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2025-01-14
Preamble: The aim of this paper is to arouse our curiosity and interest as we are reminded of those things we have learnt from different teachers of worship in our Seminary days. We may be tempted to argue some points but nobody will say he has not be informed. We want to keep you informed as much as possible so that where necessary we can make further research especially where there are doubts.
As the title suggests, it is about Holy Eucharist. However we cannot discuss it outside worship. Therefore, we shall start with the definitions of worship and liturgy. We learn everyday. No end to it.
DEFINITION: Worship is defined as the honour, reverence and homage paid to superior beings or powers, whether men or angels. The English word Worship denotes the worthiness of the individual receiving the special honour due to his worth. While it is used of men it is especially used of the divine honours paid to a deity, whether of the heathen religion or the true and living God. When given to God worship involves an acknowledgement of divine perfections. It may express itself in the form of direct address, as in adoration or thanksgiving, or in service to God: and may be private or public involving a cultus. Worship presupposes that God is, that He can be known by man, and that His perfections set Him far above man.
UNDERSTANDING OUR WORSHIP
Called to worship: Dostoievsky, the Russian writer, said that the one essential condition of human existence is that man should always be able to bow down to something infinitely great.
As far back as our knowledge goes we find in man that irresistible urge to venerate the great and mysterious in the universe and nature. As religious awareness developed with new revelations, much primitive worship gave way to the formalities we have come to associate with the world s major religions - the Buddhist in his temple, the Moslem in his mosque, the Confucianist at his shrine, the Jew in his synagogue and the Christian in his church. It is as natural for man to worship as it is for him to breathe.
'Worship' derives from the Saxon 'weorthscripe' which became 'worthship', or the acknowledgement of worth. Man worships what has most worth for him, so that when we say we worship God it means we hold him in highest esteem and therefore aim to offer what is of utmost worth. Idolatry is the offering of absolute worth to lesser beings or things. Jesus said, ‘You shall do homage to the Lord your God and worship him alone’ (Matthew 4.10). This monotheism had always been at the heart of Israel s faith and was the motivation of her worship.
We owe to William Temple one of the grandest definitions of worship ever made:
Worship is the submission of all our nature to God. It is
the quickening of conscience by his holiness; the
nourishment of mind with his truth; the purifying of imagination
by his beauty; the opening of the heart to his love; the surrender
of will to his purpose - and all of this gathered up in adoration.
True worship, we may add, is looking upon God, concentrating our whole beings - minds, eyes, ears, emotions, wills – upon his presence, thereby offering him our best and laying ourselves open to his transforming grace. ‘We all... beholding the glory of the Lord,’ said Paul, 'are being changed into his likeness...’ (2 Corinthians 3.18, RSV). That is worship.
Our concern today is about corporate Christian worship, that is, offering to God in a communal church service our praise and obedience. Many people say they do not need to go to church to worship God since they can do so in the open fields or at the seaside. Well of course they can, but do they? Surely those who worship him in such places are usually those who are used to worshipping him in church. When the New Testament Church began converts to Christ were drawn naturally into the fellowship of believers, and in that fellowship on the Lord s day they worshipped and deepened their faith. A non-church-going Christian simply did not exist.
Christian worship is a corporate act. Paradoxically this is still true even when a Christian has to worship physically alone, for always he is a member of a great family and part of the communion of saints on earth and in heaven. John the Seer was exiled and alone on the island of Patmos, and missing the company of fellow-worshippers, yet, he says, 'It was on the Lord s day, and I was caught up by the Spirit’ (Revelation 1.10). Through that Spirit he became aware of the presence of the living Christ and the communion of Christ s people. This is true for today s Church, and gives solace to those Christians deprived of communal worship by circumstances of sickness and old age. However, it is in real, visible fellowship with others that we best express the meaning of Christian worship, and a member of the church is under obligation to meet regularly each Sunday with fellow worshippers.
