An act of Worship - Observed

Introduction

In this essay we are asked to prepare a report on an act of Worship that was observed in a Church in Wales Church. The service I have chosen is a Eucharist service, in Brecon. It was the second Sunday of Advent. The Church is in interregnum and has a regular non stipendiary Priest. I tried to observe this service whilst still partaking in it as a worshipper and to do it whilst imagining that I was here at my church for the very first time. I found this difficult, as to remain objective detracted from my usual worship and communion with God.

Context

To put the church into a local context, ecumenically, it is quite separate from other churches in the Brecon area although it is part of the ministry area. This may be, in part due, to location. It is on the outskirts of the main town, has minimal foot traffic and attracts only local residents. At the time and currently it is in interregnum. It has a regular Sunday congregation of about Fifteen to Twenty communicants. The congregation is predominately English speaking. At this service there were seventeen people present. I did not count who was a communicant and who was not.

In the book SCM Study guide to Liturgy, Burns referred to another book - Il Postino (Burns, 2006). One of the main characters had to leave an island. He wrote a letter to another character on the island asking him to record the sounds of that same island. Burns uses this analogy to point out that there is a difference between words on a page and the sounds of the island. He brings us back to the fact that liturgy is more than words on a page. The act of worship engages all the senses.

Burns draws another analogy; he speaks of a theatre where the audience were the congregation. The actors were the Priests and the prompt was God (Burns, 2006). However, he quotes Kierkagaard, who argues that it creates a different feeling if we consider the actors were the congregation, the prompt was the Priest and that the audience was God. It’s all about perception. Thus, second Vatican council states that worship should be actively partaken in not just observed. And this is regarded as an ecumenical treasure (Burns, 2006). Thus, the idea that the full participation in worship, of the congregation is part of the liturgy of most Christian Denominations.

Relationship to Liturgy

In this church, it is customary to greet everyone with the sign of peace (Bradshaw & Johnson, 2012)(Page 152), whilst in some churches the sign of peace is shared with just those around you. This does take a few extra minutes but is important to our congregation.

The readings, which I understand, are given to the Church Warden by the Cathedral were as follows; Old Testament – Isaiah 11:1-10; Psalm 72 Vv 1-7; New Testament Romans 15:4-13; Gospel Matthew 3:1-12.

The reading from Isaiah related to the shoot coming from the Stump of the Jesse – This could be taken as a prophesy of the coming of the Messiah.

The Psalm speaks to us as a prayer for a ruler or leader again relating to the coming of Jesus.

The Romans reading again refers to Isaiah and the root of Jesse

All of these readings fit very nicely into the Advent season.

Matthew is stuffed with Messianic language and Matthew 3 does not disappoint. Whilst the other readings point to the coming of Christ as Saviour, Matthew 3 speaks of John the Baptist, who prepares the way for Jesus.

With Christmas coming at the end of the calendar year and Advent the start of the Christian year, it is often a time for reflection on the past and looking forward to new beginnings. The birth of Jesus gives us hope for those new beginnings and the readings underpin those feelings.

The service was a Eucharistic service and as Jeanes states in Chapter fourteen (Day & Taylor, 2013) (Page146) ‘Communion occupies a devotional centre stage’.

Sermon

Priests are called to become artful story-tellers (Pritchard, 2007) and the Priest’s sermon was in two parts. Firstly, there was an explanation of the Tree of Jesse and how this relates to us as Christians with an explanation for those who were not familiar with the scriptural references. Then the Priest spoke of an incident in the church the previous week. A group of candles were clustered together in front of the Alter. The Priest described how these caught fire. The candles had melted together to become one and all of it caught fire. Fortunately, one of the Church Wardens was nearby and put it out. A nice touch within the context of the sermon the smaller candles became one large one and the congregation was urged to do the same. Hence using light-hearted humour to make her point.

Most of the congregation were not there when the candles caught fire so the priest was able to show where it happened and with hand gestures was able to show us where and how it happened and the use of humour helped drive home the point. Christopher Irvine (Irvine, 2007)(Page 15), explains that symbols do not just come alive due to a symbolic act. They need to be received, understood and responded to. In this sermon the Priest understood this and used the melting of the candles as a symbol of the church and the congregation understood this. Candles are an important part of worship and are used to symbolise many things as well as to develop the mood or atmosphere. The fact that The Priest explained the readings and helped to put them into context meant that we understood what the readings meant, allowing us to relate to the scripture and helped us to participate in the liturgy rather than feeling that we were being spoken to.

Commentary and Recommendations.

I made some initial observations on first entering the church for this service that it felt that very little preparation had gone into this service. It is usual in our church for the laity to read the Old Testament, the Psalms and the New Testament with the Priest taking the Gospel Reading and Sermon. At this service, no readers had been appointed, which meant that the Church Warden, who normally organises this, had to ‘pounce’ on potential readers as they arrived. I was one of those people. I declined due to the fact that I am dyslexic and do need a little bit of time to prepare but it made for an air of confusion and frustration on entrance. My recommendation would be to organise and communication with the readers before the day of the service.

