“In Corporate Worship, we unite ourselves with others to acknowledge the holiness of God, to hear God’s Word, to offer prayer, and to celebrate the sacraments.” So the catechism in the 1979 Book of Common Prayer in the United States describes worship.
This prayer book definition emerges from the historical context of an English-speaking liturgy handed down from Thomas Cranmer in the first English prayer book (1549). Yet it looks beyond to the present era of liturgical renewal and experimentation.
Anglicans for the last ten years have sought to define, through a great deal of study and “trial use,” the role of liturgy in the life of a church whose historical identity is reflected in its worship. Throughout the Anglican Communion there is also a felt need for understanding liturgical inculturation alongside renewal.
Three Interwoven Circles. Three interwoven circles of equal size is an ancient symbol expressing both the unity and the equality of the Trinity.
Variety and Unity in Worship. The worship experience in an Anglican or Episcopal church can vary. One Anglican may worship with such catholic expressions of worship and ceremony as incense, holy water, genuflections, signs of the cross, and the echoing of plain chant. Another may experience instead the stark simplicity of a New England colonial, low church, evangelical congregation where the Holy Communion is celebrated at a small table located underneath a central pulpit. The real unity of worship within Anglicanism comes through The Book of Common Prayer. Recent versions of the prayer book in various parts of the Communion offer that same sense of unity that was evident at the time of Archbishop Cranmer’s first English Prayer Book while introducing new tones of joy and resurrection.
Renewal of Worship. Today, renewal movements such as Faith Alive, Cursillo (Little Journey with Christ), and Happenings bring with them new musical expressions, mostly informal in nature, which participants seek to bring into the worship experience of their own parish (often, however, not without controversy). There is also a move to reclaim such historical features of Anglican worship as the ministry of healing, complete with anointing and laying on of hands. Local parish churches, now as always, may offer a healing service within the context of a celebration of Holy Communion, giving special emphasis to intercessory prayer.
Anglican/Episcopal churches are seeking a renewed liturgical vision drawing priest and people close through the experience of corporate worship. Instructed Eucharists, training classes, books on liturgy, and worship committees are all now part of the norm of local parish life. Studying the Sunday Bible Propers (the lessons appointed for the day) in the three year lectionary cycle helps bring Anglicans into an ecumenical stance with other Christians. Such an exposure to Scripture gives worship new meaning and vitality.
Eucharist in Worship. The American prayer book sees the Holy Eucharist as “the principal act of Christian worship on the Lord’s Day and other feasts.” The rite used by Anglicans/Episcopalians generally follows the Roman and Lutheran liturgies with an entrance song of praise, the “Gloria in Excelsis.” During the seasons of Advent and Lent, however, the Kyrie (“Lord Have Mercy”) or the Trisagion is sung. Most churches offer services in modern and traditional language rites, faithfully following the church year.
It is likely that Episcopalians hear more Scripture on Sundays than any other Christian denomination. Readings from the Old and New Testaments, Psalms, and Gospels follow the prayer of the day. After a homily, creed, and prayers, the faithful exchange a sign of peace, moving into the celebration of the Eucharist by offering bread and wine, themselves, their souls and bodies as the liturgy says. Money offerings are made as well.
As the great thanksgiving unfolds the dramatic story of redemption, the celebrant offers the bread and wine to become the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit, given for the faithful. The Lord’s Prayer and the breaking of the bread lead to the moment when all believers who are present share in the bread and wine. During this time, music associated with renewal can be incorporated effectively. Praise music, Taizé chants, silence, and instrumental music have all become part of this reflective time.
Styles of Worship. Various styles of Eucharistic celebrations on a given Sunday in a large parish church may include an 8:00 a.m. celebration of Communion with a short sermon, usually no music, and a small congregation. That same parish at 9:00 a.m. might have a Family Eucharist which would incorporate the use of a children’s choir, instruments, varying musical styles, and a sense of informality.
More formal would be the next service, the 11:00 a.m. Solemn Eucharist, featuring a full choir, the great anthems, an occasional swing of the incense pot, and sprinkling of holy water. This last service would also include the use of traditional hymns and chanting of Psalms.
It would not be surprising for that same church to gather on an evening for a very informal house Mass or a Table celebration, where there would be hand-clapping, choruses, raising of hands in praise, and prayer. The celebration possibly might even include dance.
Where Are They? The substance of renewal in Anglican worship is reflected in prayer books from all over the world. The new prayer book of the church in Australia finds worship to be “the highest activity of the human spirit,” while from another continent, the new prayer book of the church of the Province of Southern Africa calls upon the people of God to clothe the liturgy “with the devotion of heart and mind” so that worship may release “into the world with its needs and its pains, its sorrows and its hope, an influence for healing and wholeness which we shall never fully comprehend.” This is the substance of renewal in Anglican worship.
Committed Anglicans have testified that God is doing a new thing in their lives. Certainly it is true that liturgical Christians will indeed be well prepared to cry “Holy, Holy, Holy” as they approach the throne of God, because their cry on earth has been united with the whole company of heaven in that proclamation of praise to almighty God in their liturgy.