The 2003 Reformed Episcopal Communion Office Revisited: A Reevaluation—Part 6

By Robin G. Jordan

In this article and my next article I am going to look at what Reformed Episcopal pastors can do to streamline the 2003 Reformed Episcopal Communion Office and make it more engaging and mission-shaped. I had originally intended to write one article on the subject but I came to the conclusion that to adequately address the subject more than a single article is required.

In my discussion of the 2003 Reformed Episcopal Communion Office I will be using the divisions of the Communion Office that were adopted in the Alternative Order of the Communion in the 1928 Proposed English Prayer Book. These divisions are the Introduction, the Ministry of the Word, the Offertory, the Intercession, the Preparation, the Consecration, the Communion of the Priest and People, and the Thanksgiving. In this article I will be focusing on the first half of the 2003 Reformed Episcopal Communion Office—the Liturgy of the Word. It contains the Introduction and the Ministry of the Word.

My primary focus will be the worship of churches that worship in non-traditional settings. The Reformed Episcopal Church has established the goal of planting 100 new churches and most of these churches will at least in the early stages and perhaps for a good part of their life cycle worship in non-traditional settings.

Due to the similarities between the 2003 Reformed Episcopal Communion Office and the 1928 Communion Office, the ideas in these two articles may also be helpful to existing Reformed Episcopal and Continuing Anglican churches seeking to revitalize their worship as well as new Continuing Anglican startups.

Before offering suggestions on what pastors can do to streamline the Liturgy of the Word and making it more engaging and mission-shaped, I am going to take a look at some key factors that affect the worship of a liturgical assembly.

Arrangement of Liturgical Space. The arrangement of the liturgical space in a non-traditional worship setting should be kept fairly simple. Only two liturgical centers are required. They serve the two halves of a celebration of Holy Communion—the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Table. The first liturgical center is a portable lectern which doubles as a reading stand for the lessons and a pulpit for the sermon: the second liturgical center is a freestanding altar table or communion table. The portable lectern should be light weight, adjustable, and easy to store. The altar table or communion table should be 39 inches in height. In the early Church altars tables were cube-shaped. They were not designed to look like sarcophaguses as were medieval altars.

Both the portable lectern and the altar table can be decked with suitable paraments reflecting the colors of the Church Year. For various color schemes for paraments for the lectern and altar for an Anglican church, readers will want to consult Percy Dearmer’s The Parson’s Handbook 11th Edition (Oxford University Press, 1928). Earlier editions of The Parson's Handbook do not have his simplified color scheme for churches with limited budgets. If a church can afford only one set of the paraments for the lectern and the altar, bright red is a good choice. It symbolizes both the blood that Christ shed on the cross for our sins and the descent of the Holy Spirit at the Feast of Pentecost. Except during Lent, red was used year-round in Anglican churches in the eighteenth century.

An altar table can be improvised from a small plastic topped folding table. It can be raised to the right height, using sections of ABS pipe fitted over the legs of the table. The table can be covered with a Jacobean fall which falls to the floor on all sides of the table and which will hide the leg extensions from view. The legs of the table must point downward and not be splayed outward in order for the leg extensions to work. A portable kneeling bench may be used for Communion time or the congregation may stand to receive communion. If a portable kneeling bench is used, ushers should be stationed nearby to assist people who may have difficulty in lowering themselves onto the kneeler or rising from a kneeling position. For this reason standing to receive communion may be preferable.

Seating should be arranged on two or three sides of these two liturgical centers or in a semi-circle around them. This kind of seating arrangement not only helps to create a sense of community but it also helps to compensate for poor acoustics which is often a problem in non-traditional worship settings. When people are facing each other, they can hear each other better. When they are seated in close proximity to the liturgical centers, they can also see better as well as hear better. Close proximity to the liturgical centers also elicits greater congregational participation.

It is not a good idea to arrange the chairs in rows as in a lecture hall. The people can see only the backs of each other’s heads and can hear only those closest to them if they can hear their neighbors at all in a room with an acoustic tile ceiling. People tend to sit in the back rows or spread out around the room and their voices cannot be heard when they are singing. This type of seating arrangement also encourages passivity in the congregation.

