Habit 4 – Quality Music The importance of music and singing cannot be underestimated. Taizé and Hillsong are just two well-known examples that illustrate the potency of music. Singing cultures know how unifying and invigorating group singing is. If you’ve been to a sports game where supporters sing – you will know exactly what I
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In a recent conversation here it was pointed out that if you place the text in front of someone the majority of us cannot help but read it. That is true whether it is in a book, on a pew sheet, or up on a projected screen. Even if people know the text by heart,
A wise, catholic-minded priest strongly castigated those who did not seriously try using what the church provides and just, in individualistic (and congregational) pique, create their own material. We could talk about the abuse particularly of the rights of the laity by clergy who abandon what they agree and sign up to use. But this
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I do not recall how I recently fell over the Pearls of life – the Wreath of Christ beads. The Anglican rosary is quite well known, as is the Orthodox prayer beads with their Kyrie eleison (“Lord have mercy…”), and the traditional Rosary with its 150 Hail Marys (3x5x10) replicating the 150 psalms of the
Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals [Hardcover] by Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, Enuma Okoro, and Shane Claiborne. Zondervan 590 pages. The book begins with, “If you love liturgy, this book is for you. If you don’t know what liturgy is, this book is also for you.” This is followed by a wonderful introduction (yes, for those
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September 1, in the Anglican Church of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia, is the Festival of The Builders of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia. It is usually represented in bold type (cf. old style “Red letter day”) in A New Zealand Prayer Book He Karakia Mihinare o Aotearoa [NZPB] (page 9).
Following the recent discussion about praying by heart I ended up in a conversation which I think we often encounter in differing forms: “Don’t forget what Jesus says about vain repetition” (ie. Matthew 6:7). To which I reply, yes, in Matthew’s Gospel the Lord’s Prayer is an example of how to pray, like a model
The church’s new year begins on Advent Sunday, December 2. In the three year lectionary the focus is on St Luke’s Gospel. In your community, and in your own life, is planning underway how to best make use of this year’s lectionary? It is just plain stubbornly irritating, especially if your denomination (like mine) has
Breaking News: Bishop Justin Welby to be next Archbishop of Canterbury. The video shows the end of a process for choosing the new pope of Egypt’s Coptic Christians, becoming leader of the largest Christian minority in the Middle East. Three names were chosen in a ballot by a council of some 2,400 Church and community
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“THE Morning and Evening Prayer shall be used in the accustomed Place of the Church, Chapel, or Chancel; except it shall be otherwise determined by the Ordinary of the Place.” (BCP 1662 The Order for Morning and Evening Prayer). “All Priests and Deacons are to say daily the Morning and Evening Prayer either privately or
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