My friend, James Krauser, just kept his part of the bargain. I sent him a copy of LSB and he was to send me a copy of ELW (Evangelical Lutheran Worship). This is just first impressions, but whatever they are worth:
1. On a purely surface level: LSB is prettier. :)
2. A plus that ELW has all the Psalms. A minus that they've been neutered, with the attendent awkwardness of language that entails (which is reason enough not to do it - even setting aside the theological arguments!)
3. A plus the ELW offers the Collects in the pew book.
4. A minus for the theological vacuity of some of the hymns. Mothering God tops the list!
5. TEN orders of Divine Service with so many variations that it's impossible to keep track? Definitely a minus. It makes the five in LSB look quite conservative. And why, if one is doing 10 settings, not allow the old Common Service back? It's a strength of LSB to have continuity with the past that way.
More, later. Just in general impression: LSB appears as an advance in my opinion on both LW and TLH. I don't think that ELW is an advance on LBW. That's a preliminary judgment, mind you. Only had it a few hours.
14 comments:
I have a copy of ELW on back order, and I'm interested in seeing what its all about. I have friends and family in the ELCA and so I also want to know what their liturgical diet will be.
Inclusive language has been a hot topic among some ELCA pastors. But I wonder if a greater emphasis (based on looking at some of the samples provided) is on providing a service book that is useful to the church bodies with whom the ELCA is in altar and pulpit fellowship?
I do think that CPH (and by extension the COW) did a better job of presenting and marketing LSB. ELW was offered at a reduced price, but that was for pre-release orders, its now the same price as LBW. Augsburg/Fortress also offers financing for congregations to buy ELW, you could imagine the howls about encoraging poor stewardship if CPH did the same.
On a lighter note, I must say we got our money's worth in the LSB Altar book, ten pounds and 1000+ pages for a mere $65.00. The ELW book of rituals is at least twice that amount, though it is probably better looking too!
It would be interesting to look at the agendas and ritual books, as well as the lection and accompaniment books, but that's more curiousity than I can afford.
PS, anyone have any insight or information on the 'prayer resource' that Paul McCain mentioned in a recent e-mail? Sounds interesting.
Pax
Rev. Al Bergstrazer
You could just ask Paul McCain about what Paul McCain mentioned in Paul McCain's recent e-mail.
OK, so you didn't ask, but here is more information. Simply put, there is nothing out there like it now, and never really has been. Some resources have come painfully close to almost being this kind of resource, but this is the real deal: a Lutheran Breviary.
Product Summary:
LUTHERAN DAILY PRAYER will be a comprehensive Lutheran resource for daily devotions. It will bring together prayers, psalms, Scripture, and devotional readings from the church fathers. The chief benefit of this resource is that everything for daily meditation on God’s Word and prayer will be available in a single book, and all the readings provided in the same place in the book, for every day.
This resource was one identified by the LCMS Commission on Worship as a needed resource for the Church. They have formally turned the project over to CPH for development. The heart of LUTHERAN DAILY PRAYER will be the “Daily Readings and Writings.” Each day’s section will contain: (1) the full text of the two Scripture readings appointed for the day according to the Daily Lectionary (LSB p. 299ff). Using this plan nearly all of the New Testament, and about a third of the Old Testament, is read each year. (2) Psalmody and (3) Hymnody that captures the content, subject or theme of the appointed readings. (4) A devotional writing from a church father or the Lutheran Confessions; (5) on the days where a feast, festival, or commemoration falls, an additional writing from the person being commemorated will be included along with a brief biography. (6) Finally, a brief prayer will be included that will reflect (in as much as is possible) (a) one of the two readings, (b) the season, or (c) the festival or commemoration applicable to the day.
LUTHERAN DAILY PRAYER will be designed to be equally useful for individuals, families, and small groups with the inclusion of the four brief orders of Daily Prayer for Families and Individuals first popularized in Hymnal Supplement ‘98 and several CPH devotionals, and now found in Lutheran Service Book. The orders of Matins, Noon day prayer, Vespers and Compline will be included.
In addition to the Daily Readings and Writing and the Orders of Daily Prayer, other resources will be included; for example: a section of daily and occasional prayers, the Litany, the common canticles of the Church, Luther’s Small Catechism, and all 150 Psalms.