Folding or stack chairs are more practicable than pews. They take up less space and permit the use of the room in which the congregation worships to be used for other purposes. As well as for various church functions, it can be used for the meetings of community groups and organizations, for tutoring sessions for academically-challenged children, adult literacy classes, receptions, family reunions, and other community outreach activities.

Worship Postures. The rubrics of the 2003 Episcopal Communion Office assume that the church using the Communion Office will be celebrating Holy Communion in a traditional worship setting with kneelers. Churches that worship in non-traditional settings usually do not have kneelers. They may try hassocks but they will quickly discover that the members of the congregation, if they are sitting on folding or stacking chairs, will have difficulty in lowering themselves onto a hassock and ever greater difficulty getting back up again. People also slide off the hassocks onto the floor and may injure their knees. Older people may sustain serious injuries.

When worshiping in a non-traditional setting, the directions to stand, sit, or kneel in the Communion Office should be treated as suggestions. In non-traditional worship settings it is often impossible to adopt these postures. The members of the congregation should be allowed to stand with bowed heads for the prayers and the blessing and to sit in their chairs with bowed heads for the confession of sin and the absolution.

Joe Carter has identified five specific postures for prayer, which are listed in the Bible:

Sitting (2 Sam 7:18), standing (Mark 11:25), kneeling (Chronicles 6:13; Daniel 6:10; Luke 22:41; Acts 7:60, 9:40, 20:36, 21:5; Ephesians 3:14), with one's face to the ground (Matthew 26:39;Mark 14:35), and with hands lifted up (1 Timothy 2:8).

The Council of Nicaea in 325 AD, when it adopted the Canons of Nicaea, endorsed the practice of standing to pray. Canon 20 states:

Forasmuch as there are certain persons who kneel on the Lord’s Day and in the days of Pentecost, therefore, to the intent that all things may be uniformly observed everywhere (in every parish), it seems good to the holy Synod that prayer be made to God standing.

One of the keys to worshiping in non-traditional settings is being flexible in such matters as worship postures.

Choirs, Music Groups, and Precentors. According to Betty Carr Pulkingham, “the most basic function of the choir is to undergird congregational singing.” Its performance of special music is secondary. A choir does not need to wear robes nor does it need to sit apart from the congregation.

If a church does have a choir that sits apart from the congregation, the choir should be off to the side. It should not form a visual barrier between the congregation and the liturgical centers.

The medieval practice of placing the choir in front of the chancel in two sections facing each other is a hangover from a time when the choir was the congregation. Early monastic communities arranged the liturgical space of their church buildings in this fashion for the singing of the Daily Offices. The monks faced each other across a central aisle and the altar was placed at one end of this aisle in an apse in the wall. They sung antiphonally—back and forth across the aisle. Later a large barn-like structure was added to the church building. It was used to store grain, hay, root vegetables, and tools, and to house livestock. Visitors to the monastery who came to hear the monks sing the Daily Offices were allowed to shelter in this structure during inclement weather. It is this structure that eventually evolved in the nave of late medieval church buildings.

The choir does not have to be visible to the congregation. What matters most is that the choir is heard. In some older church the choir sings from a gallery above the congregation. The choir may even sing from behind the congregation. This is one of the best positions for the choir to provide support to the congregational singing.

Putting the choir on a platform behind the pastor and other liturgical ministers, a common practice in traditional Baptist and Methodist church buildings, is practice that should be avoided. It focuses the attention of the congregation upon the choir and the movements and facial expressions of choir members can be a distraction during the service.

Except on special occasions on which the choir enters in procession with the liturgical ministers, the members of the choir should take their places unobtrusively before the beginning of the service. They can set an example for the rest of the congregation by spending the time before the first hymn in silent prayer. Fussing with choir folders and robes, chatting with neighbors, and waving at friends should be avoided. These actions detract from the solemnity of the occasion.

A music group is a small ensemble of instrumentalists and singers whose primary role is to lead and support the congregational singing in place of a choir. It differs from a worship band in the type of instruments that its members play and where they stand or sit. The instruments of a music team usually include a piano or its electronic equivalent; stringed instruments such as fiddle, guitar, harp, and mandolin; wind instruments such as flute, hautbois (oboe), ocarina, recorder, and tin whistle, and percussion such box drums, djembe, congas, and stacked bells. It is not modeled on a rock band like the worship band with its electric guitars and drum set. Nor does it stand center stage with the focus of the congregation on it. It may be set off to the side or at the rear of the room where it will not receive undue attention. If the room is small, the music group may be in the midst of the liturgical assembly. In liturgical worship the main focuses of attention are the two liturgical centers and the liturgical assembly itself.

