Liturgysmithing

One of the big projects I am working on here at St. Mark's right now is creating (or "smithing") a Saturday evening vespers prayer service that will be aimed at folks who are of no faith, or who have faith but have not found a place to call "home" and a community to call "family." I'm finding, though, that this is quite a challenge.

One of the things that the Anglican tradition offers as one of its strengths is an ethos of mysterium tremendum in our worship services. It was something that many of the free churches that I was a part of in the past were frankly not very good at. Sure, their music was good and the speaker was dynamic, but the gatherings were so domesticated and so like the surrounding cultural influences that I sometimes felt like Jesus was just my "homeboy," or even worse...my "prom date."

Yet, one of the weaknesses of the Anglican/Episcopal tradition as I have received it here in Beaumont is that though it does a great job of bringing to our awareness the transcendence of God, the worship forms (especially the music) can be so foreign to people that is as emotionally unintelligible as doing the service in Latin would be intellectually unintelligible.

So, how to create a service that both creates an awareness of God's transcendence AND imminence (nearness)? How to create a service that feels accessible, but not domestic? How to create a service of mysterium tremendum et fascinans, without it feeling detached or remote? That is the challenge before me. And perhaps the biggest pitfall: making St. Mark's the "new cool thing." I am scared to death of using all the little emotional and spiritual gimmicks that many churches fall into to get an emotional high out of people. I don't want to be a marketer or a spinster, I want to, in the words of the Book of Common Prayer, work to "perfect the praises offered by [God's] people on earth; and be granted, even now, glimpses of [His] beauty." Please pray for me.

A Prayer for Liturgysmithing:

O God, whom saints and angels delight to worship in heaven: Be ever present with your servants who seek through art and music and liturgy to perfect the praises offered by your people on earth; and grant to them even now glimpses of your beauty, and make them worthy at length to behold it unveiled for evermore; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.