Question of the Week

You might be interested to know that in the ancient church, everyone robed. Every baptized Christian wore what is called an ‘alb’ in worship. The alb is still worn: it is the plain white robe that you see on priests, deacons, servers, and lay readers, and it represents our unity in the Body of Christ and the new life we receive in our baptism. At a baptism in the ancient church, the individual would be fully immersed in water and then immediately robed in the white alb afterward. Every person then wore this plain white robe as a reminder that we are all participants in our worship of God; priests, deacons, and bishops then wore additional vestments – stole, chasuble, mitre, etc. – to indicate the particular ministry they held. As the church grew over the centuries, it became less practical for every person in worship to wear an alb, and so the practice changed to the one we now know today: only those with a particular responsibility in leading worship are robed.

Except that it’s not even that simple. Readers don’t robe. At St. George’s, our Chalice Bearers (helping with the wine at Communion) and Greeters don’t robe. Gift bearers (those who bring up the wine and bread at the Offertory for preparing God’s table) don’t. Our choir and our organist wear robes, but they are not albs, they are called cassocks with surplice. Depending on the particular culture of an Anglican church, clergy might also favour wearing the cassock and surplice, rather than the alb. The cassock is seen as business dress, worn during the ordinary dealings of parish life. The surplice is worn only in leading worship. As a singer in the cathedral choir in London when I was younger, I remember our choir master being very strict about wearing our cassock whenever we rehearsed, but only wearing the surplice when we were leading worship.

Wearing a robe has long been an intuitive way of entering into a worship leadership role, and it is therefore not only the Christian religion that does so. Robes are a reminder that, although as individuals we each bring our particular gifts and personalities to our ‘jobs’, it is ultimately not about us. It is about God. And it is about God’s community together receiving God and in turn making God known. Robes also provide a very practical way of levelling the playing field in faith communities. In the ancient church, it was important that a rich man and a poor woman would be able to pray together, neither one feeling different or uncomfortable because of the dress that their economical circumstances afforded them. In the medieval church, it was helpful for choir to robe so that people could participate in these schools of music, not based on their ability to pay their way, but based on their musical talents. Although now just worn by particular people leading worship, robes remain a symbolic way of acting out our equality before God, our radical understanding that we are one before God and we are valued in equal measure, regardless of race, gender, culture or circumstance.

Communion – sharing God’s meal of bread and wine with one another – raises many questions. If you are new to church, the entire rite might seem like foreign territory: strange words, strange actions, what does it mean? who is it for? If you have attended other churches, it might also seem strange. Not all Christians regularly celebrate this part of Jesus’ life. And if you have been involved in Anglican, Lutheran, Catholic, or various other churches in your past, you could still be left with questions. There have been numerous pre-requisites set up around God’s table. You can receive Communion if you’re a member of this church, if you’re a member of this denomination, if you’ve been confirmed, if you’ve been baptized.

You’ll hear in our worship, though, the words, ‘this is the table at which God is host and all are welcome guests.’ Jesus used food and table fellowship, the ordinary everyday act of eating, to proclaim a new kind of world – God’s kingdom, where all are welcomed and all are fed. Jesus spoke to people through their stomachs, through their hunger, in order to open them to relationship with the One who created them with love, to connect them to one another as brothers and sisters in God’s beloved world, to show them the way of abundant life, a way marked by compassion, justice, service and joy. The meal became the central symbol of all God wants to offer us: the taste and flavour and goodness of receiving God’s good gifts as we share those gifts with one another.

At St. George’s, we like to keep the invitation simple . Any one who feels drawn to receive God’s gifts is welcome to join in the Communion we find at God’s table. It is the witness of our faith that many of our tradition’s most faithful and committed disciples began their walk in faith by first being fed, then beginning to follow. “Taste and see” what the way of Jesus, the community of faith, the life offered by God, is all about.

As you come up to receive Communion this morning, whether you have done so countless times before or whether this is your first time, here are some points on which you may wish to reflect:

–What am I hungry for in my life? What do I desire?

Name this hunger, these desires, to God. Look and listen for where God is

answering, or perhaps seeking to transform, your need.

–Where in my life do I feel most alive? The Christian witness is that joy is found most fully when we are able to both receive with gratitude the blessings of this life, as well as allow our lives to be a source of blessing to others. Receiving the bread and wine this morning can be a simple step in becoming more aware of what you have, and what you have to share. God wants to shape us at this table into creatures who are Generous and Grateful.