Churches that do not have a choir or music group may wish to recruit a precentor. The role of the precenter in a small church combines the traditional roles of precentor in Scottish churches and English cathedrals. As well as leading the congregational singing, a precentor helps to plan the music of Holy Communion celebrations and may take a lead role in this planning. A precentor teaches new hymns, worship songs, and service music to the congregation and conducts congregational rehearsals. A precentor closely collaborates with the pastor and accompanist if the church has a pastor and an accompanist in planning the music of Holy Communion celebrations. A precentor meets with the pastor and other liturgical ministers to practice the hymns, worship songs, and service music for a particular Sunday or occasion during the week. A precentor may also recruit instrumentalists and singers to provide special music and may perform special music himself.

Among the things that a precentor can do to improve the congregational singing is to ask the better singers in the congregation to practice the hymns, worship song, and service music with him on some weeknight. These singers sit with the rest of the congregation on Sundays and support their singing. They may sit together as a group in the congregation or with their families.

Flowers and Organs. Churches that use non-traditional worship settings need to resist the pressure from flower lovers in the congregation to arrange the liturgical space around flowers. Having a reredos on which may be arranged flowers is not sufficient reason to acquire a second-hand reredos or to go to the expense of having a reredos made and then shove the altar table against the reredos. Flowers should not determine where a church places its liturgical centers rather where a church puts its liturgical centers should determine where the church puts flowers. Unless the church has a flower grower in its congregation or can cut a deal with a local florist, flowers can be quite an expense for a new church just getting off the ground or for a declining church on its last legs.

If a church has a freestanding altar and a generous donor, the church can purchase several tall cylindrical baskets and one of these baskets with flowers tastefully arranged in it can, if space permits, be put slightly off center in front of the altar table. The flowers should not obstruct the congregation’s view of any symbols on the altar paraments nor should they poke their heads above the top of the altar table. They should not obstruct the congregation’s view of the hands of the pastor when he lays them on the bread, the cup, and the wine flagon and breaks the bread. The other baskets of flowers may be placed strategically around the room to adorn the space in which the liturgical assembly gathers to hear God’s Word and to celebrate the Lord’s Supper. The flower baskets should be weighted at the bottom to prevent them from being accidentally tipped over.

Wherever the flowers are placed, silk flowers should not be substituted for fresh-cut flowers. They gather dust and lose their bright color. Plastic flowers have no place in the “house” of a church.

When a new church occupies rented facilities that are not put to some other use during the week, it will face the temptation to buy a refurbished second-hand organ or a brand new instrument. For several very practical reasons the church should not give into this temptation. Even used organs can be expensive. In many regions of the United States competent organists are harder to find than hen’s teeth. In the westernmost part of Kentucky where I live, organs stand idle on Sunday mornings in a number of churches because the church does not have an organist or the organ is broken and too expensive to repair. To lead congregational song, an organ requires not only confident leadership but also lively acoustics. The acoustical environment in which many churches worship is far from ideal. Non-traditional worship settings often have poor acoustics—acoustical tile ceilings, carpeted floors, multiple echoes from various parts of the room, and so on.

While Anglican churches have come to equate the organ with church music, the organ was not always used to support congregational singing. In the seventeenth century only a few churches had a pipe or reed organ. A more common form of organ was a barrel organ. A set number of tunes were encoded on a wooden barrel and the operator turned a crank to play the organ. Churches that did not have a barrel organ sung metrical psalms without any accompaniment. Except in cathedrals, metrical psalms were the most common form of church music at the time. In the eighteenth century and the early part of the nineteenth century, local musicians accompanied the congregational singing on such instruments as the viola and hautbois.

The best musical instrument for a new church or a small church is a good quality upright piano or its electronic equivalent. Upright pianos are preferable to baby grands because the sound of the instrument goes outward and not upward. Baby grands require acoustics that throw back the sound without absorbing it. Such acoustics are often absent in non-traditional worship settings.

