Down with Extemporaneous Prayer! (OK, Not Really)

There seem to be two schools of thought about brief, non-Eucharistic worship services.  Unfortunately, the dominant school seems to rely almost entirely on extemporaneous prayer.  It's probably just a matter of taste, but I'm not fond of that approach. 

I much preferred what we did on a children's-choir pilgrimage to Canterbury a couple of years ago:   Each day we followed an abbreviated form of the Daily Office at morning, noon, evening, and compline.   

More generally, when it comes to lay worship services, I like following the basic structure of Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer -- shortened considerably -- with extemporaneous prayer being limited to the intercessions portion.   

Following the forms of Morning / Evening Prayer gives you the feeling that you're connected with the rest of the church, present and past, even though at the moment you happen to be away from a church building per se.   I'll never forget a Morning Prayer on a Boy Scout campout a few years ago, at the top of Enchanted Rock.   A half-dozen adult leaders, all Episcopalians except for one Roman Catholic, clambered up the Rock in the pre-dawn darkness of a freezing Sunday morning.  After catching our breaths, we read an abbreviated Morning Prayer service as the sun crept over the horizon, while the Scouts and the other adult leaders were still asleep in their tents.  It was one of the more moving worship services in which I've ever participated.

Using a shortened Morning / Evening Prayer for lay worship also exposes Episcopalians to this important aspect of the church's liturgical tradition, which we otherwise seem to be gradually losing.  To me, there's something sad when a worship leader calls  out "Lord, open our lips," and gets back nothing but quizzical looks as a response. (The response, from Psalm 51:15 and the Invitatory to Morning Prayer, at page 80 of the Book of Common Prayer, is "and our mouth shall proclaim your praise.")

Comments

[bls]

I so agree with you about Morning and Evening Prayer. This is an important part of our heritage, and I really appreciate parishes that say one or the other, or both, at least a few times weekly.

Better even than that, though, I think, is when morning prayer is sung. It's so beautiful, and there's been so much wonderful music written for this service. Some of the larger parishes and cathedrals have sung Morning Prayer once a month - my favorite service of all these days. And I've noticed also that some parishes seem to be combining Morning Prayer with Eucharist one Sunday a month - a good solution, I think. I hope the tradition is not lost.

[bls]

(I love the description of the Boy Scout Morning Prayer service on the Enchanted Rock, BTW. Sounds beautiful. And I agree about the feeling of being connected to the past - that's definitely a big part of it. We are lucky to have this heritage, and it makes a difference in how we see the world, I think, when the religious life is not only about church on Sunday, but about thanks to God at the opening and closing of each day.)

[David Huff]

D.C.,

I'm with you and 'bls' here. Your observation that "Using a shortened Morning / Evening Prayer for lay worship also exposes Episcopalians to this important aspect of the church's liturgical tradition, which we otherwise seem to be gradually losing." is quite true. Tho' I may be extra sensitive to this, as until recently I attended a few parishes that seemed to value extemporaneous prayer much more than our liturgy (most esp. the first church we went to here in Plano).

Our current parish, The Episcopal Church of the Transfiguration, signs a lot of the Sunday service that I'm used to hearing spoken and 'bls' is right - it's quite beautiful when done that way!

[David Huff]

(sigh) OK, that's be "sings a lot of..." :) Got spell checking, but not "semantic checking"

[Jeff]

Solemn Benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament is one of my favorites. I left a Catholic church last year to join the Anglican communion, and haven't seen this service yet. Vespers is also very beautiful, though. I like your description of the early morning prayer service, which we used to call "Prime".

[bls]

Jeff: welcome to the Episcopal Church. And, BTW, St. Mary the Virgin, 46th St., for Solemn Evensong and Benediction.