Changing the Liturgy

[Sausagenbacon]

Hi, this is a question for traditional Anglicanism but, of course, I'd welcome input from others.
I like the liturgy we use, and I've got used to it, but at festivals the church changes the liturgy, which I find distracting. For example, I find the Prayer of Penitence (we have sinned against thee is thought and word and deed, through negligence, through weakness, through our own deliberate fault etc) but the church changes around with it.
What is the rationale behind changing the wording of services?

I love the sound of the old language - which I was brought up with. However some of it is confusing to people.

I've put on another thread how I thought as a child:

"He ascended from the dead, according to the prophets" was casting doubt on whether it actually happened, and sort of hedging the bets (if it didn't happen we can blame the prophets for saying it happened)
And why had they misspelled and not corrected "spoke" as "spake" ditto the "holy catholick church"?

I also thought that thee and thou etc were the formal way of speaking, because obviously you'd be politer to God...

In some things it's obvious and it increases the knowledge "we have left undone those things that ought to have been done and there is no health in us" is much more beautiful that the modern equivalent, and is fairly obvious, even though I did tend to associate it with shoelaces when small.

But by using old language we are excluding people who struggle to understand. Christianity has plenty of words - salvation, redemption etc which need explanations, so why make it harder for people to access what we are saying?

Yes, you could do explanations (my primary school head always explained words to hymns that weren't obvious - like "without a city wall" and "stable rude and bare") but you'd have to do it frequently,

I'd wonder if for your church, festivals are when you get visitors who may find modern language easier maybe? But ask your minister - or maybe the PCC/ECC because that sort of decision may well have been discussed there.

But with any modernisation, there can be good versions and bad versions. I maintain that whoever did the particularly dreadful version of "Crown Him with Many Crowns" needed taking away from any further attempts at music lyrics. No one should mess with such beautiful words. Otoh some of the recent versions of Psalm 23 are beautiful in themselves.

Nothing helpful to contribute, as I’ve no experience of being part of a liturgical church.

Watching the thread with interest, however, as I’m interested in learning more about how my brothers & sisters in liturgical churches “do church”.

I’m interested in learning more about how my brothers & sisters in liturgical churches “do church”

As varied as non-liturgical churches really!

My parents church (CofE) will have the same things every week, even down to the intercessions are pretty consistent. You could probably set your watch by it. They go through the book and the only deviation are the reading, sermon, which "comfortable word" they choose to use, or when they add a little bit to the communion prayer at certain times of year, which has a term I can't remember offhand - I seem to remember it begins with "And now we give thee thanks...". It's just before "and with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify thy holy name forever praising thee and singing..." anyway.

At my current church (also CofE) we'll have some form of creed. Depends on the week which one and which variation. We'll normally have the Lord's prayer, and if we do communion then we'll use various different forms for that.

I used to go to another CofE church who rarely used any liturgy. They did use some for communion, but I think that was only once a month anyway.

You'll get some which almost feel staged. I went to a Catholic one once where at certain points everyone crossed themselves, and turned to face a particular way etc.
Otoh I've been to non-conformist that felt as staged, but done by more popular agreement rather than liturgical.
You know, at the first notes of "Faithful one" we sit down and put our head in our hands; on this song we all know the actions and will automatically do it/split into parts, and on the last verse of "Thine be the glory" you stick both hands in the air and throw your head back, and perhaps clap at the end.
Neither's my taste, and I find it awkward as a visitor, but I can see how people find it comforting.

A lot of people think Anglican worship is all conducted using the Book of Common Prayer, which uses traditional language. A few churches still use it exclusively, more use it occasionally, but many many churches gave it up years ago. It is very beautiful but is not particularly accessible for people who haven't been brought up in the Anglican tradition.

Most churches these days use Common Worship, which is in contemporary language and has a wonderfully wide range of liturgical resources that can be used in different church settings, different services and different times of the year. A service of Christian worship can be thought of as a journey towards an encounter with God. The service leader might want to emphasise different points along the way, or focus on different themes such as hope, penitence, gratitude, service etc. Think of it like a "choose your own adventure" book, which provides lots of choice, but within clearly defined boundaries, so the end result achieves a particular objective but remains recognisably Anglican.

I’m a Catholic and they have just changed the liturgy wording - this time the readings, psalms and gospel acclamation. It has been incredibly expensive, with need to buy new books that the churches can’t afford.
I know the psalms as have sung them for mass and they have made minimal changes, but still new settings for singing.

Frankly I think it was a waste of time and money. The Catholic church in England should be using money to support parishes. Individuals have made large donations just for the books needed by the priests and readers - so many better ways to spend that - charity or if to the church towards heating or maybe children’s liturgy resources as some need to given to children rather than used repeatedly.

I’m a Catholic and they have just changed the liturgy wording - this time the readings, psalms and gospel acclamation. It has been incredibly expensive, with need to buy new books that the churches can’t afford.

That's the advantage of using media and projectors - it doesn't cost any more, other than a bit of time to copy and paste them across. And I suspect that's why it hasn't been thought about.

However it tends to be the bigger and wealthier churches that have the media rather than books - it also means that there will be fewer churches passing books on because they don't need them any more.

Putting a new media system into an old church that may need the wiring tested, more sockets put in etc before they can put the electric strain on the system, is quite likely to be prohibitably expensive for a small church.
Our church is in full refit having never had more than basic electrics. I think the budget is around £50-£70k - due to complicated reasons we aren't paying for it thankfully.
It's nothing extraordinary amazing for a modern church. But because it's old, all the wiring etc is from scratch and new sockets etc, and all that bumps the price up.
However my parents' church, with a small elderly congregation would struggle to fund a projector and screen - and that's assuming that they could find someone to operate it. I think my df would probably be the best bet and he's approaching 80yo and not now up to date with that sort of thing.

Same here 😊

The liturgy should change a bit for particular days, different liturgical seasons etc. There's a nice rhythm to it. It would be strange if Easter Sunday had the same liturgy as a Sunday in ordinary time.

In my churches two use the Book of Common Prayer and two use Common Worship. I do like BCP as it is open the book and go. My elderly congregations like it because it is familiar. They are mostly in their 80s or went to public school.

In the bigger churches we use CW with screens for any additional liturgy or songs that aren't in the hymn books or service booklets. Much as I love changing liturgy each week I hold myself back as this is my love and not that of most of the people attending and I have to respect that. I do enjoy a wedding blessing as then I can write the liturgy and be creative.