling apart and that I am making a more than usually bad job of it, the transforming thing has got to be, and in my experience always is, renewing a sense of gratitude. Whether the Church of England survives or not, whether the archbishop of Canterbury survives or not, Christ still died on the cross and rose again, and that’s enough to keep you going for quite a few lifetimes.
Archbishop Rowan Williams

Preaching and Worship - Anglican style Down Under

Friday, June 13, 2008