I will be a little lazy this week.
Here is a lovely post by Lisa Fox, describing a visit to a new church plant somewhere in the States - an Episcopal church plant, so "BCP" = the (American) Book of Common Prayer. Read it all here.
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2 comments:
Thanks for the link.
I've continued to ponder that worship experience through the ensuing week. Here's another insight I had today, as I was talking with our priest about it.
It has often struck me that long-time Episcopalians (who surely have most of the service memorized by this point) nonetheless keep their noses in their prayer books throughout the service. After just a few years in the Episcopal Church (U.S.), I had the Sunday eucharist service memorized so that I seldom needed to consult the prayer book.
Our supply priest today has also served in that new parish I wrote about. Here's what he observed today: The way we generally worship (with noses in the prayer book) is like a family gathered around the breakfast table, all reading the morning newspaper and scarcely interacting. When we are "cut loose" from the prayer book, we tend to be more aware of those around us, and there can be a heightened (or at least different) sense of community.
I think there's something to that.
As you'll know from my blogpost, I expected the PowerPoint to be something I would (just barely) tolerate. It surprised me to see some of the benefits.
Hi Lisa
Noses in the prayer book is precisely an NZ Anglican problem too. By contrast when at Catholic Mass I notice how much is memorized, how many faces are facing the priest, eyes lifted to heaven!
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