St Luke's Church Eccleshill - Articles from "The Link"

Variety is the spice of life

We’ve had our blue service books (in memory of Bill Egan) for six years now, and although I say it myself, I think they’ve worked well. The big print and clear pages have been easy to follow, they’ve helped both congregations feel that other styles of worship are still “real” services, and they’ve allowed for a certain amount of variety in the words we use. We’re not planning to abandon them.

But if you’ve been to other churches, you have probably seen other more “seasonal” books, where the words and prayers are varied according to the time of year. To find out if this would be a good move at St Luke’s we produced a book for Advent and used it during December.

Fifty people filled in a questionnaire about the Advent books. 47 liked them, mainly for the new ways of saying things to make us think instead speaking parrot-fashion. 44 thought we should have books like them for other seasons. So we’ll be using new booklets for Lent (beginning 10th February) and then more new ones for Easter (23rd March) this year.

What’s the difference? The orders we do things will change slightly: for instance in Advent and Lent the confession comes later, so we have chance to reflect longer on what we ought to say sorry to God for. The wording of some items are varied so as to stress some aspects of our faith: so in Easter we use a statement of faith based on the bible’s actual words about the resurrection. We might make use of some other music, for instance sung versions of some prayers. And in some seasons there are some extra items inserted into the service - such as the words which go with the Advent Candles, which used to get put on the notices sheet because the book missed them. And some prayers will have new responses.

All of this is still Anglican, and none of it will change the dignity of the service. It will all still be easy to follow, but we hope it will help us to engage our minds a bit more as we are forced to think about what we’re saying to God as we worship him. Come and join us!

John Hartley

	*St Luke's Church, Eccleshill - The Link* magazine** The Link is published monthly at 40p (Senior Citizens 35p), and we deliver free within the parish and post copies (at the reader's expense) to those who request it. Please contact us if you would like a free copy for a trial period. February 2008, Page 1.
Home Page. Index of articles: by subject, by date. In this issue: (February 2008) Service books, Hymn, Prayer, Question. Other articles on worship.	Variety is the spice of life We’ve had our blue service books (in memory of Bill Egan) for six years now, and although I say it myself, I think they’ve worked well. The big print and clear pages have been easy to follow, they’ve helped both congregations feel that other styles of worship are still “real” services, and they’ve allowed for a certain amount of variety in the words we use. We’re not planning to abandon them. But if you’ve been to other churches, you have probably seen other more “seasonal” books, where the words and prayers are varied according to the time of year. To find out if this would be a good move at St Luke’s we produced a book for Advent and used it during December. Fifty people filled in a questionnaire about the Advent books. 47 liked them, mainly for the new ways of saying things to make us think instead speaking parrot-fashion. 44 thought we should have books like them for other seasons. So we’ll be using new booklets for Lent (beginning 10th February) and then more new ones for Easter (23rd March) this year. What’s the difference? The orders we do things will change slightly: for instance in Advent and Lent the confession comes later, so we have chance to reflect longer on what we ought to say sorry to God for. The wording of some items are varied so as to stress some aspects of our faith: so in Easter we use a statement of faith based on the bible’s actual words about the resurrection. We might make use of some other music, for instance sung versions of some prayers. And in some seasons there are some extra items inserted into the service - such as the words which go with the Advent Candles, which used to get put on the notices sheet because the book missed them. And some prayers will have new responses. All of this is still Anglican, and none of it will change the dignity of the service. It will all still be easy to follow, but we hope it will help us to engage our minds a bit more as we are forced to think about what we’re saying to God as we worship him. Come and join us! John Hartley
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