that some of the more underutilized resources in Lutheran Service Book - Altar Book are the very fine General Prayers and Prayers of the Church that are provided on pages 440-445. General Prayer I is a gentle updating of the General Prayer from The Lutheran Hymnal, page 5. General Prayer 2 is a gentle updating from page 15. Prayer of the Church (Responsive Form) is an updating of the prayer from Service Book and Hymnal. Prayer of the Church (Ektene form) is of more modern composition - I think drawn somewhat from the Let Us Pray Archives.Many pastors, following the lead of Vatican II, tend to treat the Prayer of the Church as a proper - something that changes from week to week. This can be somewhat challenging, since the things we ask for each week tend to remain the same! Let Us Pray does a bang up job of trying to say the same thing in ever new ways.
But the older tradition in Lutheran liturgy was for the Prayer of the Church to be an ordinary - fixed, if you will. And thus prayers were composed that were crafted to be strong and enduring. They were designed to withstand wearing out with frequent use. A parish could pray them week in and week out and come to find in their familiar cadences a manner of approach to the mercy seat of God that remained ever fresh. I would say that of the prayers in our Altar Book, that holds for both General Prayers (most strongly) and for the first Prayer of the Church (mostly). I'm not convinced the Prayer of the Church (Ektene form) is so sturdy.
I remember reading somewhere in Schmemann that he quoted someone as saying that in her intercessions the Church takes the world as an apple in hand and presents it to God. Nothing less than a world-wide scope should fill these prayers - even as they include (and must include) the concerns of the local community. In them, the local Church is specifically located within the whole Church and the whole Church within the world and petitions rise for the lot. The regular use of these prayers in our parishes would go a long way, I believe, toward restoring that universal scope with the local concerns, and their majesty of expression would be a relief from the constant need to "create" a new way of praying for the same things one more time. Pastors, give them a try! If not every Sunday, then at least frequently.
I remember when I was still a Kantor, my pastor started using the general prayer from TLH every week. I never got bored, actually. Every week something in there would leap out at me, as if the prayer had been specifically written to fit with the gospel lesson and the sermon. But no, it was just that same old prayer. ;)
ReplyDeleteIf the liturgy is indeed the "shackle that restrains the pastor," only the sermon and the prayer are his "free-time." If the sermon is based on the propers, his freedom is restricted. If the General prayer is an ordinary rather than a newly-composed proper, this is true also. The prayer of the day, often more than the sermon, is frequently in need of such restraint.
I have grown fond of these, and particularly the responsive form. The regular congregational responses help not only to maintain concentration but also to emphasise the character of the prayer as the prayer of the Church.
ReplyDeleteI also appreciate your comments regarding the 'ordinary' nature of the Prayer of the Church. Repetition of things salutary is always an excellent thing liturgically as well as pæedagogically. Let Us Pray does a good job in linking the prayers to the readings, which is also of value, but that does mean that the congregation never know the prayers and so can only listen. If you hear the same prayer week in, week out for a few years, it will become your prayer in practice as well as in theory.
There's also an added cultural element: the Prayers of the Church in the Altar Book are truly œcumenical, and can be used as they are wherever English is used, or, in translation, even further afield—prayers truly of the whole Church, whereas any other prayer resources tend to be particular to the church body/nation/district/region of whoever drafted that Sunday's prayers. Not wrong, but makes a very different point: prayers of this church, not of the Church. Whereas a set Prayer of the Church takes the whole Church's prayer and applies it to the specific circumstances of the local setting. The general subsumes the particular, instead of the particular taking over from the general.
Pr. Weedon, I appreciate the way you dig through the Altar book. Our Sanctuary is not connected to our classrooms and offices, so our altar book often just remains on the altar throughout the week. You have motivated me to begin reading through it more closely.
ReplyDeleteI grew up with a "propers" style PoC (prayer of the church) and so I've always write my own each week. I have a rotation (i.e. first week of the month we pray for marriage and families; second week for homebound and shut-in, etc). I have never used the general prayer. I think we just might try that this week though.
I appreciate the Ektene form. It has become quasi-ordinary (with the names of those who are sick/mourning changing from week to week). Additionally I have added in the bid for the church a specific prayer for a sister congregation, a sister/partner church body, and a family in the congregation, in the bid for "worthy vocations" we also pray for friends/family members who are serving in the armed forces (this was a specific request by several members of the congregation). Still, I do appreciate that I don't worry about coming up with something new each week.
ReplyDeleteThis is very helpful. Thank you! I appreciate as well your familiarity with the altar book. Sometimes I spend a half and hour a week just looking through it.
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