Colourful Dreamer

This is a really interesting article from Spanky. I have a lot of time for him. I attended the Kitchen several times and was really engaged with it's final incarnation. What I likes about it was that what happened on Sunday wasn't the point. What happened the rest of the week was the point, and what happened at the Kitchen helped people see that and live that out. I liked that. What worries me about some of what he ways about Fresh Expression is that what happens on Sunday becomes the point. Mission becomes getting people to come to church. Don't get me wrong, I think what happens on Sunday, or whenever we gather as God's people, is important, but it is not the point. It should be a vehicle by which God shapes and moulds us to be a people of mission, to be a people who in Rowan Williams’ words, "find out what God is doing and join in." I am also not as convinced as Spanky that the prayer book is redundant. But we do need to use it in more life giving ways....

This was recently published by the Anglican News Service. It makes interesting reading. The Secretary-General of the Anglican Communion, Canon Kenneth Kearon, preaching earlier this month in Dublin’s Christ Church Cathedral on the topic of the 350th anniversary of the Book of Common Prayer, described it as an "iconic" Prayer Book that had shaped Anglican worship and teaching since 1662.  He said that the Reformation in continental Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries had caused "enormous religious turmoil and ferment in England and, to a lesser extent, in Ireland". Canon Kearon noted how, in England, Reformation principles eventually had been incorporated into Church life, with the Church seeking to preserve much of its ancient order, while also adopting many of the new religious ideas and concepts from continental Europe.  He continued: "Central to these reforms would be a common prayer book for all the people, expressed in the vernacular. While a ...

I just read this very interesting blog by Tony Jones , who blogs way more often than I do. I am presenting a seminar at an upcoming event to prepare resources to help people become more liturgically literate. And this really makes me think. Thanks Tony

I was at a youth service the other week. A youth band from one church did the music, and they were good. Except all the songs were praise songs. Even the last song was a praise song. There is a place for praise songs, it is the beginning of the service. But to have every song praising God felt like it took away from what else was happening in the service. And at the point where we were supposed to be being sent out to join God in mission we again praised God. Somehow musicians need to work out that they are not the centre piece of worship but add to what is happening. The clear message I got was "this is the real worship, everything else just fills the space." I know that is not what the guy leading it does think, but we do need to do better with the choice of music played.

I have been lost in a little world of liturgy lately, trying very hard to get my dissertation done!!!! Yehhaaaaa!!!@@!! It is now off to Otago. Below is the abstract. Is there life after study though? Youth and Liturgy: an Oxymoron? A study into how and why Anglican liturgy and the Anglican liturgical tradition are being used in worship targeting young people within the Anglican Church (Tikanga Pakeha) in New Zealand. This research used a mixed method approach to explore how and why Anglican liturgy and the Anglican liturgical tradition are being used in worship targeting youth and young adults in the Anglican Church (Tikanga Pakeha) in New Zealand. It comes out of my experience of attending a number of non-liturgical services at various youth events which seem hard to describe as Anglican. It also comes out of the wider church’s concern about the future of liturgy, particularly as expressed in a recent memorandum from the Common Life Liturgical Commission. In this study I have offe...

The following comes from my work for my masters, and is offered as descriptive rather than prescriptive. It is an understanding of the Anglican Liturgical Tradition based on the literature reviewed and my experience as an Anglican priest. The key elements of this tradition include the following - The Anglican Liturgical (ALT) is based on an understanding of worship that is much more than singing praise songs to God. It is about the whole of life , rather than just what happens on Sunday morning. It is an encounter between the living God and God’s church, which changes those who participate, and draws who participate into God’s mission. While there is some debate about who worship is for, it is true that those who engage in worship are to participate in it, rather than observe it as an audience. It invites everyone to take part however they are able. As such Anglican liturgical tradition at its best is accessible to those who attend. The Anglican Liturgical Tradition has as a cornerston...

I had this interesting experience a couple of months ago. I was at an ordination service in our more evangelical/charismatic diocese. We sang several “charismaticy” style songs, could even have been hillsong songs. Around me were a number of people, mostly older, whose eyes lit up and they raised their hands. This excited them. My assessment of them was they were charismatic from way back. While I found the songs a little naff, I was jealous of their involvement and zealousness really. I prayed that I might feel like them. And then we got on to the ordination liturgy, and the liturgy for the great thanksgiving, and the service came alive for me. I don’t know if my eyes lit up, but I wanted to and did lift up my hands in response (I think I was the only one with slightly raised hands at that point) and I was really engaged with what was being said and done. And I wondered afterwards why most people see liturgy as this dead thing, and instead get off on songs with really bad words (some ...

