INSTRUCTED EUCHARIST WEEK 2-3: Liturgy of the Word, Parts 1 & 2 The Procession & Opening Hymn At the very beginning of the service, all the people who are participating in the service the acolytes, the readers, the chalice bearers (those who give out the wine), and the clergy (both priests and deacons) enter together in a kind of parade. We call this parade a procession. It was the custom at the time of the early church for important people to parade through the streets. Those of lesser status would have to move aside and bow to the rulers and leaders. The church took this practice and subverted it, and had the people bow, not at the important people, but at the cross (symbolizing Jesus) which is at the beginning of the procession. Also, the parades or processions for the rulers would have the most important people in the back, and the least important people in the front of the procession. The church also turned that on its head and had the most important people go first, with the clergy at the end (the least important). It was a way for the church to look like it was conforming to the ways of the world, but it was really not. On Sundays, these days, we process in before we begin the service. Sometimes that is done in silence, sometimes it is done to quiet music, and sometimes we enter singing a hymn (another word for song). The procession usually follows this order: The Opening Acclamation Crucifer (the one holding the cross) Torch Bearers (the ones holding the candles) Banner bearer (the one holding a banner) Bell bearer (the one holding the bells on strings) Choir (those who help to lead singing) Second Cross Chalice Bearers (the ones giving out the wine) The Gospel Book (either held by acolyte or Deacon) The Deacon The Preacher (the one who is giving the sermon) The Celebrant/Priest (the one who is blessing the bread and the wine) We begin the spoken part of our service by greeting each other. The leader of the service says the first part of the greeting, and the congregation responds with their own greeting. We tell each other what we think about each other and God. There are three general greetings we say 1) Blessed be God Father Son and Holy Spirit, and Blessed be his Kingdom, now and forever; 2)
Bless the Lord who forgives our sins, His mercy endures forever; and 3) Alleluia! Christ is Risen! The Lord is Risen indeed! Alleluia! Each of these greetings, highlights the season of the year the first for ordinary days, the second for the season of Lent, and the third during Easter. The Collect for Purity This prayer is said each time we gather together. It was originally said privately by the Priest before he/she began worship. Later, the prayer was said by the whole congregation (or for the whole congregation) to prepare ourselves for worship. The Gloria/Trisagion/Kyrie After we greet each other and prepare ourselves for worship, we do one of three things: 1) we sing praise to god with the Gloria telling us and God how great God is. This is done throughout the year on celebrations and ordinary Sundays. 2) we talk about God s power with the Trisagion (which is greek for three times because we invoke God s name three times in this prayer. 3) we ask for God s mercy and forgiveness of us with the Kyrie Elaison (which means Lord Have Mercy). Sometimes these prayers are sung and sometimes they are said. Some are responsive (which means the priest says one part and the congregation responds), and some are said all together. The Collect of the Day Then we say a prayer that sets the mood for the day. These prayers are prescribed by the Church and there is one for each week of the year. It is directly linked to the readings we hear and the time of the year we are encountering. Collect is just another word for prayer. These prayers can be found on pg. 158-261 in the Book of Common Prayer. The Readings and the Psalm: Each week we read four different passages from the Bible 1) from the Old Testament or Hebrew Scriptures; 2) a Psalm (also from the OT); 3) from the Epistles (the New Testament); and 4) from the Gospel (the first four books from the New Testament Matthew, Mark, Luke & John). The assigned readings come from a set called the Revised Common Lectionary (which is the approved set of readings given by the Episcopal Church). The same readings are repeated every three years (divided up into Year A, Year B, and Year C). Most Protestant denominations read the same set of readings every week, drawing us all closer to each others and to the universal church (or one church) that Jesus envisioned from the beginning.