What are the special features of this product?
• Simplicity of use. The customer will immediately be able to pick up LUTHERAN DAILY PRAYER and begin using it. Each day will provide all the readings necessary, without page turns, etc.
• The use of the Daily Lectionary from Lutheran Service Book.
• Complete texts printed out. The customer will not need to have other books at hand to complete his or her daily devotion.
• The Psalms. The Book of Psalms is the original prayer-book of the Bible, and will have a prominent place in LUTHERAN DAILY PRAYER in two ways. A daily Psalmody is appointed that coordinates with the day’s other readings, or in some cases, the season. Additionally, all 150 Psalms in their entirety will so that the Christian will have ready access to this rich resource should they choose. Several options for praying the Psalms will be offered.
• Complete orders of service for daily prayer: Matins, Noon, Vespers, Compline, and the four brief orders included in Daily Prayer for Individuals and Families.
• Collects and other prayers gathered from many resources provide substantial prayers for both daily use and occasional use.
• Brief, theologically sound and instructive readings from the Church fathers and the Lutheran Confessions.
• Beautiful and durable. This is a book designed to be not only easy to use but a pleasure to use for many years to come. It’s convenient trim size, matching that of the Personal Edition of LSB, fits easily in the hand as well as a briefcase or suitcase. A quality sewn binding and useful ribbon markers, LUTHERAN DAILY PRAYER is built for durability and daily use.
"or you could ask Paul McCain"
That would have made more sense wouldn't it? :)
Al Bergstrazer
In the context of Pastor Weedon's remarks, do check out the relevant threads on Lutheran Forum online, they are in the 'Your Turn' section. The reception of the ELW is not all sweetness and light from the ELCA end of things, a goodly number of the critiques are quite insightful.
I look forward to your more considered observations on the ELW. From what I have read on the Net, your preliminary ones seem right on.
I won't be buying a copy. I didn't buy a copy of novus ordo missae Lutheran Edition -- LBW -- either. Years ago, during the twenty odd year period when I had no Christian faith, I wrote programme notes for a Lutheran choir from a parish now part of ELCA. The director gave me a copy to better understand Lutheran liturgy. It helped with that possibly, but my personal reaction as a refugee from Vatican II was that it confirmed my suspicion that Lutheranism was simply Catholicism without being Catholic, and now that the Catholic Church tossed the liturgy for an historical-critical inspired way to worship, all the wannabes by the nature of things are following suit.
Since I was on hand for the arrival of the mother of all liturgical revisionism, novus ordo missae, went to university in a place that for decades fomented what came to pass at Vatican II parituclarly with liturgy, the ELW seems to be a major advance over the LBW -- in the sense that it leads the church even further into exactly what the revisionists intended, a complete break with the past in content disguised from the "faithful" by a superficial similarity in form.
That's why you have ten orders of service and not one of them the Common Service. Absolutely and directly related to why you have hymns about a mother God or the imposition of liberal fiats about language in the Psalms. As before, Rome was there first. The English of the novus ordo, for example, mistranslated the Latin at the consecration of the wine "pro vobis et pro multis" to read "for you and for all men" since of course we know everyone is saved, not just many, and that is what Jesus really meant, poor guy limited by the culture of his time. Then the howl went up some years later about "men", so the revised revisionism now reads "for you and for all".
Exactly what happens when you don't stick to Jesus and Scripture. In two of the accounts of the Eucharist, he says for you, pro vobis, and in two he says for many, pro multis. Not all men, not all people, not all period, many, multis, a direct reference to the "many", the remnant in Isaiah. The liturgy preserved both. The whole thing would have been avoided to just stick to Jesus and Scripture. But forget that! And once that is abandoned, the rest is inevitable -- having once revised the words of Jesus to express something else, the revision itself will be revised as the something else develops.
There are many such examples, up to and including the entire miserable three year lectionary and calendar. I just chose one drawn from the only part of the liturgy instituted by Jesus himself. The entire Western church seems to have gotten drunk on the "spirit of Vatican II" and I suppose that is predictable, but it remains a mystery to me now by God's gracious gift a Lutheran, by which I mean one who holds the BOC as a true exposition of the faith revealed in Scripture, not wannabe Catholicism but real catholicism, why a synod that holds the same should give a flaming dam (no I didn't forget the n, the reference in the phrase is to a tinker's dam) what Rome or anyone else following suit imposes on the worship of the church, apart from academic interest, let alone follow suit ourselves!