Last week I went to a meet held at a meeting being held at the Southern Star Cistercian (Benedictine) Abbey at Kopua, near Dannevirke. Most of our time was retreaty. A big part of that was joining the brothers for their daily office: at 6am, 8am, 11.30am, 2pm, 6pm, 8pm. Most of these consisted of a hymn, singing three psalms, short bible reading, short prayer, blessing, and Marion anthem (and angelus at 6am, 11.30 and 6pm) The fist service I went to I thought “O my Lord, this might be a little tedious”. The singing was not great, it seemed slow, the seats were not so comfy. But after one or two services it grew on me. I fell into the rhythm. The chants entered into me. I went to sleep with the tune in my head. I woke singing “Praise to the Father the Almighty, and to the son Jesus Christ our lord, and to the Spirit who dwells in our hearts, both now and forever amen.” It was amazingly stilling, and earthing. And it was nice to get in touch with some of our Anglican roots. Cranmer was i...

Annika helpfully left this comment on my post "the function of liturgy?": "Can you define 'mission' - I think it would help being very clear in what that would mean in today's world. Only once that is clear we can then move on and talk about liturgy's function in sending 'people out to join with God in mission.'" Well, that is a good question. Here is my very anglican answer: So what is mission? The Anglican Church uses these five marks or strands to describe what mission is all about. Here are the Five Strands of Mission: • To proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom • To teach, baptise and nurture new believers • To respond to human need by loving service • To seek to transform unjust structures of society • To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth (Bonds of Affection-1984 ACC-6 p49, Mission in a Broken World-1990 ACC-8 p101) Mission can be described as a rope, and these are the five strands...

I met with Spanky Moore the other day to talk about my research on worship with young people in an Anglican setting. There is other stuff about that on this blog. I was trialling the interview schedule. One of the things we came to was the need to be a whole lot more specific about the functions of liturgy, and not just about the form. So I had questions about the structure and about the use of liturgy, but nothing about the function, partly because I had not so clearly thought or read about that. So I am learning about the need to do all this together: read, shape the question, interview and research, read more, work on the questions more etc... So what did we see the function of liturgy to be? 1. To provide a framework to gather people, tell the biblical story, and send people out to join with God in mission. 2. To provide a way to form the character of the whole community and the individuals involved to have an incarnational approach to God and mission. The heart of Anglican liturgi...

I have just returned from our General Synod. One of the highlights for me was the evening worship on the Monday night, led by the band Phono. Antony Dancer had invited them to lead the worship which was also the launch of a DVD celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Hikoi of Hope. It was excellent contemporary liturgy (in my humble opinion) Not that they used lots of the prayer book. Or that we did lots of liturgical responses even. Most of the time they sang to a PowerPoint we watched. So how was that good liturgy? Well, it used the flow of the template. It used liturgical responses to Gather. The songs and PowerPoint were used to tell and reflect on the biblical story (Story), and the liturgical response at the end sent us out. (Go) Secondly, through the words on the PowerPoint and the words sung we heard and read “large chunks of scripture” – one of my pet subjects when it comes to worship. Thirdly it used both the singular and the plural pronoun, - another one of my pet subjects. ...

I am about to send the following proposal to Otago Universtiy to do some research on Anglican Youth Worship. If you have any comments I would appreciate hearing them. Research Topic To explore both how the Anglican liturgical tradition is being used in worship for young people within the Anglican Church (Tikanga Pakeha in New Zealand) and the influences upon those who run youth worship, be they clergy or youth worker? Whilst the literature is clear about the power of the liturgical tradition both for shaping worship as a communal encounter with God, and as a tool for long-term faith and life formation, my experience in a variety of settings is that this tradition is rarely used in worship for young people in the Tikanga Pakeha Anglican setting. My observation is that the youth leaders who organise and run worship are either unaware of, or choose to ignore the power of, the liturgical tradition. I wonder about the role of their upbringing and experience of worship in leading them to org...

One of my colleagues sent an email out today advertising the up coming Manu Rui training event in Christchurch. One of his youth pastors replied as below. I include it as it raises some important issues, and I also include my response. My kids would have no interest in this at all; their focus is simply not on denominational breakdowns and focii. As a church we need to focus on WHERE OUR KIDS ARE (ie not in Anglican churches) and visit there, rather than trying to get kids to visit us (worship wise or whatever). We've been around hundreds of years and kids have voted with their feet. Modern youth ministry is totally ecumenical (ie easter camp, 82 youth groups), so this is not something I would spend time on myself. I agree there are treasures, and I personally value aspects of Anglicanism, but not at a youth level. We struggle even having "readings" (even in modern version); our kids want increasing informality and less heritage. They collect the latter later in life,...