Pianists are easier to find than organists. More people take piano lessons than organ lessons. Most importantly a piano is the best instrument to lead and support congregational singing and teach new hymns, worship songs, and service. Notes played on a piano are crisper and easier to follow than notes played on a organ. While it is sometime argued that an organ can compensate for weak congregational singing, organists can actually discourage congregational singing by the way they play the organ. A piano, on the other hand, encourages the congregation to sing—a point Percy Dearmer makes in The Art of Public Worship. He proposed a moratorium on organs and organ playing because they discouraged the congregation from singing.

A guitar cannot be used to accompany congregational singing by itself. The chords on the guitar do not match the notes of hymns, worship songs, and service music. In order to lead congregational singing, the guitarist must know the words of the song, have a strong pleasant voice, and sing well. The congregation is not going to follow his playing on the guitar; they are going to follow his singing. The guitarist is actually accompanying his own singing on the guitar and not the congregation’s.

While some church musicians derisively refer to them as “hymn machines,” electronic devices such as QSR Music’s DH200 Digital Hymnal and Hymnmaster’s Digital Hymn Player play a large selection of hymn tunes and service music to various types of instrumentation and at various tempos. When purchasing one of these devices, a church will want to ascertain that the particular device contains in its memory card sufficient tunes from the worship resource that it is using. One of the problems that churches using The Hymnal 1940 have experienced with such devices is that the tunes are listed by their original names. The Hymnal 1940 was published at the outbreak of World War II and its editors changed the names of the German tunes.

Hymnary.org is a useful website for identifying what tunes may be used with a particular hymn and what the names of these tunes are. Those using the website can also listen to a MIDI or recording of the tune.

A number of church music publishers like Kevin Mayhew and Cokesbury sell CD sets containing the tunes from their hymnals. MP3s of hymn tunes can be downloaded from websites like Small Church Music and RiteSong either free or for a fee. The MP3s can be played on a laptop or MP3 player.

A liturgical assembly can also learn to sing a cappella. Even when the congregation has some form of accompaniment, it is a good idea to have the congregation sing the occasional hymn or worship song unaccompanied. Hearing themselves sing can encourage and reinforce a congregation’s singing.

A number of African congregations sing hymns and songs a cappella in four part harmony with the leader of the congregational singing in the midst of the congregation. The only accompaniment is rhythmical foot stamping.

For the best results the members of the congregation, when they are singing, should sit close together and not scattered around the room.

The Liturgy of the Word. At a number of places in the 2003 Reformed Episcopal Communion Office, the process of streamlining the liturgy and making it more engaging and mission-shaped will require ignoring the rubrics. If you study the history of Prayer Book revision as I have, you will discover that it is frequently changes in the way that the local church celebrates the Holy Communion, which create the need for further revision of the Prayer Book. The denomination is catching up with what has already become common practice at the local level.

With this thought in mind let us take a look at how we can streamline the first half of the 2003 Reformed Episcopal Communion Office—the Liturgy of the Word—and make it more engaging and mission-shaped.

The Introduction. The time from the moment we awaken on Sunday morning to the moment the first hymn of our celebration of Holy Communion concludes is a time of gathering for the liturgical assembly. During this time we make the transition from being a loose aggregate of people to a Christian community at prayer.

Drinking a hot cup of coffee and chatting with friends before the service is as much a part of that gathering process as is taking a seat in the room where our church worships and bowing our heads in silent prayer. The gathering process will differ from church to church but it serves the same purpose. The first hymn of the service is the last step in the gathering process. It draws us together as a liturgical assembly and focuses our attention on God.

During this time of gathering the liturgical ministers should either enter in procession or they take their places unobtrusively before the beginning of the service. Once they have taken their places, the presiding minister should announce the Introit. As used in this article, the term “Introit” applies to the hymn or anthem which opens the service. While the liturgical ministers may enter during the singing of this hymn, it is preferable that they enter before the hymn is begun, especially when the church has no choir and the liturgical ministers themselves provide the musical leadership for the celebration. In this way they can support the congregational singing from their places. The entrance of the liturgical ministers may be accompanied by instrumental music or silence.

On most Sundays and feast days the first hymn will normally be the introit hymn. For the Introit Lionel Dakker in Choosing and Using Hymns makes this suggestion:

A good starter, ideally of not more than four or five verses. So to set the scene, this needs to be a bright and vigorous hymn.

