words for worship
Now I know churches are true: the people in them enjoy singing and walk about in patterns.
This four-year-old’s comment on worship, quoted in an official Anglican publication, summarises what Anglicans instinctively feel about our worship - we have a concern for dignity and economy, whilst not losing a sense of joy and enthusiasm for God.
This is true of our words for worship (our ‘liturgies’): we value words which have been carefully crafted to express most clearly what we want to say, and alongside the spontaneous we value the words of others, passed down the years to us but still speaking as clearly as ever.
But if our liturgies are like the skeleton of our worship, they need padding out with the flesh of the spontaneous and contemporary. Flesh with no skeleton would resemble a heap of jelly on the floor, but skeletons with no flesh are dry and rattle horribly.
This section of our website will help with resources from the liturgical riches of the Church, but will also suggest ways of helping them come alive for the 21st century.