Like many people, I arrive a few minutes early for a service to spiritually prepare myself with prayer. Prior to this service it was quite noisy. It was so bad the Priest had to ask for quiet in order for those currently in prayer to remain undisturbed. My recommendation for this would be to announce and have it printed in the service information, that the moments before service are for quiet reflection. In the Holy Eucharist 2004 (Thomas, et al., 2004)(page 11) explains that when the liturgy requires silence, all need to be silent and this will need to be explained. It goes on to say silence can be enriching in corporate prayer.

During the intercessions, we generally respond to “Lord, in thy Mercy” with “hear our prayer”. For some unexplained reason, the church warden leading the intercessions opted for a different response. The response was lengthy which I forgot almost immediately. I found, rather than listening to the prayers, I was listening for the prompt and trying to remember the response by listening to others who had remembered it. I do not feel that I was ‘present’ during the intercessions. My recommendation is to either maintain the words “Lord, in thy mercy – hear our prayer” or if the response is different to have it printed so people can read it.

Due to the Advent candle being lit, the first hymn was skipped. No mention was made of this change and the board still had four hymns listed. There was a great deal of confusion as people tried to find the correct hymn. My recommendation is that communication is really important during a service. Whilst it is important to finish on time, a short mention about the change of hymns would have ensured this confusion did not arise.

The Mass settings are printed with the Diocesan prayer and the various sung responses which the congregation find helpful. However, in this service there was another break down of communication with no announcement of which mass or Gloria we would be singing - which led to further confusion. My recommendation for this is at the beginning of the service announce which mass setting is to be used.

The church was not only cold it was freezing, I was so cold I could not stay for fellowship and noticed others leaving also. My recommendation is to ensure that the church always warm and welcoming.

The Lord’s prayer was sung as is often the case in in our church. However, this is slightly awkward because whilst the words are written clearly in the book, the words have to be contracted and, in some cases, elongated in order to match the tune. This makes it difficult for the first-time attendee and can give them a sense of detachment even if they are familiar with the Church in Wales Liturgy. Burns states in his book that we need to engage the senses and singing is one of those way as it can add some depth to the human voice (Burns, 2006). The Church in Wales Holy Eucharist 2004 recommends two versions of the Lord’s Prayer - a traditional one and a contemporary alternative.

The final recommendation is that as a newcomer, the Holy Eucharist 2004 can be rather complex and due to the fact that some of it can be changed, it can be different from one church to another. As a result, the new-comer is left rather perplexed and the question has to be asked ‘Is Eucharist Sunday worship the best place to start?’ My final recommendation would be an adult style Sunday School where new members can learn about the liturgy and make informed choices about worship.

Conclusion

Worship requires full participation. Without that, worship it is nothing more than a ‘show’ and we know that the congregation is not an audience. Our participation is limited to standard, learned responses; there is no opportunity to respond from the heart. When those responses change, as I found in the intercessions, it can be difficult to keep up. I believe that there is no conclusive solution to the problem that is deep seated in liturgical tradition.

The context of St. David’s church has been explored. This affects how the congregation respond to the liturgy and how the liturgy informs the congregation. The Priest’s sermon paid special attention to the Word, by helping the congregation to understand the meaning behind the readings and bringing them together into context. The Priest also engaged the congregation with the sermon with the reference to the candles which brought to life.

I have made eight recommendations. I tried to make these observations objectively. I feel the recommendations would help the service to flow, and to eliminate the issues that newcomers to the church may have when they have limited experience of Anglican worship.

I have asked the question ‘is the Sunday Eucharist the best place to start for someone seeking Christ’. It has a liturgy that has developed over two thousand years and has a shared history with the Catholic church and the church of England. It can seem quite daunting for a new-comer as it can appear quite ritualistic when faced with this for the first time. We are seeing many people coming to church for the first time without having a background in liturgy or worship. The question must be asked, then, why Sunday Eucharistic worship is seen as the primary entry point into the Christian faith? It was suggested that an Adult form of Sunday school might be appropriate. Perhaps that is the role of the Alpha course.

Bibliography

Bradshaw, P. & Johnson, M., 2012. The Eucharistic Liturgies. London: SPCK.

Burns, S., 2006. SCM Study Guide to Liturgy. London: SCM Press.

Day, J. & Taylor, B. G., 2013. The Study of Liturgy and Worship. Collegeville, Minnesota: Liturgical Press.

Irvine, C., 2007. The Use of Symbols in Worship. London: SPCK Publishing.

McGrath, A., 2017. Christian Theology an Introduction. Sixth ed. Chichester: Wiley Blackwell.

Pritchard, J., 2007. The Life and Work of a Priest. London: SPCK.

Thomas, D. et al., 2004. Introducing the Holy Eucharist 2004, Cardiff: Church In Wales.