Further on he writes:

If there is to be a hymn at the start of a service, it is generally best to have a short but lively one of not more than three or four verses. To sing five, or perhaps six, verses at this point weighs down the service instead of allowing it to move forward with a sense of purpose and momentum.

The point Dakker is making is that the best choice for an Introit is a hymn that permits energetic singing and is not too long. In this way the congregation maintains a high energy level throughout the entire hymn. If you have ever observed a congregation singing a long hymn, their singing will be strong at the beginning but it will flag the longer they sing. This can affect the mood of the congregation. You will also notice that some members of the congregation will stop singing.

One of the reasons that a choir will sing in unison on the final verse of a hymn when they have been sing parts on the other verses is that it reinforces the melody for the congregation and gives the congregational singing a boost. The members of the congregation can be taught to take a deep breath before the final verse and sing the final verse more energetically. This reanimates their singing. It also lifts their mood. The members of the congregation are more likely to feel greater confident in their singing ability than if their singing peters out toward the end of the hymn.

Tempo and meter are also a consideration in the selection of an Introit, not just length. A hymn with a fast tempo and short verses might be a good choice for an introit hymn even though it has five verses.

On special occasions such as Christmas, Easter, Whitsun, and the feast day of the patron saint or title of the church, a Processional may be sung, followed by a station Collect and the Introit. The more elaborate entrance of the liturgical ministers and choir if the church has a choir should be reserved for these special occasions.

Here the overall worship setting, the size and shape of the room, and the arrangement of the space in which the liturgy is celebrated will be the determining factors. A solemn procession with incense looks decidedly out of place in a living room as it does in a school gymnasium. Incense can also be very overpowering in the confined space of a living room.

A pastor advancing up a center aisle, preceded by another liturgical minister with a processional cross, is NOT by any stretch of the imagination a procession. Except for the Gospel Procession, a procession involves a full complement of liturgical ministers and the choir. Processions are something that we should use to mark special occasions. They help to set these occasions apart from ordinary Sundays.

Whatever the size of your church an important principle for planning the worship of your church is to tailor its worship to its particular circumstances. These circumstances include such factors as the size of the congregation; its composition; the setting in which it worships; the cultural context, demographics, and history of the community in which it is located; it musical resources; the availability of clergy, and so on. Bishop Michael Marshall explains this principle in his book, Renewal in Worship. Marshall, while making his regular visitations to the churches under his oversight, noticed that the smaller churches tried to imitate the worship of the larger churches with abysmally pathetic results. He identified as a basic problem of these churches a proclivity to take as a model for their worship that of a church that they were incapable of imitating. It might be the worship of the late Medieval church, which one nineteenth century school of thought held up as the model for the worship of all parish churches in its writings. He concluded that they would have far better results if they tailored their worship to their circumstances. For example, small choir lacking the full range of voice types might choose to sing an unfamiliar hymn or worship song as a unison anthem rather than struggle to sing a complicated anthem for which it did not have enough voices.

Marshall offers this caveat:

Everything will require re-tailoring if this small act of worship is to ring true and lift those present into the one great act of worship in heaven. In many ways, it is the small act of worship that demands the largest amount of work if it is to be authentic. As in so much else, if we take care of the pennies, then the dollars will take care of themselves. Tailoring worship to the small occasion requires a ruthless eye for detail and the determination to start from scratch and only add what is needed and what is appropriate. Then, and then only, will the action stand out clearly instead of being lost in the claustrophobia of religiosity, which is perhaps the greatest enemy to true worship.

Based upon my own experience, I would say that the extra effort is worth it.

On the mission field an important factor that should be considered in worship planning is the segment or segments of the unchurched population that your church is targeting. This entails exegeting the community in which your church is located. It means learning as much about your community as you can. This will help a church avoid making mistakes like specializing in classical music in a community in which few people listen to classic music.

A key principle in planning the introductory rite of a celebration of Holy Communion is the liturgical principle of less is more. The initial Lord’s Prayer and the Salutation should be omitted at all celebrations of Holy Communion. On special occasions a Sentence of Scripture suitable to the occasion may be said immediately before the Collect for Purity. Otherwise, the Sentence of Scripture is best omitted.

The presiding minister should invite the congregation to join with him in saying the Collect for Purity with these or similar words, “Please join me in saying the Collect for Purity.” After the congregation has become accustomed to the practice of saying the Collect for Purity with the presiding minister, he may use the simple invitation, “Let us pray.”

