OUR WORSHIP OUR FAITH OUR MISSION

 OUR WORSHIP
OUR FAITH
OUR MISSION
St John’s Spring Series 2015 1 RITUAL & BUILDINGS What are we saying? 2 FONT How did we get here? 3 AMBO What’s our story? 4 ALTAR-­‐TABLE Becoming what we eat? St John’s Parish Prayer Holy One, you have revealed to your Church, through your servant John, the dazzling vision of your light, the eternal Word of your truth, the deep wisdom of your heart. May we who are inspired by John also walk in the way of Jesus the Christ; here at the junction, wherever you send us, in the service of love; we pray in the name of Christ. Amen. 2 Parish Adult Education & Formation Can the various members of a multi-­‐congregational parish, a diverse group of people with busy and demanding lives, get together in the one place at the one time for ongoing adult education and formation in the faith? Is this possible? Yes it is! The concept of the ‘Spring Series’ works when a parish undertakes a once-­‐a-­‐year ‘burst’ of diary commitment – so long as it’s sufficiently contained! Hence, four Sundays, on Sundays, when we are already making the journey to St John’s. I want to express my gratitude to the planning group, who met over a period of about four months prior to the series. Without their wisdom, honesty, courage, clarity, and love, the Series would not have been possible. Some of them gave addresses, and I thank them for allowing them to be reproduced in this booklet. All of them facilitated the lively group discussions. Thank you Clare, Geoff, Gillian, Graham, Muriel, Ross! Particular thanks to the facilitator of our parish Adult Education & Formation Committee, Dr Muriel Porter, who guided many of the practicalities, and who has been the driving force in making this booklet possible. All of the text from the slides presented during the Series is reproduced here, and some of the graphics; the bulk of the coloured illustrations have had to be omitted. At the end of the Series feedback was invited: thanks to those who offered comment, which is also included in this booklet. What was the Series all about? ‘Our faith; our worship; our mission’. The one central act of the Christian community, from which all else flows, is the Eucharist. In the Series we explored the way in which the Eucharistic action influences mission. We are the inheritors of several centuries of liturgical developments which seriously undermined this relationship between the liturgy and the mission and ministry of all the baptised. In stark contrast to the liturgies of the early churches, many of us have been sold the erroneous idea that liturgy consists in reading words in a book. But the liturgy is in fact an action: it’s something the people of God do together. Moreover, our Eucharist looks all too much like a performance on a stage, by some special and holy persons, observed by a largely uninvolved and passive audience, lined up in the ‘tram position’. The task for us now is to overcome these relatively recent dynamics, and find ways of reimaging and reordering our liturgical action and space so as to retrieve the dynamism of the liturgy as the prayer work of the whole people. I hope that we will all find this booklet helpful as we further reflect on the marvellous 2015 Spring Series. Fr David 3 SESSION ONE Notes from the presentation on RITUAL AND BUILDINGS What are we saying? Getting ready… •
•
•
•
Why do I come to the Eucharist? What do I think happens in the Eucharist? What has the Eucharist to do with my daily life? In what ways does the Eucharist change me? The Key to Liturgy • It’s about the FUTURE (eschatology) • It’s about TRANSFORMATION (‘Do this’) St John’s Mission Action Plan Goal 2: LITURGICAL RENEWAL • Develop the range of contemporary catholic Anglican liturgy offered at St John’s and accordingly to adjust our worship space to accommodate this. This will provide accessible worship opportunities for a range of needs and will encourage diverse generational involvement What is Liturgy? (and why does it matter?) The Work of the People. The word ‘liturgy’ comes from the Greek: Λειτουργοσ = λαός + ἔργο, Leitourgos = Laos + ergon, ‘Liturgy’ = people + work = the prayer work of the whole baptised Form Content LEX ORANDI LEX CREDENDI Ritual Action Theology Symbols Soteriology Text Ecclesiology Architecture Missiology (5 senses) (Ideas) The Key Elements of Ritual Action • encounter with the sacred THE HOLY • holds in dynamic tension transcendence & immanence INCARNATION 4 • expresses eternal truths in symbol DOCTRINE • way of living through disorder & suffering SALVATION • enables living with difference ONE-­‐AND-­‐MANY • sends for MISSION What makes ‘Liturgy’ unique? “In its essence the Church is the presence, the actualization in this world of the ‘world to come’, in this aeon – of the Kingdom. The mode of this presence... is precisely the leitourgia.” Alexander Schmemman, Liturgy and Tradition: Theological Reflections of Alexander Schmemann, 1990 Anglican Liturgy & Identity “We believe that Anglican identity is expressed and formed through our • liturgical tradition of corporate worship • and private prayer holding in balance • both word • and sacramental celebration” Liturgy and Anglican Identity: a Statement and Study Guide by the International Anglican Liturgical Consultation, Prague, 2005 Action! “A liturgy that can be read (like a book) is a bad liturgy. Liturgy is not in books, but in the celebrative action of an assembly of believers”. Robert Hovda, Dry bones; living worship guides to good liturgy, 1973. Eucharistic Living “Liturgy is the wellspring of the life of the community” Enzo Bianchi, Community of Bose, France The Eucharist is the ‘source and summit’, the high-­‐point of a life lived elsewhere. Pilgrimage (and why it’s not an option) Dynamic-­‐Evolutive “Crucial to [Christian worship] is the experience of journey. That word ‘GO’ is seared into the very flesh of Israel, a driving force in its religious consciousness to this very day...” Richard Giles, Re-­‐Pitching the Tent: Re-­‐Ordering the Church Building for Worship and Mission, 1996, 2004 Liturgy as Transformation “Growth is a natural by-­‐product of a community of faith. At the heart of 5 Christian worship... lies the mystery of the transformation of the people of God themselves into temples of the Holy Spirit.” Richard Giles, Creating Uncommon Worship: