01 December 2007
The Bride
My copy of *The Bride of Christ* arrived today. It looks to be the last copy unless someone revives the journal yet again. What riches though! The reprint of Edward Peter's article "The Blight of Receptionism" is particularly appreciated. If this IS the end of the Bride, she couldn't go down in a more worthy way.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
17 comments:
You have my permission to revive The Bride. However, something tells me that lightning might just strike thrice (he then looks to Zion, where Fr. Loree asks, "You don't mean me, do you?") Bishop Bougher however would like a revived Bride to appeal to ELCA people, since it didn't anymore and was therefore losing subscribers.
LOL. I'm not going to try to revive the Bride, but there might be others out there who are interested. I think the REAL reason for her subscribers dropping off was the irregularity of her publication schedule!
I think the idea of "pan Lutheran" though on the matter of liturgy has become increasingly difficult. You can see that ELW and LSB came from grandparents who were brother and sister, but the family has diverged to such an extent that it's hard to speak of an American Lutheran Liturgy the way it was in the 20th century when the Bride first came out.
Of course we have Gottesdienst, which is why Bishop Bougher would want a revived Bride to appeal to ELCA, and one thing he'd want to do is have reviews of ELW and LSB.
Of course Gottesdienst doesn't appeal to ELCA types because it's orthodox, which I fear means The Bride might be reduced to "sugar and spice and everything nice; that's what girls are made of." Hopefully not! And yet The Bride was a forum for things that didn't fit in with Gottesdienst, such as the papers from the St. Michael's Conference and your findings from old documents. In a perfect world, Gottesdienst would be published one month, The Bride of Christ the next, and The Motley Magpie the next (you can switch the order around however you like, maybe The Bride, being the oldest, should go first.)
I'd like to see a lot of the good Una Sancta articles republished in the Bride, but Bougher thinks that would be bad for the magazine, turn it into a museum or something. And there are no Una Sanctas at Fort Wayne. AAARGH! That's embarassing, especially since Thiensville has a good number of issues.
...there are no Una Sanctas at Fort Wayne...
I seem to recall an Orthodox parish or two... :)
I think Bp Bougher is essentially correct in his forward: viewing the entirety of books and practice, American Lutheran liturgy (such as it is) is repristinating its 18th century low-point. And that's truly a shame.
Fr. John,
I disagree on a number of grounds. The books of today bear witness to the Eucharist itself as the CENTER of the Church's life; remember what service comes first in the Common Liturgy! Dry mass indeed! There has not appeared such a hungering for the Sacrament among Lutherans since the high days of Lutheran Orthodoxy.
Second, one notes the prominent place given to private confession and absolution in all the new books. Again, something strikingly absent in those who worked on the Common Service.
Third, his criticism of the Eucharistic prayer strikes me as quite odd since if he regarded the Common Service as a high point, this featured no such thing. In that, regard Missouri has cautiously crept forward to at least providing a thanksgiving confessing the world's loving creation by God and redemption through the Son's sacrifice, an epiclesis upon the people, intercessions for the whole Church and an anamnesis. These may not be the full blown prayer that he was looking for, but I would think Aubrey would credit it with being an advance on the Common Service.
Finally, I do agree with him that the existence of separate ordos for the Eucharist (we have five, and ELCA has ten) is terribly unfortunately. Especially since among those various ordos, only their setting 3 and our setting 1 and their setting 4 and our setting 2 correspond in some ways - and yet the words have been rendered "gender neutral" in ELW. So the days when at least Lutherans could share a common TEXT for the most of the service seem in the past. That is a crying shame.
Oh, another thing that I think is an advance is the Calendar. Whereas the Common Liturgy restricted itself to NT saints, the commemorations in LSB span the OT and include many, many saints of the centuries between the death of the Apostles and the present day. Not so many as could be named, of course, but it is definitely another improvement.
Hopefully my copy arrives tomorrow. And I'm on the Board of Directors for LLR (shakes his head, still wondering how exactly that happened.) . . .
Pr Weedon,
We will need to disagree. Perhaps I'm overly pessimistic, looking as I am at practice as much as books, keeping in mind the governing principle of the 1880 Common Service. But I would suggest that your analysis may be overly optimistic, suggesting that presence in a book may lead to practice, and that centrality of Eucharist in a book necessarily results in sacramental piety.
As for the Eucharistic prayer analysis--I also found Aubrey's rational wanting for some of the same reasons you listed, and no doubt for others as well.
Fr. John,
The practice itself, though, is surely something to consider: would you not agree that there are more Missouri parishes now than ever at any time in her history where the Eucharist is celebrated weekly? Where the people find a week without the Sacrament to be unthinkable?
As for what influence a book can have, well, I think that remains to be seen. I can tell you one thing, though, it is a joy to pass from parish to parish in the LCMS again and find the same book in the pew. No, it's not everywhere yet, but it sure looks like the dream at least of one book for one SYNOD is back within grasp - Deo gratias!
Sem. Westgate writes: Of course Gottesdienst doesn't appeal to ELCA types because it's orthodox, which I fear means The Bride might be reduced to "sugar and spice and everything nice; that's what girls are made of." Hopefully not!
Fr. Eckhardt should have an idea of how many "ELCA types" subscribe to Gottesdienst, but I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one. Quite a few of us long for orthodox publications and support them as we are able.
As a subscriber to The Bride since I discovered it as a PLTS (!!) seminarian, it simply would never work as "sugar and spice..." -- never was that kind of publication and if we want that, we could just read the denominational worship papers.
I am saddened and disappointed that The Bride got lost on the back burner of pastors serving in busy parishes and in the midst of, uh, churchly angst. A publication that doesn't publish -- and as Fr. Weedon notes that became The Bride's state (whether deliberately or by being not high enough a priority for those charged with its stewardship) -- will die.
As one of those suggested as a possible editor, I was willing to discover whether or not my abilities could fit with LLR's desires. I still think there is a place for it, for the mission of faithful Lutheran Liturgical Renewal is far from accomplished in the North American Lutheran churches.
Pax, Steven+
This discussion is encouraging.
Lutheran Liturgical Renewal, Inc. is still operating. I think it is only $10 sent in to Fr. Herber at St. Augustine's House by Dec. 31 to retain one's membership or begin a new annual membership.
Regarding "The Bride of Christ." This is probably the last one - for a while. The quality of the last issue indicates that there is plenty of good reason to begin publication again at some point.
I am a member of the Board of Directors of LLR, Inc. and one who sees a future for the journal. Any feedback you have is appreciated (here or privately).
Blessed Advent.
Tim
As Fr. May said, the same goes for me, since I too am now on the Board.
Brian,
I look forward to meeting you.
Correction:
"Fr. Herbel", not "Fr. Herber"
Actually, Fr. May, we have met. A couple Oktoberfests of years past, when I was still in WELS. Now I'm at Fort Wayne.
Thank you for reminding me. When I see you next time then I will have no excuse. :-)
Awww, there's not much memorable about me, (and I'm still waiting to get my copy of the last Bride) . . .
Post a Comment