A recent comment asked why Lent 5 (this coming Sunday), the Sunday before Palm Sunday, was previously called “Passion Sunday”. Was there at some stage of Christian history a reading of the Passion on this day? The Church of England continues to call this “Passion Sunday”. The NZ Lectionary also calls this “Passion Sunday” and the (now-nearly-never-used- does-anyone-at-all-still-us-it?) NZ home-grown “Two Year Series” of readings also calls Lent 5 “Passion Sunday” (with the theme “the cross”) NZPB page 579. I have looked in some books, looked around online, and tweeted the question, but have not received what I regard as a sufficient explanation. Personally, I’m with the renewed lectionary that sees Palm Sunday as Passion Sunday and each year has a different reading of the passion story on Palm/Passion Sunday. This aside, in this post I’m more interested in the history of calling Lent 5 “Passion Sunday”. Please add in the comments what you know.
Tag Archive for 'liturgy'
It is regularly said now that Eastern and Western Christianity form two lungs of Christianity. We might also refer to head and heart, etc. needing to work in balance. Western theology is regularly connected to philosophy, arguing about words – words, words, more words. While Western theologians are often philosophers, Eastern theologians are often artists, poets, musicians, etc. Eastern theology is generally more at home with symbolism, ritual, liturgy… Maybe we in the Western Christian tradition might take some time this Lent fasting from words, words, and more words – and give over more time to art, symbol, music, liturgy, mystery… What do you think?
I have created this chart to help clarify how the Lent and Easter Seasons fit into the year. This period forms a quarter of the year. The forty days of Lent is an approximate tenth or tithe of the year. The fifty days of the Easter Season is approximately a seventh of the year – it forms the great Sunday of the year. It is concluded by the Day of Pentecost – from the Greek word for fifty. Also called Whitsunday – possibly from the French word for eighth Sunday (Whitsunday is the eighth Sunday of the great Season of Easter).
All days in my table are inclusive.
This period effectively of 96 days moves around a certain section of our calendar year by year.
The three days (inclusive) here refers to the “three days” Christ is in the tomb. The Triduum celebration is now more generally a reference to the Maundy Thursday until the Easter Vigil celebration.
The 40 days fast is preparing for the 50 days feast. You can accept the invitation to the 50 days here. Invite others.
Up in the Air 2009 movie – some thoughts
Central to this film (spoilers warning) is a scene with Jim Miller (Danny McBride) in a Sunday school classroom reading the classic The Velveteen Rabbit. The story of The Velveteen Rabbit is a story of a toy rabbit who becomes real by being loved – loved so much that his fur is rubbed off in the process.
In the scene I mention, Jim explains his thoughts about what his life is going to be like: house, children, jobs, losing his hair, and then dying. He wonders what the point of life is. IMO it is a key moment in the movie.
The film focuses on Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) who lives out of a suitcase, employed to travel around the country firing people. We see the reaction of people being “let go”. With a few exceptions of well-known actors, the scenes of people’s reactions are not with actors, but the reaction of actual people recently laid off. (And here’s an important movie-going rule: always stay through the credits. In one case a thriller’s conclusion changed completely after the credits. Often there is a humorous bit, or the hint of a sequel. This time there is a significant song).
Ryan Bingham is a commitment-phobe:
Ryan: How much does your life weigh? Imagine for a second that you’re carrying a backpack. … I want you to fill it with people. Start with casual acquaintances, friends of friends, folks around the office… and then you move into the people you trust with your most intimate secrets. Your brothers, your sisters, your children, your parents and finally your husband, your wife, your boyfriend, your girlfriend. You get them into that backpack, feel the weight of that bag. Make no mistake your relationships are the heaviest components in your life. All those negotiations and arguments and secrets, the compromises. The slower we move the faster we die. Make no mistake, moving is living. Some animals were meant to carry each other to live symbiotically over a lifetime. Star crossed lovers, monogamous swans. We are not swans. We are sharks.
Ryan’s one-night stands give way to a developing relationship with what he perceives to be a female version of himself, Alex (Vera Farmiga). There is an interesting reflection here on sex as sacrament. Some people may think that sex does not connect us as people – but here there is an argument that we can let that wall slip. Sex with Alex is where Ryan’s walls begin to crumble.