The heart of Christian worship lies in the gracious promise of our Lord: 'Where two or three have met together in my name, I am there among them’ (Matthew 18.20). It is this promise that defines the Greek word 'Church' more clearly as ‘the people who belong to the Lord'. Belonging to him means meeting with him, and doing so in relation with others who belong. In this context, as Evelyn Underhill saw it, a man shares the great life and action of the Church, the Divine Society: he is immersed in that life, nourished by its traditions, taught, humbled and upheld by its saints. His personal life of worship, which he cannot uphold alone, has behind it two thousand years of spiritual culture, and around it the self-offering of all devoted souls. In all his devotion he is beset with tradition and history which are needed for his understanding.
Christian worship, like most other things, largely depends for its effectiveness upon the measure of understanding we have of it. As members of the congregation, and leaders in particular, we really ought to know why certain things are said and done in a service, and the order in which they may best occur; only so it can be an honest and worthy offering.
OUR LITURGICAL LEGACY
The work of the people: Anyone who engages in a service of worship, whether as leader or participant member of the congregation, has to do with 'liturgy'. Liturgy is the form of public worship and the means through which the worshipper approaches God and is himself spoken to by God. The words of prayers and hymns form the liturgy, but there is more to it than what we simply recite and sing. The word liturgy itself is a combination of the Greek laos (people) and ergon (work) - clearly meaning the activity or work of the people of God. It is as much what they do as what they say together in worship.
In the booklet What is Worship? from the Wales for Christ series, E. Stanley John wrote:
When he (a Christian) goes to his church or chapel on Sunday,
he goes there as a worshipper, not as a listener, or a spectator.
That is, worship is not something done on his behalf, but something
done by him. Although it is one man who usually conducts a service,
worship is the activity of the whole body of people, and depends
on the contribution and the response of the entire congregation.
Worship is debased when it becomes no more than a performance
by a minister, or a choir, or an organist, with the people sitting
back and just looking on. A passive attitude of that sort on the part
of the congregation denies a basic principle of the New Testament
concerning 'the priesthood of the people of God’.
(Translated from the Welsh by Dr Glyn Jones)
That seems to me a useful reminder for all church traditions, not least that of the Free Church, for in many of our services congregational participation is of the barest minimum.
Ceremony in worship: Taking religious worship as a whole we find many common liturgical elements. Worshippers sing, chant, meditate, kneel, stand, sit, genuflect, turn this way and that. What matters is the reason for the rite, whether it is a worthy offering, whether it expresses the worshippers' faith and is an aid to corporate devotion, and whether it is understood.
Neither Old nor New Testament writers trouble themselves to give reasons for the ceremonies in which people take part; they are simply taken for granted. When a man found faith he found also a community of believers in which his faith could be nourished, so that an isolationist Hebrew or Christian believer was unheard of. True, there were outspoken individualists who knocked the rituals of temple and Church, but only because these had become unworthy of God and irrelevant to life. Isaiah, for example, thundered against the sacrifices and festivals as abhorrent and burdensome (Isaiah 1.10-17), and Amos spurned the pilgrim feasts and sacred ceremonies (Amos 5.21-24). Paul, a true individualist, was too steeped in the value of corporate worship ever to lose sight of it for God s new Church. And surely our finest example is Jesus. Jesus was devastating in his condemnation of religious ceremony devoid of personal faith. Attending the synagogue, performing its rituals, and giving a public appearance of piety when nothing came from the heart: all this was hypocrisy. 'Be careful,' he said, 'not to make a show of your religion before men' (Matthew 6.1). But note carefully - it was not religious ceremony or synagogue worship which he condemned in itself, but its pretence, its outward show. He was never anti-synagogue or anti-ceremony. Luke reminds us that Jesus went to the synagogue 'according to his custom'. The synagogue had its ceremonies, and Jesus went through the rituals of dedication, circumcision and instruction in the Law, and although the synagogue was later closed to him because of the controversial nature of his ministry, he never denounced its importance nor the Law that it taught. He knew that when worshippers assemble, some kind of ritual is required.
Ritual is inescapable. There is ritual at every public gathering - a Town Council meeting, a football match, a school assembly - at the office, and at a family meal. Every religious meeting has its ritual, too.