-What is my relationship with Jesus? We are promised that in sharing the bread and wine together in Jesus’ name, he is with us. More than that, we are promised that we are formed into his life, The Body of Christ, the hands, feet, heart of Jesus in this world. Maybe you feel an easy friendship and intimacy with Jesus. Maybe you prefer to keep him at arms’ length. Maybe you have never really thought about it. But here is a chance to sit with the question, let it resonate and reverberate in your being. Am I drawn to his words and teachings? His healing touch? His courageous ways? His prayerful closeness to God? What do I find provocative and intriguing about him? Disturbing? Look for where you want to draw closer – to the human face of God, to the way of abundant life, to a loving and courageous embrace of the world around us.

Although the terms ‘baptism’ and ‘Christening’ tend to be used inter-changeably, these refer to two separate acts which are generally incorporated into one ceremony welcoming an individual into the Body of Christ. Baptism, from the Greek word baptizo – to submerge, dip, dye, or colour, refers to the act of washing, the use of water to initiate someone into the life of faith. Christening, from the Greek word Christos – Anointed (which is where we get the term “Christ”), refers to the anointing of the person’s forehead with oil after the baptism, accompanied by the words ‘I sign you with the sign of the cross and mark you as Christ’s own forever.’

Whereas baptism has been consistently practiced in the Christian community since the earliest records of the church, the practice of Christening was, for a time, lost. I know that when I was baptized as a baby, I was not anointed as part of that ceremony. I also know that my baptism was referred to as a Christening. It’s funny how our language and practices get mixed up over time.

In fact, the Christening is a powerful part of the sacrament which we celebrate today. A sacrament is an outward sign of an invisible gift. The outward sign of being anointed with oil has a long and rich history of meaning within our faith tradition, and therefore allows a wealth of meaning to be communicated about what we understand is happening. The Scriptures team with those designated as a “Christ” figure – anointed by God to offer particular work, or serve a particular purpose, in God’s kingdom. Three types of people were typically included in this title Anointed:

1. Prophets – the ones who call us to return to God when we have gone away. The Prophet says ‘no’ to the sin and brokenness in our lives, reminding us all that there is always a way home.

2. Priests – the ones who offer thanks. The Priest says ‘yes’ to the ways God is visible and active in our world, and calls us to a posture of gratitude.

3. Kings/Queens – as seen in Jesus, God’s Royal Family engage in acts of loving service for the sake of the world God loves.

Tate is being anointed for all three of these purposes in his Baptism & Christening today. It’s a tall order. As Christians, our ‘Job Description’ can be summarized with the above three titles. Christians are called to be honest about sin and brokenness, to be grateful for the blessings we are given, and to generously offer ourselves and our resources in service of God’s world. It’s a tall order – for Tate, for all of us. That is why God forms us into community to support one another along the way. And that is why God promises – in Jesus, in Scripture, in bread and wine – to be with us on the journey.

Don’t worry, even long-time Anglicans are sometimes unsure of what is expected when they are sharing in the bread and wine, particularly as customs have changed over the decades and can vary from church to church. The most important thing to know is that there is nobody judging your ‘manners’ at God’s table, there are no particular faux-pas that are going to offend others by your lack of altar know-how. When we come forward to receive Communion, we do so leaving our differences behind, as well as our more everyday worries about how others are, or are not, measuring up to our expectations. At every meal that we share in our worship service, we remember that this is the table at which God is host and all are welcome guests. That reminder over-rides any awkwardness or uncertainty around whether or not we are doing the ‘right’ thing. That being said, here are a few guidelines that might help any number of St. George’s members or guests to feel more comfortable:

Language A worship service in which we share in the Communion of bread and wine is sometimes referred to as “The Mass,” or simply “Communion.” Our favourite Anglican term is Eucharist, which means ‘thanksgiving.’

All are Welcome Regardless of your religious background, you are welcome at God’s table. If you would like to participate, but don’t feel ready yet to share the bread and wine, you may come forward at the time of Communion, crossing your arms across your chest to receive a blessing. If you are intrigued by the practice and meaning of the bread and wine and would like to know more before participating, PLEASE speak to one of our priests. We LOVE to engage in these kinds of conversations!

Make Yourself at Home This is God’s table and God wants you to feel welcome and comfortable. If you wish to kneel to receive, you may. If kneeling is hard on you, you can stand. If you find it difficult to swallow the bread, slow down and take your time.

