The Episcopal Church of Bangor in Caernarvon

Transcription

1 July 29, 2018 The Episcopal Church of Bangor in Caernarvon Founded in Main Street Churchtown, Narvon, Pennsylvania The Rt. Reverend Audrey Scanlan, Bishop The Reverend Canon Mark A. Scheneman Priest in Charge Historic Bangor Episcopal Church, the mother church of the Diocese of Central Pennsylvania, seeks to be a community in Christ Jesus celebrating our heritage, vibrant in our worship, and engaged in ministry and mission as we approach the 300 th anniversary of our founding.

2 This Sunday at Bangor Church July 29, 2018 The Tenth Sunday after Pentecost 10:00 AM MORNING PRAYER AND SERMON (Church) 11:10 AM Fellowship Hour (Church House) Observing this 5 th Sunday of a month, we will use Morning Prayer as our liturgy of the day. Morning Prayer is the first of Daily Offices in the Book of Common Prayer. It features the singing of traditional canticles in Anglican Chant. The Lectionary shifts this week to the Gospel According to St. John and will continue for the next four Sundays reading John 6 as the Gospel. This chapter is the great Eucharistic discourse. It begins this Sunday with the 4 th Gospel s account of the Feeding of the Multitude, and the story of Jesus meeting the disciples at night on the rough sea. The disciples are terrified, but Jesus calls out to them, It is I; do not be afraid. Please join us following the service for our fellowship hour in the Church House. From Fr. Mark: A Memorialized Prayer Book Few church issues galvanize Episcopalians like the possibility of revision to the Prayer Book. We use the

3 Prayer Book each Sunday as it orders our common worship. It also contains a wealth of material to enrich our spiritual lives. Many of us have vivid memories of the long process of Prayer Book revision from 1967 through 1979 when the current Book of Common Prayer was finally completed and authorized, replacing the much beloved 1928 BCP. In many congregations and for many faithful people, the revision process was difficult and the final replacement was painful. Yet, other congregations and perhaps the majority of Episcopalians came to embrace the new Prayer Book and find in it a rich spiritual and liturgical resource that better served us as the 20 th century drew to a close and now into the new 21 st century. But, as time marches on, we suddenly looked back and are surprised to discover that the new Prayer Book is now in its 42 nd year of usage (counting the three years, it was authorized, but not finally ratified by the General Convention.) During the past several years a number of voices have been raised suggesting that it is now time to begin an orderly process for again revising the Prayer Book. At the General Convention in Austin earlier this month, this issue was widely discussed and debated. In the end, it was decided to memorialize the current (1979) Book Book - that is, to retain it (at least for now), while alternate forms of worship may also be used. What alternate worship? Well, decades after we adopted the 1979 BCP, the Liturgical Commission of the Episcopal Church developed a companion book, the Book of Occasional Services (2003), a rich resource that includes such traditional services as Advent and Christmas Lessons and Carols, Stations of the Cross, Rogation services, blessing of articles and commissioning of ministries.

4 Also first authorized during this time was Enriching our Worship, a book containing alternate prayers and canticles, as well as new commemorations on our liturgical calendar (saint s days). Then a second Enriching our Worship was published, featuring expanded language that uses less masculine pronouns, more feminine metaphors and gender neutral language, including alternative Eucharistic prayers. There continues to be a steady stream of authorized resources for worship that have followed. You might be asking, more books to juggle in the pews? Not really - with our ability to now photocopy and use computers to assemble printed material, many of our churches now publish weekly booklets containing the entire service. In effect, these replace the Prayer Book and sometimes the Hymnal as well. Authorized supplemental worship resources can be dropped in the booklet so that we now have a vast resource of liturgical materials from which to choose. In this digital age, our Prayer Books might be going the way of our former encyclopedia sets. Some of us still like to read a newspaper printed on paper; but the trend is going to on-line news outlets. The same with books. I don t know exactly how the discussions went in Austin, but I can assume that the bishops and deputies weighed the financial and emotional cost of going through a revision process (with the printing of millions of trial services) and the replacement cost of new Prayer Books for churches and individuals. They also noted that we now have the resources to print expanded programs and worship booklets with authorized new liturgies. They apparently chose to continue as we are. This seems like a logical and practical decision to me.

5 One final thought - even though we have all these new services and resources available to congregations like ours, we tend not to use them. I don t see us going to the effort and expense of printing weekly booklets for our worship. However, we should be exposed to many of these new services and resources. As I have often reminded us (and myself), we are not a museum. As much as we treasure our heritage and love our historic church, we aren t here to worship the past. There is a time and place for honoring the past with Heritage Sundays and traditional Rogation Services. There is also a time for us to firmly ground our worship in this current time, with all of its cultural issues. This will be a challenge for me and for you. In the meanwhile, hang on to your 1979 BCP. It is still a very special book and contains many resources that you probably never used or even noticed. Pull out a copy and review the table of contents. And as we continue to use our Prayer Book, may we remember that it is a tool to enable our worship and to be a companion on our spiritual journey. Mark+ Coming Events Lancaster Barnstormer s game August 15 St. Deniol Day, Dinner and Evensong Tuesday, September 11 Museum of the Bible trip September 19 Heritage Sunday October 21 ANNOUNCEMENTS +We now have large print editions of the Prayer Book and the Hymnal at the back of the church. If you need to use them, please don t

6 hesitate to borrow them and then return them after services. Thanks to Bob Brown for ordering them. +The annual Caernarvon Fire Company Pancake Breakfast will take place on Saturday, August 4, from 6-10 AM. Adults- $6 and children 4-12, $3. +The bus trip to Washington DC to visit the new Museum of the Bible has been rescheduled for Wednesday, September 19. The cost will be $52. Please sign the list in the Church House if you plan to go. We need to fill the 26 passenger chartered bus. Great to see that we now have 24 signed up!!! Room left for just 3. +Cynthia Mascioli has prepared an updated Parish Directory. Some printed copies are available on the Information Table in the Church House. +Our prayers have been asked for Kathy Weaver, Dylys Glew, Eleanor Hertzog, Lynn Schneider Schauer, Carol Greenfield, Lois Benedix, Bob Dailey, Ann Dailey, Claire Flemming, Alissa Groff, Jim Angelo, Marie Yannarell, Pat Bankenstein and Dave Mathewson.