When Christians first met together they were so overjoyed at their new faith that they were happy just to be with one another in spiritual fellowship. They read from the Old Testament scriptures and observed the Lord s Supper. Often someone gave a testimony, and altogether they enjoyed the spontaneous atmosphere. But their freedom deteriorated. Some who had the gift of speaking in tongues went too far and threw the meetings into disarray; others made the Lord s Supper an excuse for gluttony and drunkenness, and it was this that caused the apostle Paul to call for decency and order in all things (1 Corinthians 14.40). As time went by and the Church increased in numbers so it developed its rituals and liturgies. The more that Christians came to understand, proclaim and defend their faith, the more they wanted to include in, and express through, their corporate worship.
So it is for us. We want our worship services to be expressive of the greatness of God s majesty and mercy. The words we use and the rituals we engage in must convey what we believe and how zealously we want to witness. Ritual is not an end in itself, but a means through which we are helped to worship God. It helps to concentrate the mind that might otherwise be distracted. Everything in the service, whether high church ceremony incorporating candles, incense and vestments, or the simplest Free Church pattern, is a channel of God s grace. Ceremony is really enacted symbolism – expression of worship in bodily movements and actions.
Colin Dunlop in Anglican Public Worship wrote what holds true for all church traditions:
Christian worship from the beginning involved more than listening
and speaking, more than silent, motionless contemplation, more
than movements of the heart. It included doing things and using
things; postures, gestures, movement from place to place.
Ceremonial is the contribution of the body to the offering of the
total man. You cannot really avoid using the body in any communal
act of worship. You cannot for purposes of worship contract out
of the material conditions in which you live, even if it were
desirable to do so. You cannot demand with reason conditions of
worship which are 'purely spiritual’. Even the Quaker must use the
organs of speech and hearing. To employ also those of sight, smell
and touch; to use arms and legs; all this adds no new principle,
except it be the principle of 'wholeness'; the use of your entire
being in the worship of the Creator. Worship is giving to God
what belongs to Him: all our body, as well as mind and spirit
are His.
What ceremonies there are in our Free Churches are simple but full of meaning. In some churches a choir processional begins the act of worship. This symbolises the pilgrim nature of God s people and is a reminder of Old Testament days when the people journeyed to Jerusalem to worship in the temple:
Yes, with a cheerful zeal
We haste to Zion s hill,
And there our vows and honours pay.
Isaac Watts
A procession also tells us that something important is going on - some royal or state occasion - so people are on their toes, expectantly. Ought not Christian worshippers also to be alert when they go to meet their God and King? The choir recessional likewise symbolises the completion of the temple service and the return of the people of God from a high occasion to their homes and duties. Congregational singing may accompany the movement of the choir, reminding us how the Hebrews chanted their pilgrim songs on the journey, and several of these songs are preserved for us in the book of Psalms.
The commencement of worship may be preceded by the placing of the Bible on the lectern or communion table by a church officer or ordinary member. This indicates the centrality and authority of God s Word, and declares that the service of worship and preaching is a response to that Word.
A congregation is seated for most of the service, but stands for certain things, and this too has meaning. Rising to our feet means readiness for action. In most churches the people stand for the opening call to worship and closing benediction; and for the hymns whose words we adopt and make our call to action. Surely they should also stand for any act of induction, dedication or reception of new church members, and why not stand as the offertory stewards process with the people s monetary gifts? Standing signifies vigilance and action, just as kneeling means reverence and submission.
The offertory itself is an important piece of ceremony. It is a token response of thankfulness to God for his mercies and the offering of the fruits of our labours for the welfare and witness of his Church. It is an act of faith that God needs and will use what we give. And here I suggest we ring the changes in the people we ask to take up the offertory. In many churches the same people are asked - mostly men - whereas this is something the women and children ought also to do, so that the family of the church is properly represented.
The sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion constitute the Church s greatest symbolic acts. The everyday elements of water, bread and wine become symbols of what Christians most truly believe, namely, that God has reconciled and made us clean by the sacrificial death of Christ. The sacraments are related: one is the sacrament of new birth in Christ, the other the sacrament of continuing life in Christ. Baptism is not repeated, the Lord s Supper is.
The sacrament of Holy Communion is the dearest and most sacred rite in which the Church of Christ engages. It is the one ceremony of the Church to have been practised everyday since it was first instituted, thereby giving it uniqueness in continuity.
