iPad2 Winner!

Congratulations to Braidwood Anglican Parish, Canberra Goulburn Diocese, who has won the iPad2 epray competition.
The 64GB iPad2 comes with 3G Wi-Fi and a smart cover. The iPad 2 gives access to the internet and the new epray anywhere you go. We look forward to hearing how the iPad goes in your worship setting.
With the new epray Broughton Publishing provides online access to planning liturgy and worship.
The new epray will be self explanatory and very easy to use from 1 December. You can call us at Broughton Publishing if you would like to enquire.  Free call 1800 037 729.

With every blessing
From the Broughton Publishing team.

TIS and copyright

Elizabeth Murray

Question

Broughton Publishing

On Worship and Beauty

Rev Steven Ogden

Steven Ogden: Author of Love Upside Down: Life, Love and The Subversive Jesus, Dr Steven Ogden is Principal of St Francis Theological College, Brisbane

Beauty is central to the life, worship and witness of the Anglican tradition. It is not an embellishment. It is our lifeblood. It can be expressed in every aspect of parish life from the care of gardens, vestments and ornaments to the reverential hum of Holy Saturday morning, where clergy and laity together prepare the Church for Easter, in the shadow of the cross, as a communal rite of beauty.

Beauty is celebrated in our liturgy and music, architecture and art. Such beauty is not to be confused with that precious, rarefied, elitist appreciation of aesthetics, and the cult of the artist, though there are historic connections. Rather, Anglicanism’s love of beauty is grounded in the incomprehensible mystery of God. It is profoundly Incarnational. As faith is kindled by God, in and through the resurrection of Christ, so it is rekindled daily, in every moment in every one who enjoys God’s world.

Visitors to an Anglican worship service can be struck by its outwardly understated expression of beauty, which is restrained yet passionate. Ironically, restraint heightens our longing for God that is experienced through a poem, a painting, a peal of bells, a rumbling pipe organ or the glory of Sung Evensong. All in all, the senses are engaged and enhanced through the ebb and flow of worship, where silence, the cherished pause, honour and magnify God’s gift of beauty.

An Anglican appreciation of beauty is conscious of its Celtic roots. Great things emerged from their earthy celebration of God’s work of creation, which medieval mystics nurtured; seventeenth century divines celebrated and the nineteenth century poets explored. Above all else, the whole of creation celebrates the irrepressible, serendipitous presence of God. This is an ever evolving presence and means our tradition is a living tradition, respectful of but not captive to the past, always remaining open to the future. 

Author Love Upside Down: Life, Love and The Subversive Jesus

Broughton Publishing

Ideas

Some of our teenagers have requested non alcoholic juice for Communion. We already have the choice of using individual cups as well as the common cup so we have labelled one side of the tray with the individual cups as \’non alcoholic\’ and use a small tetra pack of juice to put juice in them.

Submitted by Michael Lazarus.

Broughton Publishing

Worship Sense

Dawn Treloar

Dawn Treloar As a Sower of Seeds, Reverend Dawn Treloar, Chaplain of Ivanhoe Grammar School, Melbourne, preaches and talks with teenagers, but loves the occasional glimpse of the harvest.

How we prepare a space for worship reflects, in part, our theology. If we think worship is only an intellectual activity we might choose to worship in a cavernous, empty space where there is nothing to distract us from our thoughts of God. However, if we believe that we worship God as whole people (body, mind and spirit) we will approach our preparation of the worship space differently.

I believe that God can be encountered in many different ways and that different people find different experiences engage them when called to respond to worship. For some there is nothing better than listening to a beautifully sung Agnus Dei, whilst others would prefer be engaged with a song from Hillsong.

Similarly people respond differently to sensory stimulation within the worship space.

The sense of smell
One of the things that my students always comment upon is the use of incense. When used occasionally it brings the use of their sense of smell and sight into use within worship. I use incense rarely, but always for the feats of Pentecost as it gives an opportunity to teach about the nature of the Holy Spirit in a very practical way. I also scent the chapel prior to the Christmas services, again hoping to engage the senses of those present.

Visual stimuli
Visual stimuli are also useful (particularly with children, teens and young adults who live in a world of visual stimulation).