On the Sundays and other occasions that the Decalogue is read, the Summary of the Law and the Collect of the Commandments should be omitted.

On the Sundays and other occasions that the Summary of the Law is read, the Kyries are sung or said. Singing the Kyries is the preferred practice. If the Kyries are sung, they may be sung in their three-fold or nine-fold form. Most of the settings of the Kyries are fairly simple and even small congregation can sing them. However, if circumstances require that the Kyries should be said, they should not be said in a perfunctory manner. They should be said prayerfully from the heart. They should not be rushed.

Something that pastors might encourage their congregations to do in their quiet time is to pray the Kyries as a “breath prayer,” sitting with their hands level with their chest and palms upward. When the Kyries are prayed this way outside the liturgy and the practice is carried over to the liturgy, it can make a difference in the way the congregation prays the Kyries in the liturgy.

In our celebration of the Holy Communion, we should resist the temptation to treat the celebration as a ritual that we are performing. Rather we should treat it as prayer—as a part of our ongoing conversation and communion with God. When we treat the celebration as a ritual by which we hope in some way to gain God’s favor, assuage his disapproval, or to achieve some other end, we step from the realm of Christian prayer into the realm of pagan magic. It is a trap into which both clergy and congregations can easily fall. The ritual becomes the focus of our Sunday gatherings and not prayer.

The Ministry of the Word. After the Kyries the presiding minister should say the Collect of the Day, first saying “let us pray.” He should pause briefly to permit the congregation to pray silently. After this brief pause, he should say the Collect. The original purpose of the Collect was to sum up the prayers of the people, hence the name “Collect.” It collects the people’s prayers into one prayer.

After the Collect of the Day the presiding minister should invite the congregation to be seated for the Old Testament Lesson. The person assigned to read the Old Testament Lesson then goes to the place appointed for the reading of the Old Testament Lesson, announces the lesson, and then reads it in a clear, audible voice so everyone can hear it. The reader should use his natural tone of voice and not adopt what is referred to as a “stained glass voice” when reading the lesson. Readers should be taught to project their voices even when a church has an electronic amplification system. These systems can and do fail in the middle of a reading. After the reader has finished the lesson, he should observe a brief period of silence before saying, “This is the word of the Lord,” to which the congregation should respond, "Thanks be to God." This period of silence allows the members of the congregation to process what they have heard. It also provides an opportunity for reflection on the lesson and for prayer.

After the Old Testament Lesson the presiding minister should invite the congregation to stand if the congregation is to sing or recite a psalm or canticle or to remain seated if the choir, a small ensemble, or soloist is to sing the psalm or canticle. The more personal and penitential psalms may be best sung or said by a single voice. Metrical versions of the psalms and canticles may be sung in place of prose versions, either by the congregation or by the choir, a small ensemble, or a soloist.

The psalm and less commonly the canticle sung or said between the Old Testament Lesson and the Epistle is called the Gradual. The Gradual usually consists of a short psalm or a selection of verses from a longer psalm and may consist of one of the shorter canticles or a shorter version of one of the longer canticles. It is NOT customary to sing the Gloria Patri after the Gradual. It should be omitted.

An anthem based upon a psalm or canticle may occasionally be sung between the Old Testament Lesson and the Epistle. If an anthem is sung at this juncture in the service, a Sequence hymn, an Alleluia and Verse, an Alleluia, or Gospel Verse should be sung before the Gospel. A worship song taken from the Gradual psalm appointed for the day or based upon it is also not inappropriate.

The Epistle should be introduced, read, and concluded in the same way as the Old Testament Lesson. A different person should be assigned to read the Epistle from the one who read the Old Testament Lesson. In assigning readers for the Old Testament Lesson and the Epistle strike a balance between older members of the congregation and younger ones. Young people are not going to be attracted to a church in which few young people read the lessons. At St. Michael’s I was responsible for recruiting, training, and scheduling lectors for its celebrations of Holy Communion and I strove to achieve a mix of all ages and both sexes. I recruited older school children, teenagers, and young adults, as well as older adults of various ages. We were a multigenerational church and our worship ministries reflected this fact. Young people read the Intercession and sung in the choir. They performed solos and other special music. We gave more weight to an individual’s talents and gifts than we did to their age. This I must add was over 30 years ago. Before we experienced a church split over a proposed new worship center, we were the fastest growing church in our diocese, with three celebrations of Holy Communion on Sunday morning.