RUBRIC: It is an instruction guiding the act of worship. The instruction that guides you in the use of the Prayer Book is called Rubric. In the early medieval Prayer Book the Rubric is written in Red ink while in the Common Prayer Book it is written in italics. In the Book of Common Prayer of The Church of Nigeria it is written in red ink and italics. Rubrics are ceremonial directions guiding the public worship. Stick to the Prayer Book. Follow the Rubrics. You will never go wrong.
MOVEMENT: The principle of proportion shows us that public service should have variety of parts in it. We stand, kneel, sit, sing, say or listen, meditate or think while keeping silence. In all these, movement is involved; therefore a well ordered public worship takes into consideration that reverence and awe and majesty, the attributes of God. Our worship can be rich through movements but movement is the quickest way to chaos i.e. It is chaos when all the congregation do not make the same movement at the same time. The Book of Common Prayer is again our guide in this through its general direction technically called RUBRIC. It sets out very clearly what must be done at each stage of every service. This is more so in the service of Holy Communion. Here again the duty of careful teaching is very important. The members of the congregation must know when to make movements. Orderliness in movement helps to keep the attention concentrated on the object of worship. On the other hand attention can be distracted and the worship spoilt by the disorderly movement. Unauthorised movements are unwarranted in public worship. The shifting from one seat to the other or parading about while prayer is being said or hymn sung or the irreverent throwing of money into the collection plate are some of the movements to be regarded unwarranted.
The movements of the leader of the public worship is very important indeed as well as the dress he wears. The special elevated place where he stays in the church from where he is observed by everybody compels him to be careful. He can therefore mar or help the congregation s reverence in worship by his movements.
For instance, to deep hands into the pocket in search of collection money for half of the time of singing might suggest to the congregation that, that hymn need not be a part of the act of adoration of God. Furthermore, in its psychology that fairly simple movement of the hands might indicate to the congregation the lack of preparation before coming to the King of kings. Such unpreparedness can disqualify one from leading the public worship of the people of God. Again to proceed to the reading desk or lectern or pulpit in haste with something like a running speed might again suggest irreverence and unreadiness. The congregation thus easily take what they consider to be the lead given to them in such movements.
SILENCE: Since the day of prophet Habakkuk about 600 B.C; general reactions of men to the presence of God is to keep silence, “The Lord is in this Holy Temple, Let all the earth keep silence before Him" (Hab 2:20).
Awe, Reverence, Majesty and Holiness of God, very often leave man mystified. Silence is more natural to that attitude at gazing and gazing upon the Holy, which is more helpful to self-emptying. Psychological processes involved are these: The outward senses are allowed into a respective tranquillity and indeed resulting in repose and inward peace. The tension of the nervous system are relaxed and the state of restful waiting upon God is intended. These conditions help to open the unconscious mind to the influence of grace and religious surrender to the object of worship
Note these important rules in the use of silence in public worship: (i) Silence must be directed. People must be told what to do before the silence is requested. Only after a very careful training and teaching can silence be observed intelligently by a congregation spontaneously without direction. Before such standard is reached we need to teach the congregation and in some congregations it may never be reached. Always direct the silence.
(ii) To start, with, make the period of silence very short; from five to seven seconds and up to eighteen seconds. (iii) Be vigilant in observing the marks that are written by the sides of the hymns.
Places Where Silence Can Be Introduced In Morning And Evening Prayer Or Holy Communion Service:
Silence is an intergral part of liturgical worship, for it affords us the opportunity to reflect, to think, to pray, to offer personal petition and praise, and above all, to be in the presence of God. Silence should never be seen as a waste of time or a needless addition to the service. Silence marks different stages in the liturgy as well as providing time for the above.
Generally silence is desirable:
1) before a collect, after the words “Let us pray.”
2) before or after a reading of Scripture (before the musical or other response).
3) after the invitation, before the Confession of Sin begins
4) With direction and therefore a bit longer bidding prayers where the subject is given and the congregation is asked to pray in silence, sometimes followed by the Vesicles and Responses that is 'Lord hear our prayer. “And let our cry come unto Thee.”