Ryan: I thought I was a part of your life.
Alex: I thought we signed up for the same thing… I thought our relationship was perfectly clear. You are an escape. You’re a break from our normal lives. You’re a parenthesis.
Ryan: I’m a parenthesis?
There is a memorable scene where Ryan is looking at the myriad of flight options on an airport screen. It is a metaphor of the commitment-phobe. In our culture in the past we used to tell lots of people we loved them, but only had sex with someone significant. Now our contemporary culture has reversed this totally to having sex with lots of people – and telling someone we love them is regarded as very significant (and saying “I love you” during the climax of sex doesn’t count!) Our culture has shifted, without much reflection, from focusing on the positive of marriage, allowing one to now “have and to hold”, to its negative – the realisation that in marriage one ends up “forsaking all others.” It is little wonder that divorce is so prevalent. With compassion towards those who have genuinely found their commitment impossible to maintain, one wonders at Christians, even clergy, moving through their third or more marriages. Anyway, when it comes to sex, Christianity has a pretty bad track record currently – riddled with scandals, obsessing about sex as a primary issue, and generally giving a negative impression about sex (why is the term “living in sin” associated with sex, and not, say, anger, or video piracy,…). It is understandable Christians cannot be heard about a positive attitude to sex. Maybe Christians need to be silent about sex for a generation. And after that slowly begin talking about sex again, but solely in a positive, encouraging way,… starting with the Song of Solomon. Visually illustrated…
At the start of the film Natalie (Anna Kendrick) looked like a younger version of Ryan. Turns out she is not:
Natalie: Don’t you think it’s worth giving it a chance?
Ryan: A chance to what?
Natalie: A chance to something real.
Ryan: You’re definition of real evolves as you get older.
Natalie: Can you stop being so condescending for one second or is that one of your principles of your bullshit philosophy? The isolation? Is that supposed to be charming?
Ryan: No, it’s simply a life choice.
Natalie: It’s a cocoon of self banishment.
There is a bit of a transformation for Ryan as he allows himself to make some real connections – but…
Relationships are messy. Love in real life isn’t neat, tidy, well-organised, in the way that Ryan’s flying life appears. Love is much more like the story of The Velveteen Rabbit. It wears our fur off. It also makes us real.
Candlemas (Russian icon)
Most on Sunday will be celebrating the 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time January 31 (click that link for a reflection from the collect/opening prayer).
Some will be anticipating Candlemas, the feast of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple.
You can add your resources and reflections on the readings, feasts, hymns, etc. in with the comments below.
“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.”
“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.” Through the Looking Glass, by Lewis Carroll
I think the word “orthodox” might be in trouble. Let’s try and save it from losing its meaning.
I am seeing a lot of people calling themselves “orthodox” Christians and using the term to put down others as “unorthodox”, “heterodox”. But actually I don’t think these particular people should be allowed to use the term “orthodox” – as they are changing its meaning (and hence emptying its meaning IMO). They are perfectly welcome and free to start a new movement, start a number of new movements, but these particular people are not orthodox – there is a perfectly good word for them: they are homodox.
Orthodox, first of all, means “right worship” (ortho – right; dox – like doxology – worship). If you call yourself orthodox, at the very least it should mean that most Christians for the first 1500 years or so of Christian history should be able to walk into your worship and pretty much feel at home. Augustine, Teresa, Ambrose, Luther, Francis, Hildegard, Basil, Julian, Justin, etc. should be able to walk into your worship and recognise you are following a lectionary inherited from the Synagogue, have the basic shape of worship inherited from the earliest church, a Eucharistic Prayer, and responses that go back to the Last Supper and beyond, to a thousand years or so earlier…
Orthodox, would also mean, right beliefs. At the very least that would surely be affirming the important doctrines and disciplines of the seven ecumenical councils of the united church of the first thousand years or so. Should that not include the church’s structure that along with its liturgy and scriptures evolved fairly quickly in the earliest period of the church under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. (Some might call themselves “orthodox” but could probably not name the councils, let alone state anything they teach, or justify why they reduce them to, for example, four, or claim to hold to them but would balk at, for example, calling Mary “Theotokos”)
Homodox means “having the same opinion”. Many people who are misusing, abusing the term “orthodox” are in fact not orthodox at all, they are homodox (let me preempt the comment now: it does not mean worshipping gays 
) They want everyone to think exactly like them (yes, often particularly about gays). Orthodox can cope with diversity, do not need everyone to agree about everything, celebrate diversity, honour difference: In necessariis unitas, in non-necessariis libertas, in utrisque caritas. (In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity.)
