I was curious what we would find if we compared liturgies amongst ourselves. However, the orders of service tend to be longer than we might have the patience to compare in our spare time as bloggers. With that in mind, I am here posting the general outline of the Common Service from our current worship book. There are several other orders of service as well; I haven't even compared and contrasted the different orders of service within my own book of worship. But here is a question for all you other liturgical worshipers out there from other Christian groups: how close is this to your own order of service? Are there differences? Are differences in the service used to highlight differences in theology?
Common Service
- Invocation (“In the name of the Father …”)
- Confession
- Song: Kyrie eleison (“Lord have mercy on us ...”)
- Absolution
- Song: Gloria in Excelsis (“Glory be to God on High …”)
- Prayer of the day
- Old Testament Scripture reading
- Psalm of the day
- Epistle Scripture reading
- Verse of the day and Alleluias
- Gospel Scripture reading
- Nicene Creed (communion) or Apostles Creed (matins)
- Sermon
- Song: "Create in me ..."
- Offering
- Prayer of the church
- The Lord's prayer (with the Glorias at the end)
- (Matins: skip forward to Nunc Dimittis; Eucharist continues)
- Prayers: Seasonal prefaces to the Eucharist
- Song: Sanctus (“Holy, holy, holy …”)
- Words of institution (“Our Lord Jesus Christ, on the night he was betrayed …”)
- Song: Agnus Dei (“O Christ, Lamb of God …”)
- Distribution (“The body of Christ, given for you. The blood of Christ, shed for you for the remission of sins.”)
- Song: Nunc dimittis aka Song of Simeon (“Lord, now you let your servant depart in peace …”)
- Prayer of thanksgiving
- Aaron’s Blessing (“The Lord bless you and keep you …”)
Come this Sunday I'll keep all these in mind and pay close attention. I've studied the exacts of the liturgy before, but never really bothered to see how "true" my own church's liturgy was.
ReplyDeleteHi there
ReplyDeleteSo, any insights? I'd be interested to hear about any differences you noticed.
Take care & God bless
Anne / WF