I was delighted to hear The Very Rev. Richard Giles (left, image above) preach, and generously be invited to have lunch with him. Several of his books are on my shelves:
Creating Uncommon Worship: Transforming the Liturgy of the Eucharist
Richard is a Visiting Fellow of St John’s College, Durham.
From 1999 to 2008 he was Dean of Philadelphia Cathedral in the Diocese of Pennsylvania, USA, where he oversaw the radical renovation of the cathedral to become a place of transformative worship, adventurous faith, and unconditional hospitality.
I am obviously not going to report our conversation, but one point is worth underlining: the experience of people nodding, verbally being enthusiastic, agreeing with (challenging, creative, helpful, new) points being made… and then returning to continue exactly as previously.
How do we help people to change and live out the truths and insights that they verbally agree with?…
There was a new priest appointed as vicar of a parish. He was famous for his preaching, and those responsible for his appointment were thrilled with having been part of getting him to agree to come. They were very excited about his first service and sermon. And he did not fail to live up to their expectations. At the end of the service, not only was everyone humming about the new preacher, congratulating him on the wonderful sermon (so full of powerful challenges), but those responsible for the appointment were also feted with praise. The next Sunday all were waiting with baited breath for the next wonderful sermon. But the new vicar repeated exactly the same sermon as the previous Sunday. There was some murmuring – a mixture of “well it is a great sermon” and “he must have made a mistake”… The following Sunday, again all were waiting for a new powerful sermon. But, yet again, it was the first sermon all over again, exactly as before. You can imagine the confusion, the consternation. Those responsible for his appointment agreed they would approach him together: “We are terribly excited about your appointment, and we do think it is a wonderful sermon, but our community has heard it three times now and are looking forward to a different sermon.” The new vicar replied, “I have seen no one yet attempting to put into practice what I said. As soon as people start acting on this sermon, then I’ll preach a different one.”
I have a few of his books. At times, I find them very inspiring. At other times, I find his writing offputting. Be that as it may…
Growing up, I attended a parish where the weekday Eucharist was celebrated in the Church Annex, something of a defacto side-chapel that also became overflow seating for the Big Two (Christmas/Easter) and space for all kinds of other things (parish council meetings, Eucharistic reservation on Maundy Thursday, etc.) I never felt so close to God as I did in that space. We were seated in ‘choir style’… roughly:
Cross
Altar
( )
( )
( Font )
( & )
( Paschal )
( Candle )
( )
( )
Ambo
Celebrant Lector
This has ultimately inspired me to look at Church in different ways.
My heart’s desire is to establish a family based Monastery. If the Lord brings that dream to fruition, I envision a similar organization (on a larger scale), but perhaps taking a slightly different tack…
For me, I can see a three ‘room’ Church.
Word
Baptism
Eucharist
As you enter from the outside, you enter a space designed for the proclamation of the Word of God. One ambo, centrally located, flanked with candles. At the opposite end, or in the traditional abbatial places, the presider guides the community through the Liturgy of the Word. Choir seating would be the norm.
The Second room is the Baptistry. After the Homily, the people would process through the baptistry whilst reciting the Creed, dipping their hands in the water as they pass.
The Third room is the place of ‘sacrifice’, the Holy of Holies. From here the priestly people of God would offer their prayers (general intercessions), and from their midst, the ordained leadership would go to the Altar, prepare the gifts, and lead the Eucharistic assembly. While I would have the celebrant face east, the freestanding altar (and lack of chairs) would allow people to stand (or kneel, should they choose) wherever their devotion suggested.
The baptistry would probably be smaller than the other two spaces, mainly because one could observe what is happening in the baptistry from the ‘nave’ where the Word is proclaimed.
Such an arrangement might require some slight reordering of liturgical elements too… but I can envision worshipping in such an environment on the basis of work that has flowed out of the liturgical renewal.
Just some ramblings…
Rob+