http://forums.shipoffools.com/index.php?p=/ Mon, 08 Jun 2026 19:10:48 +0000 en #liturgy — Ship of Fools http://forums.shipoffools.com/index.php?p=/discussion/5968/outward-looking-liturgy Sun, 29 Sep 2024 20:56:35 +0000 Ecclesiantics Dave Haseldine 5968@/index.php?p=/discussions
Traditional Blessing:

And the blessing of God Almighty,
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
be upon you and remain with you for ever.
Amen.

It's a great to pray God's blessing on everyone in the congregation as each person there will be in need of God's blessing. But should that really be the final word in an act of worship? I remember reading David Watson quoting David Bosch who wrote the following reflecting on the state of Jesus' Church in Apartheid South Africa: "If evangelism doesn't begin with the individual it doesn't begin. But if it ends with the individual it ends." I think that is true not just for evangelism but for all aspects of discipleship/apprenticeship to Jesus.

So I have long been toying with how to mirror the "welcome and call to worship" start of worship services at the end, e.g. with a "blessing and call to discipleship". i.e. blessing "us" as individuals in need of God's grace, and then sending us out to "them" like lambs among wolves and to costly discipleship. My problem with ending worship with a traditional blessing like the one above is that it is unbelievably narrow. If the blessing of the Gospel ends with "us" individuals, it ends.

So here is the same blessing hopefully infected with some of the same disruptive grace that the Holy Spirit unleashed from the Upper Room in Acts:

And the blessing of God,
Father, Jesus, and Holy Spirit,
be upon us, and remain with us;
And also fill us,
and forever overflow through us
to be upon, remain, fill,
and overflow to and through “them”,
all those “others” God sends us to.
Amen?]]> http://forums.shipoffools.com/index.php?p=/discussion/6268/reimagining-liturgy Mon, 10 Feb 2025 22:37:08 +0000 Ecclesiantics Tyler Durden 6268@/index.php?p=/discussions
This began after one particular service in which I wanted to keep people in an engaged attitude of prayer/hushed silence with room for the Spirit to move freely and people to respond rather than 'breaking the spell' - or the bubble - by getting them to stand and recite the creed before asking them to sit and try and get *back* into a prayerful space.

It works well and everyone including the most traditional among us are happy or even prefer it.

Given that, I am currently working on a theological reflection on this, commending it to the Church as a whole as a better - or at least, alternative - way of doing things. And obviously there is some precedent for doing this (or at least for not having the creed after the sermon) because in the BCP, the creed is before the sermon. And the sermon is followed by the intercessions albeit with a sentence and the collection inbetween but this is again a quiet time in which people can sit and reflect and being passed the collection bag is significantly less disruptive to that than standing to say the creed.

So:

Is this legal?!

Do people think it's a good idea?

For me, the answer to the second is more important (!) and if that is a clear yes, then surely it would be possible to change the law anyway?

Look forward to hearing your thoughts.

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