• To provide an ‘altar cloth’ made from prayer notes the students have created draws their attention to the corporate and individual nature of prayer. It also brings their individual prayers into a more formal worship space whilst reminding them of the occasion when they were asked to write their own prayers.
• To create a stream of flowing water (from long lengths of fabric) that leads from the altar through the church, around the font and then out into the world can help those present to start to understand the nature of baptism and our call to ‘go forth’ and to ‘come and receive’ the bread and wine.
• Artwork from a variety of different ages and nations can greatly enhance a PowerPoint presentation.
• An icon can become a focus for stillness and reflection.
• Balloons strung from the ceiling in a net, that then releases them to flow over the people of God during a Pentecost service, can bring great joy and humour into the worship space with inter-generation fun as people bounce the balloons around whilst singing a hymn.
• Large scale models of the nativity can be a source of engagement for small children (who will go and chat to the child size models) and can be extremely thought provoking for the adults.
• A large bowl of still water can provide a point of reflection both literally and metaphorically.
• The same bowl of water can be used with provision for floating candles to be added during a time of prayer.

Auditory stimulation
Auditory stimulation can also be a useful addition to the worship space.

• We all know how moving a well sung hymn or song can be.
• Similarly the music played before worship can set the tone for the service.
• The simple sound of waves crashing upon a shore or a gurgling stream can provide background music for prayer or personal reflection (particularly if you are working with people who are unused to silence).
• The use of a set of hand-bells at a point during the Christmas service can be ‘magical’.

Touch
Provision of something to have in the hand can be a useful tool for some people. Maybe a rock, a shell, a sprig of rosemary, or a rose could be handed out to all as they arrive. If reflected upon during the sermon any of these could become something that triggers reflection for the receiver when they are no longer in the worship space but have moved home or back into the workspace. (Particularly if you encourage them to take their stone etc and place it somewhere safe where they can see it.)

We are called to worship an amazing, richly diverse, wonderful God – why not engage all our senses as we worship?

Broughton Publishing

Children in the Liturgy

John Cornish

St Alban’s Angels sing at Epping

Rev’d John Cornish, Saint Alban’s Anglican Church, Epping, Sydney

The most formal of the liturgies at Saint Alban’s Epping, in the Diocese of Sydney is the 10am Eucharist. Most of our young families attend this liturgy. At that service we have two choirs, a Parish Choir, made up of adults and a children’s choir called Alban’s Angels. The choirs alternate week about. When the adult choir sings we regularly have sung masses, by such composers such as Handel, Bach and Mozart. We also have a Sunday School, comprising two groups, one for children aged three to seven and the other for children aged eight to twelve, about twenty-five children.

The children go directly to their class at the same time as the liturgy commences. The children are welcomed into the community at the Peace. When they are welcomed, they stand at the front of the church and tell the older people what it is they have been studying during Sunday School. The material used is based upon the Revised Common Lectionary used in the liturgy itself.

It is a wonderful experience to have the children participating, one that dissolves the stuffiness that sometimes formal liturgy can engender. It brings a sense of humanity and realism. It always amazes me that even the smallest of the children are game enough to speak to the congregation, without what seems like any embarrassment. They are very unlike how I was at their age.

Beware of children because they are vivacious and you will be upstaged.
Thanks be to God.

Broughton Publishing

Two Way Street

John Capper

What makes worship worthwhile?

Senior Lecturer in Systematic Theology at Tabor College Victoria, Rev’d Dr John Mark Capper is currently making no plans to end his 37 year abstinence from shaving!

The simple answer is God, of course. The Spirit, active in the congregation, draws us to Jesus, the eternal Son, through whom we know and worship the Father. The Triune God is with us, and we are with God. But worship is a two way street. God comes to us, and we, as the community gathered to worship God, seek to focus, to know, and to engage the God who believe in and trust. We do not need to invoke God, since God is already here. Rather, as those who lead God’s people in their gathered life, we call our sisters and brothers to recognise the truth that God is with us (and we are with God). Three contexts might shape our actions as we recognise and name them. First, we recognise those present. It is obvious, but still sometimes not really engaged, that we need to know those who gather and work with their gifts, and recognise their limits. What language connects with them? What are their experiences of God? How open are they to various spiritual stimuli? These, and other factors, will shape how much and what we teach, what level of opportunity we allow for extempore and formal contributions from the community members, and what their expectations are of their time together.

Second, we recognise the context around us. What are the concerns that those present bring? Where does their mission connect with the world around them? What are the fears, the joys, and the opportunities?

Third, we recognise the legacy we have to work with. It is interesting to see how many churches with less formal liturgical traditions are finding value in the long tested and proven spiritual disciplines. Liturgical calendars are now popular in what were once fiercely independent movements. Formal prayers are being adopted in one section of the church which once dismissed them even as those sections that have grown up with them are leaving them by the wayside.

There are tremendous opportunities for engaging with a rich range of resources from the past, and adopting and modifying new and emerging resources. Websites, blogs, and keeping company with godly leaders are all good resources for those who want to keep helping their congregations to keep engaging well in the worshipful service of the triune living and relating God.

Broughton Publishing