Beyond Common Worship

Mark Earey

Description

The introduction of Common Worship services in the Church of England has gone remarkably smoothly, considering the immensity of the task. But despite its overall success, the sheer variety of material, coupled with the complex rules about what is and is not allowed, have left some parishes, clergy and Readers wondering if this is really the best way to produce good worship.

Informations

• Publié par: Hymns Ancient & Modern
• Date de parution: 19 novembre 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 2
• EAN13: 9780334052012
• Langue: English

Extrait

Beyond Common Worship
Beyond Common Worship
Anglican Identity and Liturgical Diversity
Mark Earey
© Mark Earey 2013

Published in 2013 by SCM Press
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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, SCM Press.

The Author has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the Author of this Work

The sample canons in Appendix 2 are from The Canons of the Church of England , 7th edition, Church House Publishing, 2012 © The Archbishops’ Council

British Library Cataloguing in Publication data

A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library

978-0-334-04739-1

Typeset by Manila Typesetting Company
Printed and bound by
CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon
Contents
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations Used in this Book
Introduction
1 What is the Problem?
2 Some Possible Solutions
3 A New Approach and a Different Solution
4 What Makes Worship ‘Anglican’?
5 Some Implications of a Centred-Set Approach
6 Conclusion
Appendix 1: Some Examples of Worship Guidelines
Appendix 2: Some Sample Canons, Applying the New Approach
Select Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank all those who have rung or emailed me (or simply collared me in a class or at a conference or meeting) over the last 16 years and asked a question about Common Worship . It is those questions which first helped me to see the need for some simple answers in the short term and for some creative thinking in the longer term.
More recently, I have had the opportunity to try out some of the ideas in this book on unsuspecting students, both at The Queen’s Foundation and at St John’s College, Nottingham. Further afield, I would like to thank ordinands and clergy in other contexts, including the students of the Southern North West Training Partnership in January 2012, attendees of a Praxis North West day in June 2012, and the clergy of Coventry Diocese at their Bishop’s study day in November 2012. My colleagues on the Church of England Liturgical Commission were kind enough to give me time on the agenda of our meeting in January 2013 and indulged me in a discussion of the issues raised in this book. I should make clear that although I have gained hugely from their insights, I am writing here in a personal capacity, and the ideas put forward in this book should not be taken as representative of any ‘official’ view of the Liturgical Commission.
In particular, I would like to thank the Principal of St John’s College, Durham, and the members of the planning committee of the Michael Vasey Lecture, who were kind enough to invite me to give the annual Vasey lecture in March 2012. That invitation was the initial spur which prompted me to put my ideas into some sort of coherent shape.
To all those who spoke to me individually at any of these events or who asked key questions in plenary, which helped to focus my thinking or which challenged my proposals, I offer grateful thanks. You may well see echoes of your questions in what follows (in which case, many thanks) or you may feel that I have misrepresented the point you were making (in which case, sincere apologies). In all cases, I accept that no one but me is responsible for any weaknesses that remain.
As the material took a more finalized shape, I am grateful to those who read initial drafts and provided feedback: Alison Earey, James Hill, Jonny Baker, John Leach and David Green. Finally, I would like to thank Dr Natalie Watson of SCM Press, who has encouraged me to bring the book to publication and given advice and guidance along the way. My wife Alison and daughter Hannah have been patient, as ever, and encouraged me throughout the process. To them I offer more thanks than I can say.
Abbreviations Used in this Book

ASB
The Alternative Service Book 1980
ASW
A Service of the Word
BCP
The Book of Common Prayer
CW
Common Worship (in its generic sense – not referring to a particular volume)
MWB
Methodist Worship Book 1999
Introduction
This is an odd book for me to find myself writing. For most of the last 16 years I have been closely involved in one way or another with the production of Common Worship services, and with helping people to know how to use them. In short, I have a lot invested in Common Worship . To write a book which might seem, at first sight, to be critical of that work is odd. However, as I hope will become apparent, the book is not meant to be critical of the material in Common Worship itself, but an invitation to ask ourselves where the Church of England might head next, building on what we have learnt through the use of Common Worship .
Questions, questions
From 1997 to 2002 I was National Education Officer for Praxis, a Church of England organization for liturgical renewal and education.

Praxis
Praxis was formed in 1990, sponsored (but not paid for) by the Liturgical Commission and two Church of England liturgical organizations, the Alcuin Club (a society promoting sound liturgical scholarship, particularly with reference to the Anglican Communion) and the Group for Renewal of Worship (the group behind the Grove Worship series). The aim was to bring together those from different traditions from within the Church of England who shared a concern for improving the practice of worship. In the process, it became seen as a sort of ‘semi-official’ education and formation arm of the Liturgical Commission. For more about Praxis, visit www.praxisworship.org .
During this time, I was an observer on the Liturgical Commission and a member of the Education and Formation sub-committee of the Liturgical Publishing Group. I wrote leaflets helping to prepare the Church of England for the new services, edited a series of books on ‘Using Common Worship ’ and produced a range of Praxis training packs designed to help people at parish level to introduce the services to their PCCs and congregations and to use them with understanding.
At this point, the Church of England had no national liturgy officer, and I regularly got emails and phone calls asking practical questions about Common Worship and how to use it. I thought that the questions would die down as the new services got embedded into the Church’s life, but in my later experience as a parish priest they still came. In my current work as Liturgy Tutor at The Queen’s Foundation in Birmingham, I still get the questions – and not just from ordinands discovering Common Worship for the first time, but from experienced parish clergy who have been working with it for a while.
It is this experience of seeing how Common Worship is actually working out which has prompted this book. Like most people, I have my own views about which bits of Common Worship work well and which need a bit of work, but overall I still strongly believe that the Common Worship ‘project’ was and is good, and that the material builds well on what had gone before it in Series One, Two and Three, and The Alternative Service Book 1980 . Though Common Worship may have its faults, it is not primarily the material which is a problem, but the system within which the material sits. It has become my conviction that this system needs to change, and that we would do well to approach that change proactively and intentionally rather than have it forced upon us piecemeal.

Reflections on Common Worship so far
Thus far there have been few books which have reflected on Common Worship in any depth. In 2011, Nicholas Papadopulos edited God’s Transforming Work: Celebrating Ten Years of Common Worship (London: SPCK, 2011). The ten years in the title should be understood flexibly – the obvious year to mark would be 2000, because that was when the authorization of The Alternative Service Book 1980 ran out and Common Worship had to take over, but the first part of Common Worship (the Calendar, Lectionary and Collects) came out in 1997, before it was even called Common Worship , and many other parts of Common Worship came out after 2000.
As the subtitle suggests, this was a volume celebrating the achievement and impact of Common Worship . It contains essays primarily by people involved in and around the production of the services, who note its impact in a range of areas and, in a few cases, make some suggestion for future changes.
There have been some brief attempts to analyse the process and history which led from ASB 1980 to Common Worship , including Michael Perham’s chapter ‘Liturgical Revision 1981–2000’ in Paul Bradshaw (ed.), Companion to Common Worship Vol. 1 (London: SPCK, 2001) and David Hebblethwaite’s reflections as secretary to the Liturgical Commission in Liturgical Revision in the Church of England 1984–2004: The Working of the Liturgical Commission, Alcuin/GROW Joint Liturgical Studies 57 (Cambridge: Grove Books, 2004). These give good background information and can help us to understand how we ended up with what we have.
What is still to come is both a sustained critique of the material itself (which might help us to see what is needed next) and some exploration of the bigger-picture question as to whether the whole direction of liturgi