So next time you see someone putting down others, and calling themselves “orthodox”, pause, check whether they really are orthodox or whether that word is being abused and emptied of its meaning. And then, if they pause momentarily from their tirade, and you have even an inkling they might be prepared to listen to someone else, take a deep breath and very politely tell them they aren’t orthodox but homodox. Of course if they listen to you, and are prepared to change their mind,… maybe they aren’t.
Vincent Murphy, one of my followers on twitter, and a regular commenter on this site, has on his site uncovered the program for the creation of the universe (you can follow the verses in Genesis 1 indicated eg. // 1:1-5):
[word@god ~]# cat creation.word
#!/bin/word // 1:1-5
begin creation
public earth = new domain();
earth.content = 1/0 * void();
earth.startCreation(’spirit’);
var light = new creation();
try {
earth.addChild(light); }
catch {
throw(E_BAD,’LIGHT FAILURE’); }
earth.light.status = E_GOOD; // all ok
list day(’Day’,'Night’) =
earth.light.filter(dark==false,dark==true);
earth.templates.day = day; // save for future days
earth.today = 1;
earth.days[earth.today++] = byVal earth.templates.day;
//firmament routine // 1:6-8
var f = new creation();
for (var a in earth.waters)
if (a.index>f.index)
{
f.waters.addChild(a);
earth.waters.removeChild(a);
}
private heaven = f;
earth.days[earth.today++] = byVal earth.templates.day;
earth.waters.defragment(); // 1:9-13
var dryland = earth.waters.getFreespace();
var seas = earth.waters.getUtilisation();
try { dryland.generate(E_GRASS,E_HERB,E_FRUIT) }
catch { throw(E_BAD,’LIFE ON EARTH NOT GOOD’); }
dryland.status = E_GOOD;
earth.days[earth.today++] = byVal earth.templates.day;
//lights in heavens, use for signs/seasons/days/years // 1:14-19
var lights = Array();
lights[0] = new light
(size = 10,
attach = earth.templates.day[Day]);
lights[1] = new light
(size = 2,
attach = earth.templates.day[Night]);
foreach (lights as l) heaven.addChild(l);
var stars = Array();
for (var a = 0; a < inf; a++) stars[a] = new star();
foreach (stars as s) heaven.addChild(s);
if (earth.checkStatus()) earth.status = E_OK;
else throw(E_BAD,’LIGHTING ERROR’);
earth.days[earth.today++] = byVal earth.templates.day;
earth.generate(E_WATERCREATURE, E_FOWL); // 1:20-23
earth.setGenerationSpeed(1000);
foreach (earth.creation as x)
if (x.typeOf == E_FOWL) x.setDomain(earth,heaven);
earth.generate(E_WHALES);
foreach (earth.creation as x)
x.limitChild.typeOf=x.typeOf; //after their kind
if (earth.creation.checkStatus()) earth.status = E_OK;
else throw(E_BAD,’CREATION ERROR’);
foreach (earth.creation as x) x.nice–; //more CPU
earth.days[earth.today++] = byVal earth.templates.day;
var livingcreatures = // 1:24-31
Array(E_CATTLE, E_BEAST, E_CREEPING);
earth.generate(livingcreatures);
foreach (earth.creation as x)
x.limitChild.typeOf=x.typeOf; //after their kind
if (earth.creation.checkStatus()) earth.status = E_OK;
else throw(E_BAD,’CREATION ERROR / LIVING THINGS’);
//man project
var man = new creation();
man.style = byVal earth.parentNode.style; //cp God
foreach (earth.creation as x)
if (x.hasLife) x.addController(man.groupId);
man.addVariant(E_FEMALE);
man.addVariant(E_MALE);
man.addFood(livingcreatures,E_GRASS,E_HERB,E_FRUIT);
man.nice–;
earth.creation.addChild(man);
foreach (earth.creation as x)
if (x.hasLife && (x.typeOf == E_BEAST || x.typeOf == E_CREEP ||
x.typeOf = E_FOWL)) x.addFood(E_HERB);
if (earth.getStatus() && heaven.getStatus()) return (E_VERYGOOD);
else throw(E_BAD,’FAILURE ON DAY 6′);
earth.days[earth.today++] = byVal earth.templates.day;
daemonize();
//TODO: rest
//TODO: expose parent API to creation
//TODO: invoke interactive-mode man object (sometime later)
end program
[word@god ~]# date
Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 GMT 0000
[word@god ~]# ./creation.word
Creation started as pid 143. To stop type: kill -9 143
Got status: E_VERYGOOD
Appending output to creation.log
[word@god ~]# _