At Christ Church a lector was assigned to read the Old Testament Lesson and a lay reader, the Epistle.

At Michael’s lay readers and lectors were placed on the same roster when came to reading the Old Testament Lesson and the Epistle. On one Sunday lay reader might read the Old Testament Lesson and a lector, the Epistle. On the next Sunday a lector might read the Old Testament Lesson and a lay reader, the Epistle. The following Sunday two lectors might read the Old Testament Lesson and the Epistle. But on no Sunday did two lay readers read the Old Testament Lesson and the Epistle, except if the lector did not come to church, in which case the lay reader assigned to read one of the lessons, read both of them. We encouraged the lectors if they knew ahead of time that they were going to miss church for some reason to call another lector on the list and the lector they asked to take their place to let me know before the service. If they could not find a substitute, they were to notify me. Our aim was show that the liturgy was something in which the whole congregation took part, not just the clergy. While they may not be ordained, lay readers in their cassocks and surplices look like clergy, especially to first-time guests. On several occasions I was mistaken for our pastor.

At Christ Church a deacon read the Gospel from the midst of the congregation. A Sequence hymn was sung before the reading of the Gospel toward the end of which the deacon began to move from the chancel platform to the midst of the congregation, preceded by a server with a processional cross and flanked on either side by a server with a processional candle. On special occasions such as Christmas and Easter the Gospel procession included a server with an incense censor and the deacon would cense the Book of Gospels before reading it. After the reading of the Gospel, the deacon and the servers would return in silence to the chancel. The silence gave the congregation an opportunity to process what they had heard, to reflect upon it, and to pray.

The pastor of Christ Church, in planning its celebrations of Holy Communion, did not make the mistake of covering every movement of the clergy with “traveling music” and filling every lull in the service with the musical equivalent of “busy work.” Busy work as you may remember from high school is deskwork that teachers assign students during class time. It is intended to serve only one purpose—to keep students busy at their desks and out of mischief. It does not increase their learning in any way.

Congregations do need to be doing something all the time in the liturgy—singing, listening, praying aloud, whatever. There is a place for intervals of quiet and inactivity. These intervals are a part of the rhythm of the liturgy. A congregation can be taught to take advantage of these intervals to meet God in the silence and the stillness.

At St. Michael’s the pastor read the Gospel from a pulpit/lectern—what used to be called an “ambo.” The Old Testament Lesson, the Epistle, and the Gospel were read from the pulpit/lectern and the sermon was also preached from the ambo. It is a far older practice than the eleventh century practice of having two lecterns—one for the Epistle and the other for the Gospel—on each side of the church and a separate pulpit for sermons. It goes back to when Christians began first to meet in basilicas, public buildings, after the Peace of Constantine. Except during Lent when the Alleluia is traditionally not sung in the Western Church, a cantor and the congregation or the choir and the congregation sung an Alleluia before the reading of the Gospel. (In the Eastern Church, on the other hand, Lent is the season of the Alleluia.) A period of silence followed its reading. During Lent we sung a Sequence hymn before the reading of the Gospel. At the conclusion of the period of silence that followed its reading the pastor began the sermon.

An Alleluia with or without a Verse may be sung during the seasons of Advent, Christmas, the Season after Epiphany, Easter, and the Season after Trinity and on the great festivals of the Church Year—Christmas, Easter, Whitsun, and Trinity Sunday. Most congregations can learn several Alleluia settings. It is best to use one setting during the short seasons and two or more settings during the longer seasons. A setting should be sung for several consecutive Sundays during these seasons and then a different setting in the same way. Switching settings every Sunday is not a good practice and should be avoided! If the settings are unfamiliar, it does not give the congregation the opportunity to learn and master each setting. Alleluias work best when they are sung for several consecutive Sundays. The congregation can memorize the setting and sing it from the heart without a service leaflet in their hand.

