CHAPTER 1

What Do We Mean by Liturgical Planning?

Many Episcopalians seem to feel that, since we have a Book of Common Prayer,liturgical planning is unnecessary. Once upon a time, it is true, someone had tochoose whether we use Rite One or Rite Two for this service. But since that hasalready been decided once and for all, no further planning is necessary. All youneed is to get a calendar to tell you what the proper lessons are, to choosethree familiar hymns from the available list of about twenty-five, to ask thechoir director the name of the anthem for the program, and we are ready tostart.

I hope this picture is wildly exaggerated, but I have attended many servicesthat leave me wondering whether it is. Some parishes ignore all possible optionsand always conduct the service in a single inflexible way, as if this had beenhanded down from heaven on golden tablets. Others approach the options providedin the Prayer Book with the enthusiasm of a teenager at a "build-your-own-sundae" counter. There is no thought of congruity and coherence but boundlessenthusiasm for getting some of everything.

Considering the Options

What is necessary is to consider the various options available in the servicesof The Book of Common Prayer as a part of a total program in which theindividual elements are seen primarily as parts of an integrated whole,including readings, prayers, hymns, service music, and sermon. This process iscalled liturgical planning. If we do not plan, we soon fall short of even theminimum requirements of the Prayer Book. We sink into "We always do Rite One,"or a mindless mix-and-match of incomprehensible alternatives. The individualelements may be excellent, but the service itself appears to have been assembledfrom the menu of a Chinese restaurant, taking two items from column A, one fromcolumn B, etc. The liturgical year is neglected, and the Christmas midnighteucharist becomes distinguishable from Ash Wednesday only by the hymns and thecolor of the vestments. There is no continuity or integrity in the services fromSunday to Sunday, and we come to the end of a liturgical season with the feelingthat there has been no overall theme or plan to what we have experienced,although some of the individual moments may have been excellent. I say thesethings, not from any lofty vantage point of omnicompetence from which to lookdown on others, but as a fellow offender and one who is twice guilty because heteaches others how to do what he so often fails to do.

Liturgy and Church Life

Liturgy is the expression of the life of the Church. It expresses our unity inthe One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. It is our bond of unity with otherChristians and in particular with those with whom we are bound in communion.This is not simply a technical term. It means those with whom we celebrate theeucharist and receive communion, for our common liturgy binds us together. Theliturgy of The Book of Common Prayer identifies us as a congregation of theEpiscopal Church. It visibly identifies this congregation with othercongregations, and where this continuity from congregation to congregation isnot apparent, we fail to manifest our unity in Christ.

The liturgy is also an expression of our congregational unity, and it isultimately the concern of the whole people of God. The priest presides over theassembly but does not rule over the congregation. The canons of the EpiscopalChurch give the rector ultimate control of worship, but this can only beexercised within a congregation. A symphony conductor cannot function without abody of musicians, and a priest cannot function liturgically without aworshiping congregation.

The full, active, intelligent participation of all the people of God in theliturgy is the right and duty of every baptized man, woman, and child, by reasonof their baptism, because worship is a part of the priestly activity of JesusChrist in which the priestly people of God participate as members of the Body ofwhich he is the Head. The eucharist, for example, is described as the sacrificeof Christ—celebrated in Head and members. Worship is not a performance byskilled professionals for a passive audience. It is the common work of a groupof brothers and sisters. The Pauline churches in the New Testament clearlyexpected the members of the congregation to share their talents, whatever theywere, in the worship of the Church.

Every congregation has its own life and tradition, including musical andliturgical traditions. Not every option in the Prayer Book and Hymnal is reallyavailable to every congregation. Not only are some things beyond theirresources, some things "just aren't us." This is neither good nor bad but simplythe way things are. Congregations, like individuals, have preferences andtastes. Golden copes and clouds of incense may or may not be a part of yourtradition. One congregation prefers the guitar and "renewal" music, anothersings only plainsong, while a third carefully avoids both.

Liturgical planners need to look at the life of the parish in its totality andset up general parameters for worship. They need to begin with a realisticinventory of their resources, including both people and things.