One of the great values of liturgy is that all ages, stages, and types can/should be able to meet around God’s table. [There is, hence, a danger in tightly themed services. And a value in the casting-of-pebbles approach of lectionary-based liturgy].
IMO alarm bells should be ringing if your community is becoming monochrome. Like-minded, same-age,… cloning is not God’s way of producing more children… We are the body of Christ – St Paul says. There should be a warning if we look around and see only ears, or only big toes, or only…
If we see only old people,… only rich people,… only happy people,…
What message is being given (explicitly – or possibly, more importantly, covertly) if (a) whole generation(s) is/are missing in our community? Is it not good news for that generation? Every age group, every situation can meet good news for their particular situation IMO.
Liturgy as language (part 5)
There are those who look at thriving, fruitful, vibrant worshipping communities, see they are not “using liturgy” and suggest comments like, “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it”, or “introducing liturgy will destroy this – you will be on a hiding to nothing.”
I disagree.
First let’s clarify. Liturgy, by definition, is doing worship together. Each of those words is important.
- doing – liturgy is an activity. People too quickly associate liturgy with set words, books, etc. Liturgy is action – often accompanied by interpretive words, yes, but liturgy is action – “the work of the people”.
- worship – is an active verb. It is not passive. Liturgy is not a spectator sport. We are a gathered congregation, an active assembly – not spectators or an audience. It is not watching an orchestra – it is being the orchestra.
- together – liturgy is a community event. It is not individualism. Not even congregationalism. Most liturgical texts are plural, “we confess… we believe… Our Father…”
People sometimes use the term non-liturgical worship. Generally that is an oxymoron. Like saying a non-marriage wedding. Liturgy is doing worship together. Non-liturgical worship might be worshipping alone – but even when we worship alone that is done as part of the church, the body of Christ, with Jesus – even alone we can still pray “Our Father…”
So we have this thriving, fruitful, vibrant worshipping community. I believe it can only be enriched by incorporating the insights from the series Liturgy as language:
Introductory post; Kiwi Anglican history 1, Kiwi Anglican history 2, Liturgy as language (part 4)
Where do we start?
In fact working with a thriving, fruitful, vibrant worshipping community may even be a better place to start than trying to get an unsuccessful, dry, colourless, dour, individualised community, that is going through the motions of liturgical texts, to move forward to some vibrancy.
Where might be some places to start? Well if there is some dialogue between leader and assembly, for example as the service starts, that might be energetically channelled through some biblical greeting and response. The deep sense of prayer might be enriched by the leader, early in the service, suggesting a general point for prayer and the whole community praying for a good period in deepening silence, and then the leader collecting this gathering silent prayer by proclaiming a collect to which the now-fully-gathered community responds heartily with the biblical “Amen.” The readings can be drawn from the Revised Common Lectionary - with people growing in a sense of belonging to the world-wide Christian community and made aware of the many many resources that come with this enriching their lives not just at the service but throughout the week. Some communities will be stretched as they risk just listening to a reading, God’s Word, “neat” – without every text being filtered through the leader’s interpretation. If communion is celebrated the community might be enriched by using the biblical tradition of blessing by thanksgiving and using the great Jewish-Christian prayer structure going back to Jesus’ prayer at his last meal and beyond. There are many many excellent Eucharistic Prayers and outlines that cannot but enrich a thriving community’s life.