The ELW follows the tenor of the times, taking what began with LBW further into the abyss. Given that tenor, the appearance of the LSB is nearly miraculous. But you know what -- chop out all the Vatican II wannabe junk, the first two "settings" and the non historic revisionist lectionary and calendar, and there's be room for all the Psalms and the Collects too in the pew edition us grunts will use!
The Common Service in its incarnation as Setting Three in the LSB is magnificently beautiful.
Speaking of CPH and Pastor McCain, one wonders if a little volume called "Three Treatises" of Luther from Fortress is old enough now to allow its availability, like Tappert, from CPH, so I don't have to give any part of ELCA my money to get more copies of it either. I suppose I could just ask him, but it's probably easier and quicker to just draw a little fire and see where his position is, if you don't mind a military metaphor.
Past Elder,
Check out the prayer I posted from the Swedish Rite and you will not doubt smile.
Oh yeah! I like Setting Four -- Setting Five too for that matter. What's not to like? Both of them are genuinely Lutheran expressions, reformations if you will, of the historic liturgy of the church -- as opposed to Lutheran light covers of a Roman development nearly five centuries into the Reformation.
What bothers me about the multi service setting thing in so far as I know everyone's service books is this: the original idea was to, lex orandi lex credendi being what it is, get people away from the idea that there is just one way about anything, and get them away from what we did before. Just as in class we learned that, for example, the Resurrection can be understood as a literal event, or as a cultural expression of the continuing significance of Jesus for the community of believers, either way we can say He is risen, so in worship we are no longer tied to just one way of expressing the faith of the community -- that being what worship is, not at root an action of God but of us -- in worship.
A heterodox or unbelieving professor reaches a few, but reworking worship so it reflects nultiple options reaches many, making it easier if you pray that way to believe that way too.
This has nothing to do with all the various rites of the church throughout history, or with the fact that ceremonies need not be the same everywhere, read, established by Rome. The novus ordo, even in the "Roman" canon, does not present the Roman canon, but entirely new orders of service, in Latin, and from them and not what went before translated into the vernacular.
So I guess my problem is how to reconcile using genuinely Lutheran orders of historic liturgy in addition to the Common Service, without on the one hand unsuspectingly playing into the modernists' tactic of using diversity in worship to allow diversity in belief and doctrine, or on the other letting the new Rome of Vatican II establish our worship for us without even trying!
Not having as a Lutheran orders of service, readings and a calendar essentially the same as what happens in the Brave New Roman Church Vatican II parish down the street I'd belong to if only I could just shut up and go along like everyone else would be a start.
Past Elder, if you would like to post your real name and location here, I'll be glad to answer your questions. If you would prefer to send me a private e-mail at: boc1580@aol.com and, again, use your real name and location, I'll be happy to answer your questions that way.
I've come to the firm conclusion that anonymous blogging and anonymous commenting on people's blogs is not a good thing. I used to think it was ok. Now I don't.
[And, no, Robb I am not nor ever was "John 13-15" or whatever he went by!]
So, "Past Elder" I'm happy to respond to your remarks, here, or privately, if you would use your real name and location.
Thanks,
Pastor McCain
Pastor McCain, perhaps I carry over from my occupation into the Lutheran blogoshpere more concern for Internet security than is needed here. Anyway, in case anyone else is interested in "Three Treatises" here's my name and 20 -- Terry Maher, Omaha NE, member of St Mark Lutheran Church. We've emailed personally before so I may be in your address book, and you found me one time on a blog with a different host that requires real name and email to post.
Hi Terry, I'm sorry I don't remember who you are. You'll have to understand that I get a bazillion e-mails [seems that way anyway]. So, thanks for identifying yourself.