No Dipping Because of concerns around passing germs through the common cup, some have chosen to dip their bread in the wine, rather than sipping from the cup. This is actually less sanitary and poses a greater health risk. We ask that if you are concerned about passing along a flu or cold bug, skip on the wine today.

Allergies If you are celiac, or have an intolerance to wheat, let us know that we can include a gluten-free alternative. If you have an allergy or intolerance to wine, the Anglican tradition understands that we receive the fullness of the Eucharist when we receive in one kind. Cross your arms after receiving the bread in order to indicate that you do not wish to receive wine.

Hands-On – While at one time it was considered disrespectful to touch the chalice containing the wine because the vessel was too holy for ordinary hands, our Communion Ministers nowadays are very grateful for your help in guiding the chalice to your mouth.

Amen The traditional response to receiving bread or wine at God’s table is ‘Amen.’ It is an ancient word that means ‘truly.’

To begin with, some context: The Lord’s Prayer comes to us from the outline Jesus gives to his followers when asked for advice on how to pray. He spoke it, not in the King James’ English ‘thou’ and ‘thine’ and ‘art’, but in the vernacular language of the peasant population he was addressing. Throughout his ministry — and this prayer is no exception — Jesus amazed people by his ability to speak in concrete, earthy terms, to put the language of faith into imagery and examples of issues and worries closest to the people’s hearts.

Another piece of context: the traditional language of the Lord’s Prayer was, at its conception, not traditional at all, but radical in its moving the Lord’s Prayer out of Latin and into the people’s everyday language. The Book of Common Prayer –out of which comes the version of the Lord’s Prayer so comfortable and familiar to so many of us (myself included) — very clearly indicated its mandate and mission, not to produce poetically beautiful texts that could be used in perpetuity, but to be the start of how Christians would now practice the faith in words in ordinary language, the vernacular.

At St. George’s, we are in the practice of using the more contemporary version of the Lord’s Prayer, for this exact reason. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Our 8am service continues to offer space for prayer in the more traditional style, allowing people for whom these older forms are most comfortable to worship this way.

Neither is more right or holy than the other. But that word ‘comfortable’ is worth noting. It is helpful for all of us, regardless of which worship service we most often attend, to note our comfort levels. Comfort in worship can allow us to let go of our worries and burdens and to connect with God. Comfort can also prevent us from being able to connect. In one version or another, many of us can rattle off the Lord’s Prayer without giving it a thought. And while doing so can offer solace and peace in our lives of prayer, it can also mean that we are missing out on the truth, the beauty, the power, not of the particular words, but of their meaning. The Lord’s Prayer is surrender before God, asking for our lives to be in right relationship with our Creator and the world around us, of seeking justice, healing, and reconciliation in our relationship with ourselves and one another. It is worth pausing over these words occasionally, or to be confronted with a version with which we’re not as familiar, in order to allow our prayer to truly join with Jesus’ prayer once again.

Even newer versions of this special prayer continue to be written. One from the Anglican Church in New Zealand begins with the words, “Eternal Spirit, Earthmaker, Pain bearer, Life giver, Source of all that shall be. Father and Mother of us all. Loving God, in whom is heaven”. Other versions take time to open up each phrase of the Lord’s Prayer to a deeper exploration. Sung versions of The Lord’s Prayer (we’ll look at introducing one of these in the fall) can allow us to go deeper with the words through the power of music. You may wish to seek out some of these other translations/paraphrases. You may wish to occasionally pray a version different

from the one with which you are most familiar. Or you may choose to sometimes take time, savour and digest, these well-worn words. If you are newer to the Christian faith, you may want to seek answers and understanding about the source and meaning of this prayer so central to our faith. Any way you approach it though, there is much to be gained in scratching beneath the surface of even our most time-tested-true expressions of faith!

The Creed (from the Italian credo “I believe”) typically happens after the homily and is seen as an appropriate response to God’s living Word.  For some this might be surprising, but the Creed is not an essential part of our worship service.  Those of you who read the Question a few weeks ago (What is the Agnus Dei?)  might remember my  noting the influential work of Gregory Dix in The Shape of the Liturgyoutlining the essential, and most ancient pieces of our worship together as Offering, Blessing, Breaking, and Sharing (Communion).  In the earliest worship of the church, it was the Eucharistic prayer which was the means by which Christians passed along the faith, and it was in the bread and wine where Christians found their unity strengthened and their calling

The Book of Alternative Servicesnotes that it was only later, when the church reacted to various controversies of belief and when the words of the Eucharistic prayer tended to be said ‘by the priest in an inaudible (and Latin) voice” that the Creed came into popularity as the primary way of handing on the faith.  It is my experience that, by omitting the Creed through certain times and seasons in our common worship life, we can pay more attention to it, engage with it more thoughtfully, when we do use it.