These are but some suggestions. Readers may have other insights, even from their own experience of deepening and enriching the worship life in a community.
If you are hesitant about getting online, starting a blog, organising a parish or group website, setting up a twitter profile – let me encourage you not to hesitate. Any of these are now so simple to set up, free, and easy to run. They need not be time-consuming. You may not know the positive good you are spreading through a ripple effect. I receive many tweets, comments, and emails affirming the value of a cyber-presence. Here is one recent email as an example
You may be interested to learn of the ripple effect of your website. Some time ago I visited it after reading about your “Liturgy of the Notices” on the [...] list. After reading your recommendation I bought Benedictine Daily Prayer and began observing the Liturgy of the Hours. I put a brief note about this on the [...] Facebook page, a site I check into very infrequently. Another member contacted me about this after buying the book, asking for help in navigation, so I sent him the list of page numbers for a couple of offices and he figured it out after that. His life has become so enriched from observing the hours, as has mine, he is now becoming a Benedictine Oblate.
Thank you for all your good work. I’m sure there are many more blessings you’ve spread that you don’t even know about.
So if you have wondered whether to get online – I hope this post is the encouragement you need to give it a go.
elephant, camel, horse, etc. at St John's
Certainly in the midst of Anglican discussions (often now with far more heat than light) about who and what can or cannot be blessed and why, I have noticed a general confusion about what “blessing” actually is in the Judaeo-Christian tradition. At heart of the blessing tradition there is the Jewish Berrakah. We bless something/someone by blessing God. We bless by giving thanks. The composition of such a blessing (my copyrighted mnemonic) is:
Praise
Proclaim
Petition
Praise
You can see this configuration in the Eucharistic Prayer, in the prayer for blessing the water at baptism, in the blessing over a couple in a wedding,…
The modern declaratory “blessing” at the end of a Eucharist is a much different construction, and a much more recent innovation. Communion of the people originally concluded the Eucharist. As numbers grew and formal buildings became more ornate, so did the conclusion with prayer being added. In the Middle Ages the bishop blessed the people as he walked through the congregation at the conclusion. By the Reformation the bishop in many places said this “blessing” prior to leaving the sanctuary. Some priests, especially in France and Germany, imitated this Episcopal “blessing”. As fewer in the congregation received God’s blessing in receiving communion, this verbal “blessing” made up for a non-communicating Mass. With the restoration of receiving communion as the norm at the Eucharist, many rites have made the declaratory “blessing” a the conclusion of the Eucharist optional.
Photo: This was a St Francis Day blessing of the animals service I participated in in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, New York. (Notice the elephant, camel, horse, pony,…! )
Invitation: Please add your practical help, experiences, and prayers about blessing of animals in the comment section below. What do you do? What have you done? What works well? What does not? What prayer do you use?…
The search for the term “liturgy” on Google (top line) in the last six years has approximately halved. Online news about “liturgy” (bottom line) has grown a little in the same period:
searches for liturgy
The search for the term “worship” on Google (top line) in the last six years has approximately halved. Online news about “worship” (bottom line) has grown a significantly in the same period:
searches for worship
Use this free online tool to compare other search terms – put a comma between terms you seek to compare. Any ideas why such changes in the search for “liturgy” and “worship”?
Visitor numbers to this site have been increasing or steady. I think that is also due to the site expanding onto twitter and facebook:
pageviews & visitors to Liturgy site 2006-2009
Your thoughts?
As promised, this post will provide links to some of the best online resources connected to the lectionary.
The first post gave the history of the lectionary. The second post highlighted advantages of using the lectionary.
One of the huge advantages is that the lectionary has such a wealth of supporting resources. This post will highlight some of these.
The Text this week Amazing collection of resources linked to RCL – new each week. The best starting point.