In churches using the 2003 Reformed Episcopal Communion Office the Creed should be recited at the conclusion of the period of silence that follows the reading of the Gospel. The season and the occasion should determine which Creed should be used. In the early Church baptisms were performed at Easter Vigil that began on Easter and Eve and concluded on Easter Morn. The season of Easter was used to further catechize the newly-baptized in the Christian faith. It is very appropriate to use the Apostles’ Creed throughout the Easter Season as a reminder to the congregation of their own baptism. In the Anglican Church the Apostles’ Creed is recited at baptisms as it was in ancient times. For this reason it is sometimes known as the “baptismal creed.” During a long season like the Season after Trinity, it would be appropriate to recite one Creed for several consecutive Sundays and then to recite the other for several more consecutive Sundays and so on.

The Creed may be introduced with these or similar words, “Let us reaffirm our faith in the words of … Creed.” The Creed should be recited distinctly and at an unhurried pace. The congregation should be encouraged to listen to the words of the Creed as they recite them. Preaching a sermon series on one or both of the Creeds will give the congregation a better understanding of what they saying, the articles of the faith that they are affirming. I recall several online conversations with an individual who could recite both Creeds with equanimity without believing a word of what he said. He uncoupled the Creeds from what they originally meant and reinterpreted them to fit what he believed. His favorite liturgy was the 1928 Communion Office.

After the Creed the pastor should make the announcements. They should be kept very brief and should not repeat what is printed in the service bulletin or posted on the church website or Facebook page. If the announcements can be omitted, it is all the better After the announcements the pastor or whoever assigned to preach that day should begin the sermon.

Singing a hymn before the sermon unnecessarily extends the interval between the proclamation of God’s Word and its exposition and application. For this reason it is best avoided. Having not yet heard the sermon, the congregation will not see the relationship of the hymn to the sermon, if the hymn has any relationship to the sermon, which it often not the case.

A hymn at this junction in the liturgy disrupts the natural progression from the Creed to the sermon. It serves no purpose. It does not put the congregation in the right frame of mind for the sermon. It keeps them standing when they might rather sit down. All it does is to serve as “filler” in a space that does not need filling because it should not be there in the first place. There has already been a long enough break between the Scripture readings and the sermon. We do not need to make it longer.

Elizabeth I’s authorization of the singing of a metrical psalm before and after each service and before and after each sermon was in large part a matter of political expediency. Her subjects took to the practice of singing metrical psalms with an enthusiasm that she herself did not share. She derisively referred to the tunes to which they were sung as “Geneva jigs.” She was not far wrong. The people were singing metrical psalms to the popular tunes of the day.

When these tunes are played on the organ, their origin may not be apparent. But when they are played on the string and wind instruments of the time in more lively fashion, it is quite obvious. If a church has a number of talented musicians in its congregation, I recommend that it form a small ensemble of instrumentalists and singers to perform the metrical psalms in this fashion, and invite other talented musicians from the community to join them. This will not only add a new dimension to the singing of metrical psalms in the church’s worship services but will also help the church form connections with the community. The church can also hold concerts to which the public is invited and may attend free of charge. We have a vintage liturgy. Why not embellish it with vintage music?

Elizabeth sought not only to win the loyalty of her subjects but also to preserve the cathedral tradition of church music. Elizabeth’s Privy Council had strong reform wing that was pressing for further changes in the English Church and her authorization of metrical psalm-singing was a concession to that reform wing. Considering that her subjects gathered by the thousands at King’s Cross and sung metrical psalms for hours on end, as well as sung them as they went about their daily lives, it was a very wise decision on her part.

Most congregations that sing a hymn before the sermon do not have any idea why they are singing a hymn at this juncture in the service. It is something that they may have “always done” and they have not questioned the practice. But it is a practice like one that a young woman observed. Her mother before she put a pork roast in the pan cut off both ends of the roast. She asked her mother why she did that. Her mother replied that it was what her mother did. The next time the young woman saw her grandmother, she asked her why she had done that. Her grandmother laughed. She explained that she did not have a pan big enough so she cut off the ends of the pork roast so it would fit the pan that she had.

Having “always done” something is not a good reason for keep on doing it. Our celebrations of Holy Communion will flow more smoothly and our congregations will have a better grasp of the meaning and significance of the lessons and how they apply to their lives if we do away with the practice of singing a hymn before the sermon.

As can be seen, pastors can do number of things, generally in the area of church music but in other areas too, to streamline the first half of the 2003 Reformed Episcopal Communion Office and make it more engaging and mission-shaped. In my next article I will be focusing on the second half of the 2003 Reformed Episcopal Communion Office—the Liturgy of the Table.