Set 1: Liturgy and Church Music
Limited Resources: A printed one-volume annotated Bible; a printed 1979 Book of Common Prayer; a printed Book of Occasional Services; a printed Lesser Feasts and Fasts; the printed Enriching Our Worship volumes; a printed Holy Women, Holy Men; and printed authorized Episcopal hymnals. NO electronic or Internet resources.
Create a liturgy for a nature-oriented event in your pastoral context. You may imagine any such situation: for example, the planting or harvesting of crops, the blessing of a fishing fleet, the planting of a community garden, the reclaiming of land after a natural disaster, or the blessing of animals.
1. In a well-organized essay of approximately 750 words:
A. Give the pastoral reason for the rite;
B. Explain the theological understanding of creation that informs your liturgical design.
2. In another essay of approximately 750 words:
A. Outline the celebration, explaining why you structured it this way and why you chose the liturgical texts, readings and music, showing how your choices conform to the rubrics of the liturgical books listed above;
B. Describe the roles of the members of the congregation, including the liturgical leaders;
C. Describe the liturgical choreography (the movement of the assembly, including the liturgical ministers) and the use of space.
I heard a seminary friend of mine talking about this a few weeks back. I had hoped he was joking.
Where’s the theology in this? Or is this more like being an event planner? You just make it up as you go along! The questions on the GOE for our diocese are boatload tougher than this…..stuff.
Celebrant: The Lord be with you
People:
Celebrant: The Lord be with you
Pack: Woof
The congregation may speedily move their palms towards their foreheads..
I have a member of my congregation who is a reader for the General Ordination Exams. I am going to have to corner him and ask what sort of answers he got for this one.
What I find ironic here is that the Episcopal Church spent some money and published a Catechism of Creation a few years back that was actually pretty good in terms of having some theological substance as things of that sort go. I think even NT Wright was a consultant on that. I don’t understand why that would not have been a usable resource for the ordinands taking this exam.
It is all about indiscriminate inclusion. This is just another example. You get to pick the event, its theology and its ritual. Anything you want. Just like TEC.
Presiding cow: Let us offer one anudder a sign of Peace ……