Resources for Liturgical Planning

The first resource most congregations have is a church building. It may be ablessing, a headache, an unmitigated disaster, or all three, but it exists, anddiscovering how best to use it is one of the planner's first tasks. Is it toosmall? Is crowding a problem? Or is it too large and needs to be madefunctionally smaller? It contains a number of fixed and movable churchfurnishings, such as an altar, a font, a lectern, or pulpit or both, pews orchairs, and choir stalls. These may be badly located, making it difficult forpeople to participate actively in the liturgy. If they are easily movable,consideration should be given to moving them, and if they are not, then plannersneed to consider seriously how to make the best possible use of their goodfeatures and to minimize their faults. Often people within the congregation oravailable for consultation in the community or through the diocese can help acongregation answer these questions.

Obviously, for worship we need a protected space where we can gather around atable, a reading stand, and, on some occasions, a font. Some church buildingscome close to failing to meet these minimum requirements. Their setups preventgathering, or their environments are so unfriendly as to preclude doing anythingtogether. Often real work is needed to make a building built in a different timesuitable for our worship, but the work is worth doing.

Changing the Worship Environment

Be careful of doing things that cannot be undone, especially if they radicallyalter the building. Some buildings are indeed hideous, but most were simplybuilt to the specifications of an earlier age and are merely unsuited forcontemporary worship without what Pierce Middleton calls "retrofitting" (see A.Pierce Middleton, New Wine in Old Skins).

The most common problem is the long chancel with an altar at the far end thatproduces a tunnel effect, especially if the choir stalls are empty. One of themost simple and straightforward solutions, if the chancel is nice looking, is tobuild a new altar at the crossing, thereby moving the action down to the levelof the people. The choir can continue to occupy the choir pews, and seats forclergy and acolytes can be moved out toward the center. The chancel itself canthen be used as a chapel for small services, with people sitting in the choirstalls.

Often, changing communities leave congregations with churches much too large.Using banners and screens to create new and smaller space often works, as doesroping off back pews—or removing them. An open space might be created around thefont, for example, where the baptismal parties could stand with the congregationat baptisms. Whatever the problem, imagination is the first step to a solution.

The Prayer Book and Hymnal as Resources

The Book of Common Prayer and The Hymnal 1982 are perhaps obvious resources forliturgical planning, but they are often overlooked. The Prayer Book not onlycontains the texts of prayers and directions for the conduct of the services butis a guide for the use of other resources. The Hymnal, in addition to the music,contains indexed lists of hymns, metrical psalms and canticles, hymns based onspecific liturgical texts, hymns for children, and a liturgical index. A copierwill make it possible to reproduce materials, such as those included in theappendix of The Hymnal 1982 or in Gradual Psalms, for congregational use as wellas service bulletins.

People as Resources

It is important to identify the people available to fill specific roles in theliturgy: readers, acolytes, lay eucharistic ministers, oblation bearers,singers, dancers, instrumental musicians (organ and guitar are not the onlypossibilities), and ordained clergy (priests and deacons). People are alsoneeded to prepare for the celebration: altar guild members, bread bakers, winemakers, bulletin preparers (typists and/or calligraphers), and artists. Anotherlist includes those whose skills will be needed if the congregation decides tomake alterations in their environment for worship: architects, carpenters,decorators, artists, and people with visual imagination.

Make the inventory first. Discover what is possible before you decide what youwant to do. Then decide what you as a congregation are trying to do in worship.If you could do what you (the rector and a representative group of parishioners)think would be best, what would it look like? It may be helpful to let yourfantasy take over and be creative. Then look at your inventory of resources andsee which things you have the resources to do. Perhaps you can't do exactly whatyou would like, but you do have the resources to do something.

Start by thinking of the liturgy itself. How do you involve the congregationactively and intelligently in the worship of God on Sunday morning? The answeris not some kind of gimmick. It is careful planning with members of thecongregation. One way to enhance participation is simply to involve people inthe planning of the particular service and in its celebration.

The Liturgical Year

The liturgical year and its accompanying lectionary is, of course, a majorresource for planning. The lectionary was compiled with a clear purpose in view:to proclaim the Paschal mystery of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christand our participation in those mighty events. In making this choice, thelectionary committee was faithful to the underlying nature of the liturgicalyear. Neither the lectionary nor the liturgical year is a lesson plan forteaching systematic theology, Bible stories, or even the "history of salvation."The purpose is to proclaim and draw us into the saving events of the death,resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ and our participation in themthrough faith and in baptism, so that the victory that has been won in Christ isbeing won by him in us.

