Posted Tuesday 17 July 2007
Convenor Rev Darren McFarland reports on Liturgy Action Network activities over 2006 and 2007:
In the aftermath of a General Synod there is always something to report about liturgy. In recent years this has nearly always been about liturgical revision and new forms of services. In 2006 the Liturgies for Baptism and Affirmation of Baptismal Faith were finally authorised after eight years of experimental use and revision.
This year it was the turn of Marriage. This has been a more difficult period of experimental use, which began in 2002, because it is probably the liturgy which is used least in our congregations. Despite this there was a lot of comment from clergy over the years via the questionnaires and bits of the service were ‘tweaked’ in response. However, over this last twelve months the liturgy came up against criticism that shocked those of us involved with liturgy.
One diocese even brought a motion to General Synod proposing that after five years the service was far from ready to be authorised for use in our Church. Thankfully this failed convincingly and the Church now has the Marriage Liturgy 2007. For now that concludes the work on new liturgies - work which is carried out only at the request of the Faith and Order Board.
All the Anglican liturgy committees in these islands are now turning their attention to liturgical formation and you will be hearing a lot about this in the coming years. ‘So what is this new and exciting venture?’, I hear you ask! Liturgical formation hopes to equip members of the church to understand what liturgy does for us as individuals, as members of the Christian community and as people called to mission. This year, members of General Synod were asked to consider a number of questions including, ‘What for you makes an act of worship good or bad?’ and, ‘What ideas help you make these judgements?’ More on this in the years ahead.
This year there are three main liturgical conferences at which the Scottish Episcopal Church will be represented. The international Anglican consultation meets in Palermo in August to discuss funeral liturgies, followed by Societas Liturgica, the international ecumenical conference, entitled ‘Liturgy & the Public Square’. As part of our link with the Diocese of Gothenburg a number of people from the diocese will attend a worship conference in September entitled ‘God in our midst’. We look forward to a sharing of ideas and resources from these worthwhile events.
Category: Liturgy Action Network
