Some of you may recognize the title as coming from a David Bowie song of from all the way back in 1971. Some of you are probably saying, “who the heck is David Bowie?”
Well that’s a good question, but it has nothing to do with this article. It’s just a launching point, a tangent to get me where I want to go. A long winded way of mentioning that we are making changes (“Ch-ch-ch-Changes”, get it?) in our Sunday liturgies.
In November we had a discussion about the 10 AM service. There was fairly strong feeelings that the Rite 2 services from the 1979 Book of Common Prayer were feeling tired, non-poetic, or unmetered. I had suggested that many congregations in the Diocese of Los Angeles are using other services taken and adapted from the new English services, the New Zealand Prayer Book, or the book called,”Enriching Our Worship”.
Beginning in the second Sunday of Advent, we began using new rites (to us), taken from the new Book of Common Worship (England) and the Eucharistic prayers from “A New Zealand Prayer Book.” There are a great number of prayers and forms available for us from these sources. There are even good rites written to be used with children to use in our First Sunday Family Services.
So far the reactions have been positive. Familiar structures are coupled with new expressions. We are trying some different things. It is not yet determined if we will settle on a standard format, or continue to vary things. Certainly, we will make seasonal changes and use new forms for the Prayers of the People.
The object here is not to confuse or to be novel for novelties sake. Rather we are attempting to revitalize our understanding and expression of these acts before God. Several people have commented that the new services are more active and engaging. Many of us will miss using our own Book of Common Prayer (we are making no changes in our Rite 1 traditional services) we do print the entire service sans readings and hymns.
One of the great texts from the Book of Revelation 21:5 “And the one who was seated on the throne said, ‘See, I am making all things new.’” and 1 Corinthians 15:51, "Behold, I show you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, Compared to that, changing our liturgy seems a small thing.."
