Posts from the “Liturgy” Category

Praying for women on Mothers Day

Posted on May 11th, 2013

Pastor Michael Schuermann has an excellent piece on pastoral considerations for Mothers Day. You can read it here. Since we are using as the Prayer of the Church the Great Litany of St. John Chrysostom during Eastertide at Immanuel, I will be inserting the following bids: For all mothers, let us pray to the Lord. For all women with child (especially ______), let us pray to the Lord. For all women who long to have children, but cannot, let us pray to the Lord. For all women who have lost a child, let us pray to the Lord.

Categories: Liturgy, Theology

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How do you use the Divine Service settings in Lutheran Service Book?

Posted on April 13th, 2013

A new pastor recently wrote to me asking for advice; his church leadership has asked him to use all the settings, instead of just one. He asked for my brief thoughts on the positives and drawbacks of each setting. Here’s what I wrote to him:   One could write an essay on this question! Let me tell you what I currently do, and why, then talk about your options. Advent: Setting 2 Christmas & Epiphany: Setting 3 Pre-Lent (Gesimas): Setting 1 Lent: Setting 2 Holy Thursday: Setting 3 Good Friday: Chief Service Easter Sunday and Quasimodo Geniti: Setting 3 with “This is the Feast” as post-communion canticle Misericordias Domini through Trinity Sunday: Setting 3 Trinity 1-27: alternate between Settings 1 & 3 (about monthly)…

Categories: Liturgy

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The Separation of the Lenten Fast from the Paschal Fast

Posted on March 22nd, 2013

Many commentaries have considered the six weeks of Lent to be a still further extension of the paschal fast, but that seems to be a serious oversimplification. In the West we are accustomed today to a six-week lent of which the final week is Holy Week, and our tendency is to see that as only the last and most solemn week of the longer fast season. Such a total of six weeks was urged also at Alexandria in the time of Athanasius, but it is clear from his festal letters, of which we possess a great many, that his church understood the final week of the six to be distinct. Some of those letters, such as the first, announce only the beginning of the…

Categories: Liturgy

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Petitions for the President’s inauguration and Sanctity of Human Life Sunday

Posted on January 19th, 2013

I didn’t see anything from the LCMS worship office on prayers for Life Sunday or President Obama’s inauguration (if I missed it, please point me in the right direction), so I wrote my own. Perhaps they may be of use to someone:     For the President of the United States, Barack Obama, that his inauguration would be a blessing to the nation, that he would be strengthened in good works, and that he would receive grace to uphold all our liberties, let us pray to the Lord. Lord, have mercy. For an end to abortion and every form of violence, let us pray to the Lord. Lord, have mercy. For an end to war, slavery, human trafficking, genocide, infanticide, euthanasia, torture, wrongful imprisonment,…

Categories: Liturgy

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The Byzantine Hypacoi of Christmas

Posted on January 6th, 2013

O little Child, lying in a manger, through a star, heaven has called and led the Magi to you; these first fruits of the Gentiles are astonished to see neither thrones nor scepters but extreme poverty. What, indeed, is lower than a cave or humbler than swaddling clothes? Yet in them the splendor of your divinity shone forth resplendently. Glory to you, O Lord! -The Byzantine Hypacoi of Christmas, quoted in Ceremonies of the Liturgical Year

Categories: Liturgy

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Rubrics for the Christmas Proclamation

Posted on December 17th, 2012

Peter Elliott on the singing of the Christmas Proclamation: This should be sung from the ambo, by a deacon, cantor or a reader. Unless the deacon is already wearing a dalmatic, he wears a white cope. A cantor or reader wears an alb or cassock and surplice. Lacking this personnel, the celebrant, a concelebrant (in eucharistic vestments) or another priest (in a white cope) may sing or proclaim it. All stand during this proclamation. Ceremonies Of The Liturgical Year

Categories: Liturgy

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A tale of two churches

Posted on December 14th, 2012

One of the benefits of my sabbatical was attending a great variety of churches: Metro Church DC—Kingstowne Theater location (Alexandria, VA) Redeemer Lutheran (Fort Wayne, IN) Holy Cross Lutheran (Kansas City, MO) International House of Prayer (Kansas City, MO) Ebenezer Lutheran (Greensboro, NC) Glory of Christ Lutheran (Plymouth, MN) Lutheran Church of Christ the King (Duluth, MN) University Lutheran Chapel (in exile, St. Paul, MN) McLean Bible Church (Tyson’s Corner, VA) St Nicholas (Orthodox) Cathedral (Washington, DC) Larry Rast Traveling Bus Ministry (somewhere in Germany) The most interesting juxtaposition and strange convergence came on the two consecutive Sundays I attended McLean Bible Church (Tyson’s Corner) and St Nicholas Cathedral (Orthodox Church in America) in Washington, D.C. McLean Bible Church (hereafter MBC) is an impressive…

Categories: Liturgy, Theology

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One rubric to rule them all

Posted on April 19th, 2012

My esteemed colleague, Charles McClean, begins his The Conduct of the Services with a reiteration of Arthur Carl Piepkorn’s discussion of reverence: There is really only one basic rule of good form: “Be courteous.” And similarly there is really only one basic rule for those who lead the church in worship: “Be reverent!” Every other rule is simply a practical application of that basic charge.

Categories: Liturgy

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