Worship Language

Dear Friends in Christ,

During Lent we are changing our worship and using material almost exclusively from the Book of Common Prayer (BCP). You might be surprised to hear that we haven’t been exclusively using the prayer book. Or you may have noticed that over the past year or more we have been supplementing our worship material from the BCP with material from Enriching Our Worship (EOW) 1. EOW 1 was approved for use by General Convention in 1997, not to replace the prayer book but to provide material to use with it. It offers ways for worshipping communities to “expand the language, images and metaphors used in worship.” (EOW 1 p.5)

When the Episcopal Church split from the Church of England, they approved their own prayer book for universal use (“Common Prayer” refers to the prayers we pray in common, or with each other, together). This was not just because of the separation of nations, but also so they could develop their own theological and ecclesiastical ideas. The preface to the 1789 prayer book explained this as follows:

“It is a most invaluable part of that blessed “liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free,” that in his worship different forms and usages may without offense be allowed, provided the substance of the Faith be kept entire...” (my emphasis).

Over the centuries the BCP has evolved and developed to reflect new understandings about God and how we relate to God. The Episcopal Church has revised the BCP three times. In 1892, 1928, and finally in 1979 which gave us the BCP we use today. These new liturgies and rites are developed according to the directive in the preface to the 1789 BCP by “seriously considering what Christianity is, and what the truths of the Gospel are.”

EOW was published in 1997 to reflect the continuing changes in our world and our society as well as in our understanding of God. Who we understand God to be and how we related to God is central to how we worship. The words we use matter and tell others what we believe about God and our relationship to God and their place in our midst. Any changes are all done in a spirit of theological reflection and take peoples experience into account. As the introduction to EOW 1 says, “The ultimate aim of expansive language experiments in the Episcopal Church is to create a language of prayer for all God’s people.” (EOW 1 p.11)

New worship materials such as EOW 1 and the rites mentioned above are not developed randomly or according to personal preferences, but through an “ongoing process of listening to what the Spirit is saying to the Church through the diverse experience of those who gather to worship and to celebrate the sacramental rites which fashion and identify us as the People of God.” (EOW 1 p.5)

This is not just about “inclusive” language versus “traditional” language, but of raising up the concerns and including the experiences of all the many and diverse members of our Church. Much of the material is not new. In many cases the canticle and prayers in EOW 1 have resurrected ancient biblical and patristic images that had themselves been replaced by more “modern” theology. One such example is the reclamation of Christ as Wisdom.

Neither is it just an attempt to be “progressive” or politically correct. It is an ongoing attempt to express our collective experiences of God through the ages and include all people in that experience. By returning to the imagery of a much earlier period of Church history – evoking the writings of the early church and the ecstasy of the medieval mystics which were ignored in favor of more instructional and doctrinal imagery, one could argue that in many ways, this most recent publication of Episcopal liturgy is more “traditional” than the BCP.

As we return to the familiar and comfortable words of the BCP for the solemn and penitential season of Lent, I invite you to reflect on how the words resonate in your heart; to the ways they strengthen and confirm your understanding of God, the ways in which they might make God feel remote and distant, and consider how much language plays a part in your relationship to God.

Yours in Christ,

Rev. Jane+