To your questions:
Federal copyright laws are not "options" for us as a publisher. We are not allowed to violate those laws, nor do we want to. We are unable to obtain rights from other copyright holders if we can not demonstrate care and careful attention to copyright laws and management. Therefore we can not be cavilier about copyright management even with those items we do own and manage. Copyright laws have become increasingly stringent, and the most stringently aggresive copyright holders enforcing their rights under law are music publishers.
As for the items you ask about, they are all, to my knowledge, still under copyright and those copyrights are owned and managed by Augsburg-Fortress Press; therefore, we can not reprint those items without their permission and without paying them for it. We are willing to do that in some cases, but only if it is truly high-priority and mission-critical. We do not particularly like to pay royalties to anyone, including, of course Augsburg-Fortress.
In the case of the Tappert edition of the Book of Concord, we have no interest in that text, nor need for it, in light of finally having again our own edition of the Book of Concord. We do sell it as a courtesy and service to those of our customers who want it. So, if you buy it from us you can have the satisfaction of knowing at least 40% of the purchase price is going to CPH, instead of 100% to AF.
I might add that "Concordia" is a superior English translation, if, for no other reason [and I believe there are several others] it presents the texts of the Lutheran Confessions as they actually are contained in the Book of Concord, either the German 1580 or Latin 1584.
Blessings,
PTM
Thank you, Pastor McCain.
I understand about copyright from my former days as an academic.
The three treatises in "Three Treatises" were particularly helpful, Babylonian Captivity especially, when I went through Bible Information Class (WELS) on the way to becoming a Lutheran.
I had bought a copy years before in a Mennonite (!) bookstore, and never read it. Then the pastor gave me a copy of Tappert to further pursue things. So there's my two Fortress books. I also got my first copy of the LC in that Mennonite bookstore, and never read it either, but I had a Lutheran seminarian friend who wanted one and couldn't find one even in the seminary bookstore -- he was in a synod now part of, guess who.
May I add, CPH does a wonderful job of making solid Lutheran material available. I commend you for it, and it had its role in finally heading me into LCMS warts and all. Couldn't find a thing like the illustrated kids' edition of the LC, "My First Catechism", on my former synod's publisher's site at all to use at home with my kids. Been a customer ever since, waiting for a copy of "God Grant It" right now.
I am having a little trouble with ordering Concordia -- again. That whole episode just didn't sit well with me.
Terry, I can assure you I had a "little trouble" doing a second edition of "Concordia" and the whole episode didn't sit well with me either, but....at the end of the day we have a very fine second edition and I heartily recommend it to anyone/everyone. All's well that ends well. For less than what you pay to fill your car's gas tank once, you can buy a copy of a great book, now even better. I don't see that as much trouble.
Pastor McCain: It's a little afield from a discussion of the ELCA's new hymnal, but since I have your attention, re Concordia, matbe you can help me with this.
The content of the BOC is priceless, and viewed in that context $20 isn't much. That said, here's my hang up I so far cannot get past to spend the $20 -- again. If there's any validity to the whole revocation thing, then it seems to me the "first" edition should never have been published, and I'm spending a second $20 to get the book my first $20 should have bought because somebody dropped the ball. However, given that I cannot imagine that the first edition was not available for proper review before publication, it smells like another church politics thing of the sort that of late seems to put us in the news rather than our unmistakable proclamation of Law and Gospel. Therefore, there isn't anything wrong with my "wrong" first edition nor is there any reason to fork out another $20 for a "right" second edition.
Related to that, I also bought the ten pack special of the AC from Concordia Tracts series, newly revised to have the text from the new and now "wrong" Concordia BOC -- you know, to have something to give out in case I combust into a critical event. So are those going to have to be revised again too, to have the AC text from the "right" Concordia BOC?
I'm not trying to be sarcastic here, even if I am, it's just that the whole revocation thing bugs me big time. On the other hand, maybe it will lead to Imprimatur from a bishop and a censor librorum to affix Nihil obstat, which will lead to bishops, which will lead to apostolic succession in those bishops, which will lead to all the RC and EO hangers around the Lutheran blogoshpere having nothing to say since we've finally arrived! (Sorry, I'm a veteran of all that -- you thought Seminex was bad, you should have been there for Vatican II like me.)
Terry, please e-mail me directly with all these sorts of questions/issues at:
paul.mccain@cph.org
I'll be happy to answer any/all questions you might have.
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