Revised Common Lectionary comments from Montreal Anglican Diocese
Sarah Laughed A wonderful lectionary blog – not currently being added to, but you can search for earlier reflections.
United Methodist Church Wonderful collection of worship resources
includes hymn and song suggestions
Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary (a subscription list)
SAMUEL from the United Church of Christ.
Creating Worship with Deep Soul developed by Marcia McFee.
Strong Center Open Doors is a new worship planning website by Dan Benedict
Worship Tricks a collection of resources by Jonny Baker, pastor of an emerging congregation in the UK
Sacredise (pronounced “say’-cred-ize”) a South African Methodist worship resource by John Van de Laar
Laughing Bird an Australian lectionary-based liturgical worship resource
HymnSite.com is an online source for Free Hymn Texts, Tunes, and Sheet Music; Lectionary and Psalter Resources; Audio and Data CDs; Free Downloads;
Buildingworship.com Worship Resources including Worship Backgrounds Powerpoint Images and Planning Materials
The Painted Prayerbook is a lectionary commentary with weekly art
Hermanoleon clip art based on the lectionary (you will have seen their art on this site)
Churchpowerpoint.com PowerPoint backgrounds and other slides based on the lectionary
The Work of the People video and stills for lectionary-based worship
Vanderbilt Divinity Library texts, prayers, comments, art for the lectionary
I am sure this is only skimming the surface of what is available to enrich lectionary-based worship – online and generally free. A larger collection of links is provided in my worship and lectionary links section of this site. If you have a site related to spirituality and worship and have linked to this site – please let me know. If appropriate I link back to provide as good as possible list of resources for visitors to this site.
If you have or know of an online lectionary-based resource, please add it to the comments section below.
Kent Shaffer on his Church Relevance site has “compiled a list of the world’s top church blogs.” Kent states, “Some focus exclusively on ministry, while others are more like theology blogs. Regardless of how you label them, these are the world’s most popular church blogs written by many of today’s most influential church leaders, theologians, and Christ followers.” Kent takes into account Alexa Rank, number of recent visitors, page rank, subscribers, and information from Technorati, and places this site at number 46 of the Top 100 Church Blogs.
This site is now part of a cluster of liturgy online resources:
The Website The original web 1.0 format
620 on the email list
Up to 3,500 visitors each day
The Blog
380 subscribers to the RSS feed
Up to about 7,000 visitors for a topical blog post
Twitter @liturgy
Over 25,000 followers
Ranking in the top 7 in New Zealand for number of followers
Facebook
Over 1,500 fans
Ranked 5 stars out of a possible 5 by facebook
Thank you to YOU – the reader. Your presence, and the usefulness of material here for you, makes the effort worthwhile.
If you link from your ministry unit website, or personal site or blog, please let me know so I link back.
Thanks also to Kent Shaffer for his recognition and encouragement.
If social media is here to stay – how is the church responding? How is your parish or Christian community participating? The seven last words of a Christian community are, “we never did it like that before.”
There are now a number of different ways that people can be present in web 2.0. It appears that the Internet may be separating into different online communities which have different preferences for they way they share material online. Hence I have added some other ways of accessing liturgy online.
Website
www.liturgy.co.nz
The original web 1.0 format
620 on the email list
Up to 3,500 visitors each day
(If you link from your site or blog, please let me know so I link back.)
Blog
www.liturgy.co.nz/blog
340 subscribers to the RSS feed
Up to about 7,000 visitors for a topical blog post
Online chapel
@liturgy
http://twitter.com/liturgy
Over 19,000 followers
Ranking number 6 in New Zealand for number of followers
www.facebook.com/liturgy
1363 fans
Recently there was a Christianity in the digital space conference in the UK. There was live streaming video from it which I embedded in this site so that regulars here could follow it. At the conference they were projecting a hashtag stream from twitter #digisymp. When I could not hear a question being asked, I could tweet from the other side of the planet and someone there would repeat the question or pass them a microphone because my tweet was instantly up on their screen. This isn’t the future. It is now. What are we doing with it? How is it changing church, liturgy, spirituality?
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