The Gradual Hymn: The practice of singing a hymn before the reading of the Gospel goes way back to the very early church. In early Christian traditions, songs or chants would be sung (called reponds) between the psalm verses (like the way we sing our Psalm at the 10:15 service). Over time, the church began to replace those psalms with hymns, or songs. And now we sing a song while the Gospel book is paraded down to the middle of the aisle. The Gospel Procession: The tradition of processing, or parading the Gospel into the midst of the congregation is an old one. The whole procession is a way of pointing out the specialness of the community. The Gospel book is brought down to the people, as a symbol of bring the word into the World, among the people. It is carried and read by clergy, most appropriately a deacon. Clergy are the guardians of the faith, and so they are the ones chosen to read the words spoken by Jesus. Two candles accompany the procession as a symbol of joy and a symbol of the light of Christ. While we in this congregation typically carry a cross in front of the Gospel book, it is not necessary to do so. The Word of God is sufficiently holy and not needing a cross to proceed it. The Gospel Readings: The church has, over time, held the Gospel readings (from the first four books of the New Testament Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) in high regard, because they hold the words Jesus said. The readings rotate each year Matthew during Year A, Mark during Year B, Luke during year C, and John is usually used during Easter and the 7 weeks following Easter. In many churches, the book that holds the Gospel Readings, called the Gospel Book, is processed down the aisle with candles. While we process with a cross, it is not necessary, as the Gospel Book is sufficiently holy to process by itself (and the cross can take away from the importance of the book). A clergy person reads the Gospel as a sign of the reverence of the Gospels and as a symbol of the guardianship of Jesus' words. A deacon, when present, is the primary clergy person to read the Gospel. The procession can go to the Pulpit, the lectern, or to the midst of the congregation. We process to the center aisle in the middle of the congregation, to show the Word being proclaimed among the people, rather than from on high. When we take the Gospel into the congregations, it brings us back to the days of Jesus Christ, when we would have gathered in a close circle around the bearer of the Good News to hear the stories told again. While read from a book, it reminds us of the oral tradition from whence we have come. The lights are the traditional elements that accompany the Gospel procession symbolizing the Light of Christ. The Sermon: After the Gospel, a sermon is given. Another word for Sermon is Homily (from the Greek for discourse). It is supposed to follow the Gospel without interruption because it is supposed to
be a response to all the scripture we have heard just before. If there is communion served, then a sermon is given. The point of the sermon is many different things: to teach about the readings we heard; to make thescriptures relevant to every day living and/or the situation in the congregation; to speak to current events; to speak to the season of the church year; and even to explain the service, like we are doing now. Sometimes, on Holy Days set aside for people the church recognizes as holy (sometimes called Feasts or Fasts), the sermon can be an explanation or description of the holy person of the day. The book that the church put out that talks about these holy people is called Holy Men, Holy Women, and there is at least one person assigned to most days in the year. The Nicene Creed: The Nicene Creed is the final response to the readings from Scripture we hear during the service. The Nicene Creed is considered our common or core beliefs as Christians. The use of the Nicene Creed in the Eucharist (right after the gospel), began in the fifth century in Antioch and became the universal practice in the church. Anytime there is a Eucharist, the Creed is required to be said, but at other times, it can be omitted. When there is a Baptism, the Creed is replaced with a similar statement of faith, the Baptismal Covenant (or the Renewal of Baptismal Vows). We say the creed together, so that together we can believe all the things we say. Where you doubt, another believes, and where they doubt, you can say the words for them. Background: In 325 AD, the early church gathered together at Nicea (modern day Turkey), in what would be the fi rst ecumenical council. It lasted about two months, and 318 bishops attended. (318 is symbollic in that it represents each member of Abraham's household from the book of Genesis.) Athanasius was one of the bishops, who attended. He was a theologian and considered one of the great Doctors of the church. The council, itself, worked on three major tasks of the day, and the end result being the early construction of the Nicene Creed, which we use in church today. The first task was to address the Melitian controversy. Meletius was a bishop in Egypt. He did not believe that the church should reinstate people who, during persecution, renounced their faith. Peter, of Alexandria, on the other hand, was welcoming back and reconverting those who had left. The council at Nicea tried to make peace between the two factions, allowing Meletius to remain as bishop, but unable to ordain any other bishops. The second task was to estabish the date of Easter, as it was being celebrated at different times throughout the early church. The third task was to settle the dispute within the church stirred up by Arius (a priest in Alexandria) and his followers, known as Arians. Arius taught that Christ was a creature made by God, rather than God himself. He used orthodox language to support his ideas, and caused much confusion in the Church. Many bishops began to follow him, while others called out for