But which Creed?  There are three which are used regularly at St. George’s:  The Apostles’ Creed (shorter), the Nicene Creed (longer), and the Celtic Creed (from our once-a-month Celtic Liturgy).  These are representative of any number of belief statements that the church has and does make, ie. “Jesus is Lord” might be the shortest affirmation we can make; “Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again,” would be a longer affirmation often included in the Eucharistic prayer.    I will briefly break down each one of these more formal creeds, noting a bit of its history and when it is most likely to make an appearance.

The Apostles’ Creed:   There is a lovely story that it was put together by The Twelve apostles of Jesus before they began their mission, each of them contributing one clause of the text.  In truth, the creed wasn’t consolidated until around 150 AD, and was, to a large extent, written as a response to some of the heresies circulating at the time.  It was used primarily at the time of baptism –and is therefore also known as The Baptismal Creed –in order to distinguish a ‘true believer’, to have them identify their faith in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and then to baptize them in those names.

Celtic Creed:  There are other, more contemporary Creeds also in circulation in our Christian faith, one of which we use in the Celtic liturgy.  If you do a line by line comparison between this and the Apostles’ Creed, in fact you discover that the one is simply a paraphrase of the other. It expresses nothing new, but the shift in language allows us to express our inherited faith with a fresh voice, and oftentimes to see it again with fresh eyes.

Nicene Creed –Begun in 325 AD at the Council of Nicea –a meeting of all Christian bishops called by the Roman Emperor Constantine –this took about eighty years of conversation across the entire Christian church in order to consolidate.  Like the Apostles’ Creed, it too is crafted in large part in reaction to heresies of the time, but we receive and speak these words today as a narrative outline of our Trinitarian faith:  God is One, experienced in three distinct and transformative ways.  We use the Nicene Creed at the more traditional 8am service, as well as on special occasions throughout the year, and particularly today on Trinity Sunday, as we reflect on the witness of who God is, how we know God, and what that means for our lives.

Martha

There are two parts to this answer. First of all, the Agnus Dei (Greek for ‘Lamb of God’ – one of the many titles ascribed by Scripture to Jesus) is part of what is known as the Ordinary of the Mass. “O Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, have mercy upon us. O Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, have mercy upon us. O Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, grant us your peace.” Sung or said after the Prayer of Blessing over the bread and wine, the Ordinary are texts which are used in all of the church’s Eucharistic (Communion) services and give a sense of familiarity and shape to our common worship.

Many of the great Classical, Renaissance, and Baroque composers typically held positions in the church and so they would write Mass settings — instrumental and sung compositions — of these Ordinary texts. Because we are blessed in our 10am Sunday service with a talented choir and our very own Choir Director and Composer John Butler, we usually follow the classical form of the Mass at this service, and the choir sings a setting of Agnus Dei written by John.

But here is the second part of that answer. In 1945, Anglican theologian Gregory Dix wrote the highly influential book The Shape of the Liturgy. In it, he argued that it was not so much the words of the liturgy but its “shape” which mattered. His study of the liturgy’s historical development led him to formulate what he called the Four Action Shape of the Liturgy: Offertory, Consecration, Fraction, and Communion. (source: Wikipedia).

His work and research has allowed a freer sense in our Anglican tradition of what constitutes Common Prayer and to develop Anglican worship into a balance of the familiar and the fresh. The Agnus Dei, in modern Anglican thought, is no longer considered an essential part of our worship together, but rather, an option which can help us in shaping the prayer and Communion which has been passed down to us from the very first followers of Jesus. As such, it is rarely used in the more spare and simple mid-week Eucharists we celebrate here at St. George’s, and it is important to know that it can be interchangeable with other Scriptural texts or hymns (or even silence) which can also help us transition from the Blessing
and Breaking (Consecration and Fraction) and into our time of Communion. For various suggestions for words, anthems or hymns to be used, including the Agnus Dei, check out pages 226-228 of our Book of Alternative Services.