5) After a Sermon when the members are asked to bow their heads in silence and ask for the conviction of the Holy Spirit in connection to the word thus preached or if without direction a short period of silence before the ascription is absolutely necessary.
6) before reciting the Creeds
7) either after the initial bidding in the Prayers of the People or in those prayers which provide for silence.
8) after the final petition in the Prayers of the People, before the celebrant sings or says the concluding collect.
9) At Holy Communion service the silent saying of the Lord s Prayer by the Leader should give enough period of silence to the worshipers.
10) at the postcommunion prayer, after the words “Let us pray” and before the prayer is begun.
At certain other times liturgical silence is suitable and suggested in the BCPN
Prominent places for silence are:
After the prayer of consecration. The practice of singing hymns here or even the “Agnus Dei” (Lamb of God, You take away the sins of the world) if followed at all should not be allowed to be too long enough to cansel the silence
THE MANUAL ACTS: These consist in the Priest s
NOTE: "He breaks it”, prophetically symbolising the suffering on the Cross cf "This is my body which is broken for you" (1Cor. 11: 24). "The Bread which we break, is it not the Communion of the Body of Christ?” (1 Cor. 10:16).
The Sacrament is called the "Breaking of Bread”, in Acts 2:42-46,20:7. The four scripture narratives of the institution of the Holy Communion are found in Matt 26:26-28; Mark 14:22-24; Luke 22:19-20; 1 Cor. 11: 20-25.
The phrase, “In remembrance of me" is not merely meant to serve as a reminder to ourselves but more especially as a solemn commemoration of our Lord s sacrifice before God. In Holy Communion we plead a new merit of Christ s sacrifice before God. “Drink this all of you...” This is recorded in Matt 26: 27, Mk 14:23 cf also John 6:53 and 1Cor. 11:26.
RUBRIC: The celebrating minister is first to receive the communion in both kinds himself then to deliver it in like manner that is in both kinds, to the officiating clergy who are present, then to the people “also” in order into their hands, all meekly kneeling saying...
The body of Christ keep you in eternal life.
The blood of Christ keep you in eternal life
Or
The Body of Christ
The Blood of Christ
Or
The Body of Christ – the Bread of Heaven
The Blood of Christ – the Cup of Salvation
The communicant replies each time Amen (and then receives)
How many communicants say Amen? They need to be taught.
With respect to the people, the rubric directs that the elements are to be delivered into their hands! In St. Cyril s time the practice was to receive the consecrated Bread in Crossed hands, and it is a beautiful custom to follow. St. Cyril says, "Making thy left hand a throne for the right, which is about to receive a King, hollow thy palm and so receive the Body of Christ, saying thereafter, Amen. In the 7th century the custom of putting the bread into the mouth of the communicant was introduced and enforced by the Council of Rome 895 A.D. In the first English Prayer Book of 1549, this latter custom was retained. But the former primitive custom was restored in the Liturgy of 1552 and in subsequent Prayer Books.
A word concerning the chalice: A mere sip is all that is intended. All that should be done when we receive the Cup of salvation is appropriately described in the Book of Isaiah 6:7 “…. Behold, this has touched thy lips, and thine iniquity is taken away and thy sin purged.”
In the primitive church, the posture of receiving the consecrated elements was standing following perhaps the practice of the Jews in the celebration of the Passover. This is still the practice in the Oriental Churches. But the 1662 Prayer Book directs that all should meekly kneel. The kneeling is in token of our adoration of Him whose sacrifice we commemorate, and of our personal unworthiness to share in the Communion. The Black Rubric or the Declaration on kneeling at the end of the service definitely affirms that no adoration is intended or ought to be done, either unto the sacramental Bread or Wine, or unto any corporal presence of Christ s natural Flesh and Blood.
Some things to remember:
1) A cassock-alb is not usually worn over a cassock
2) A cope is not worn over a chasuble
3) A stole is not worn with an academic hood
4) A stole is not worn over a scarf
5) A stole is proper for preaching, but not for the Daily Offices unless the Eucharist is to follow immediately or if the Office is used as the Liturgy of the Word at the Eucharist.
Thanks for listening. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you and all yours.
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