Marianne Micks, in The Future Present, distinguishes between what she calls a"tourist view" of the Church Year, which takes us on a guided walk through theHoly Land with Jesus, and the mysteriological, or traditional, view that in areal sense we participate in the events we celebrate. "This is the night," weproclaim in the Easter Vigil, "when all who believe in Christ are delivered fromthe gloom of sin, and are restored to grace and holiness of life. This is thenight when Christ broke the bonds of death and hell, and rose victorious fromthe grave." It is more than a convenient occasion to preach about theresurrection, "This is the night!"

Sunday as the Lord's Day; Lent, Holy Week, and Easter as the core of theliturgical year; proclamation of the good news that God in Christ "has visitedand redeemed his people" as the primary content of our preaching—these are thecore of this celebration. They are what constitute the liturgical year as it hasbeen celebrated in the Church from the patristic age.

If we are going to plan the year in accordance with its own principles ofdevelopment, we need to think of it as falling into two cycles. The first is theLent-Easter-Pentecost cycle. This has as its core the celebration of the GreatVigil and our Lord's "passover" from death to life. The central theme, not onlyof the Vigil but of the Christian year, is our passage with Christ through thegrave to the risen life, celebrated in baptism, in eucharist, and in the Easterfestival. The theme is extended throughout the eight days of Holy Week,beginning with the passion narrative on Palm Sunday and especially in theliturgies of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. The Great Fifty Days, the periodfrom Easter to Pentecost, with its first readings from Acts and its Gospelreadings from the Fourth Gospel, give us the opportunity to celebrate theresurrection begun in Christ, continued in the life of the apostolic church, andworking still in us. It encompasses Ascension Day and the Day of Pentecost,which are parts of the whole seasonal celebration. Finally, all of this isintroduced by the Lenten fast. Here the Sunday Gospels give us the themes.

The second cycle is Advent-Christmas-Epiphany. This is not a differentcelebration from the older Easter cycle but a different look at the samemystery. The twelve-day Christmas-Epiphany celebration of the Incarnation andmanifestation of Christ ("The Word became flesh and dwelt among us; and we havebeheld the glory") leads into the Baptism of Our Lord and our participation inhis divine life. The Christ who died and rose again for us took flesh of theVirgin "for us and for our salvation." From the Second Sunday in Advent throughthe Baptism of Our Lord, this is our theme. The nativity, the adoration of theMagi, the baptism are all ways of looking into our union with the Incarnate One.

The rest of the year, called by the original Roman Catholic compilers of thelectionary "ordinary time," is considered by Episcopalians as two quasi-seasons:the Sundays after Epiphany and the Sundays after Pentecost. I call themquasiseasons because they are not real seasons. The weekly celebration of theresurrection on the Lord's Day is their primary focus.

The Sundays after Epiphany are the better organized. They are framed by theBaptism of Our Lord at the beginning and the transfiguration Gospel on the lastSunday. This makes it possible to look at the Sundays as a series of"manifestations." The much longer season after Pentecost has no organization.Trinity Sunday at its beginning and Christ the King at its end provide a sort ofloose frame. Toward its end, the post-Pentecost season develops a realstructure. Its theme is the Second Coming, and it finds its climax in the FirstSunday of Advent of the following year. Advent 1, like all new year's festivals,looks both forward and back. It completes the Pentecost-to-Advent transition andturns from the Second Advent to the First, modulating back into preparation forChristmas.

This is the heart of liturgical celebration, and if we begin our planning hereand not with, "Can we sing my favorite hymn?" or "Shall we use incense thisweek?" we shall be proclaiming and celebrating the Gospel and not simply readingit. This, of course, means that celebrations need to be planned for the year,rather than one service at a time.

CHAPTER 2

Who Should Do the Liturgical Planning?

Rectors or Vicars are canonically responsible for the worship of thecongregation. The canons also direct that they seek the assistance of "personsskilled in music" and "together" see that music appropriate to its liturgicalcontext is used. There is no requirement that they consult with anyone else.

The Parish Priest as Planner

In many ways the ordained priest seems an ideal choice for parish liturgicalplanner. He or she has almost certainly studied liturgics in the course ofpreparation for the ministry and will have information and insights that otherworshipers lack. The priest will be the usual presider and preacher at theparish liturgies and is, therefore, in a position both to understand and toimplement the necessary planning. If the priest takes this responsibilityseriously, then the services should be well and coherently planned. In manycongregations, the rector or vicar has traditionally assumed this responsibilityand has produced services that are both beautiful and worshipful. In smallcongregations, the parish musician is often a part-time accompanist with noexpertise in liturgical music, and the priest becomes the sole planner bydefault.