his excommunication. The council at Nicea strongly condemned Arius' theology and defined the divinity of Jesus Christ. In 381, at the council of Constantinople, the divinity of the Holy Spirit was defined. In 451, the Chaldean Council finished the work of creating the creed. These three councils helped to finish the creation of the Nicene creed, which we recite each Sunday. The Heresies the Creed Speaks Against: The creation of the Creed sought to define orthodox (or typical) belief for Christians. In doing so, it fought off other heresies (or theological ideas that over time came to be thought of as wrong). Here are a few: Adoptionism (1 st Century) The idea that Jesus was born fully human and was adopted as by God as His son when the Holy Spirit descended on him at Baptism. Docetism (2 nd Century) Belief that Jesus physical body was merely an illusion, as was his crucifixion. Jesus only seemed to have a body and to die, but really he was incorperal without body, a pure spirit, and could not actually die. Sabellianism (Early 3rd Century) The Sabellianists taught that Jesus Christ and God the Father (as well as the Holy Spirit) were not distinct persons, but rather two aspects or parts one person (God). According to them, the three persons of the Trinity exist only in our understanding of God, but not in reality. Gnosticism (1st and 2nd Centuries) Gnostics believe that humans are divine souls trapped in a material world created by an imperfect God. They believed that everything that could be touched (earthly things) were evil or tainted, and that Jesus Christ could not have been both true God and true man because Christ had no evil in him. In saying this, many Gnostics began to deny the Incarnation, saying that Christ only seemed to be a man, but that his humanity was an illusion. Some Gnostics, recognizing that the Old Testament taught that God created matter, claimed that the God of the Jews was an evil deity who was distinct from the New Testament God of Jesus Christ. Nestorianism (5th Century) Nestorius, bishop of Constantiople, said that, since Mary (the mother of Jesus) was human, she could not actually bear the divine part of Jesus in her womb. The theological word is Theotokos (God bearer or Mother of God). He said, instead, that Mary bore the human Jesus in her womb, and that there was another, non-earthly being (the Christotokos or Christ bearer) who bore the divine Christ. In 431, at the Council of Ephesus, the bishops agreed that Mary was the Mohter of God and could, indeed, be the bearer of Christ. Marcianism (2 nd Century)
The Marcianites believed that God replaced the Hebrew scriptures with the story of Jesus (later the New Testament), and that they were no longer valid (apart from the Psalms). They also believed that the Hebrew God (who we call God) was a separate lower god from the God of the New Testament. The Prayers of the People: The Prayers of the People (POP) happen right after the Creed. This is our first response to what we have heard thus far in the service. Our response says that we care about other people, not just ourselves - people hurting, people in power, and that we want change in the world. There are seven different forms of the POP in the Book of Common Prayer (BCP) one in the Rite I (or older communion service) and six in the Rite II service. There are also countless other forms that can be found outside of the BCP. During Advent & Christmas, and Lent & Easter, we use seasonally specific POP's. The following are always included in the POP: prayers for the Church, the nation, the welfare of the world, those who suffer and those who are in any trouble, and those who have died. The deacon is also the primary person to read the prayers because one of their roles as on ordained person is to care for those in need. The Confession & Absolution: Just as we intercede on behalf of the whole world in the Prayers of the People, we also admit to the things we have done (or forgotten to do) which has kept us from the love of God and of eachother. In our Catholic roots, we were to confess our sins before coming to a Eucharist. The idea was so that we could come to the table without anything dragging us down or tainting us. Not only do we let go of the things that aren't so great, but we are also told we are forgiven by God. In the Episcopal Church, we confess not only our individual sins, but also those sins we as the whole Church and even all of humanity commit throughout the week. It isn't just the big sins, but little things we do, or things we do not do out of fear. It's the way we fail to love God and everyone around us, and also how we fail to let God and others love us. We confess on behalf of everyone, and ask for God's forgiveness and mercy. When the priest stands up, makes the sign of the cross and announces the absolution, he/she reminds us that God continues to love us, even if we miss the mark. By doing this each week, we are also reminded that we are not forgiven just once, but regularly, over and over again. And we also recognize that it is something we desperately need on a regular basis, just like other necessities. The Peace: This is a newer even in the life of the liturgy in the Episcopal Church. For a long time, there was no such thing as shaking everyone's hands in church. In fact, the Passion of the Peace was not included in an Anglican (Episcoapl) service since 1552! With the creation of the latest prayer book, in 1976, the Passing of the Peace was put back in. If you were around at the time, you will remember what a controversy that was. Touching people in church?!? Why, I never! But, really, there were many people who thought of worship in church as a very private and personal
matter, so the idea of breaking that personal space and greeting people around them was very offensive. There were people who simply would not do it! There are probably some people who still wont, even though it's been in our service for almost 40 years. But those who were writing liturgy in the Epsicopal Church wanted to return to the idea of corporate worship the importance of worshiping together with other people. To those who are new (and maybe to many of you), the Peace looks like a mini coffee-hour in the middle of the service. A time for people to check in and say hello. And in some ways that is just what it is. The roots, however, go much deeper than just a general how do you do! What we do just before we exchange the Peace, asking for and receiving forgiveness, has a lot to do with why we shake hands with people around us. Just as we are not supposed to come and receive communion without being freed of our wrongdoings, we should not come and receive communion if we have a conflict or problem with our neighbor. We should work that out (even symbollically) before we get the bread and the wine. That idea comes from the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 5, verses 25-26: So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. This scripture also links the action to what happens after the Peace in the service the Offertory, offering back to God from all the things he has given us. But the scripture also commends us to be at peace with those around us before we come to share the bread and wine with them. For how can we confess our wrongdoings, be forgiven, and still be in conflict with those aorund us. Conflict is natural in the church (and in any setting where more than one human abides), but reconciliation is Jesus' great gift to us, and he expects us to exercise it on a regular basis. If you have a problem with someone in the church, go and shake their hands and let it go, so you can offer your full self to God and let him give you his life-giving bread and wine.