Transforming the Liturgy of the Eucharist, 2004 and Re-­‐Pitching the Tent. Paschal Mystery “This experience of dying to self, of being reborn, of knowing ourselves to be children of God, is what worship in the community should open up to us.” Richard Giles, Creating Uncommon Worship Liturgy & Renewal “The liturgy is and remains the centre of the life of the church. If this can successfully be renewed, won’t that also have effects on all the areas of church activity?” Hans Kung, My Struggle for Freedom: Memoirs, 2003 Liturgy -­‐ Theology -­‐ Mission “The way the church does liturgy... will exert an enormous impact on both our understanding of God and our ability to share the good news.” Richard Giles, Creating Uncommon Worship Buildings (and how the way we use them matters) From this… Dura Europos, Syria. Built ~200CE, converted to church ~232CE 6 ... to this Amiens Cathedral, France, 11th century Influence of Buildings “When it comes to the environment of worship, we should never underestimate the influence of our building upon the way we think about God, about each other, and about the relative importance of the activity we have come to together to engage in. Our places of assembly need to speak clearly to us of what we are about as the people of God.” Richard Giles, Re-­‐Pitching the Tent BACKGROUND – why engage with this? Graham Pratt In this Spring Series we have an opportunity to explore together some new ideas about liturgical renewal. The central question to me is “how can we enrich our participation in the Eucharist?” I am hoping by being part of these four sessions we can develop a much deeper understanding of recent approaches to liturgical development and the implications this has for the way forward at St John’s. By conducting these four sessions in an informal seminar setting we can gain some valuable insights about the potential that new approaches to the liturgy have for our spiritual life. In August 2010 I was very fortunate to meet The Reverend Richard Giles, the author of Re-­‐Pitching the Tent. The central theme of this book is how we re-­‐order church buildings and furniture to enhance worship and mission. The Giles visit to St John’s led to him writing a report for us to consider. Some of his ideas we have implemented such as moving the font to the front of the nave 7 and using the lectern for all aspects of the ministry of the word. His other major suggestions require significant changes to the internal layout of the church and would require us to fully embrace the new approach to the liturgy. In addition we would also need to find the funds for the building works. This Spring Series will help us gain some feeling about whether we are ready to move in this direction. Two things about the Giles approach stand out for me. The first is the arrangement of the seating around the altar creates a much greater sense of intimacy where we become much more directly connected to the Eucharist. We are more likely to become participants rather than spectators as is often the case with long naves and traditional pews. It also enables a choir as a group to be alongside us and lead our singing in a much stronger way. The second is the use of the single ambo for the ministry of the word – readings and preaching. Again the closeness of the reader or preacher means a greater sense of connection to this ministry. In my view this whole approach to liturgical renewal can enable us to deepen our understanding of the paschal mystery and facilitate our spiritual growth. In this series we are all on a journey of exploration where we can engage with the ideas of liturgical renewal. David will provide us with much rich material to consider over the four sessions. This will help us better understand the potential that the ideas of Richard Giles and others have for some new ways of presenting our liturgy. We may even consider how we could make some important changes to the physical space at St John’s! Who knows what may come out of our discussions but it is important that we engage together as part of our spiritual journey. Discussion 1. Why does liturgical space and action matter? 2. What new questions do we now have about our liturgy our building and our mission? 8 SESSION TWO Notes from the presentation on THE FONT How did we get here? Getting ready... • In what ways does the Eucharist both shape and inform my pilgrimage of faith? • Did I notice or experience or feel any new insight in the liturgy today? Liturgical Space (and how we got here) from Altar to Ark... ...to Kingdom of Israel 9 the ‘Temple of Solomon’, 10th century BCE ...to Kingdom of God Though [Christ] was in the form of God... emptied himself... Philippians 2:6,7 Can you be baptised with the baptism with which I am to be baptised? Mark 10:38 We who are many are one body. 1 Corinthians 10:17 the house of the baptised… Dura Europos, Syria built ~200CE, converted to church ~232CE 10 Early fonts The Empire Strikes Back! Early Roman Basilica – Constantine Orthodox Basilica 8thC 11 Amiens Cathedral 1220-­‐1270CE St John’s 1957 Qs • Where did God go? • What happened to the liturgy? [Remember: laos + ergon] ad Fontes! (return to the source!) 1: Purpose WCC Lima 1982 Baptism is related not only to momentary experience, but to life-­‐long growth into Christ. Those baptized are called upon to reflect the glory of the Lord as they are transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit, into his likeness, with ever increasing splendour. 12 2: Location Because the place of initiation is not only a place for baptism, but also for the renewal of baptismal vows... it needs to be in a position which helps us understand our Christian life as journey. Richard Giles, Re-­‐Pitching the Tent 3: Sensory Experience Because nothing could be of greater importance in our preparation for worship than our renewed awareness of being the community of the baptised, we need to see the water, touch it and hear it... splashing and gurgling, re-­‐ minding us constantly of Jesus' promise of a 'spring of water welling up to eternal life’ Richard Giles, Re-­‐Pitching the Tent The Font in the house of the church Proxemics & Theology socio-­‐fugal 13 socio-­‐petal socio-­‐fugal re-­‐ordered Cathedral socio-­‐petal THE FONT – where did we come from? Ross Smith On the 6 June 1954 my parents brought me to the waters of baptism. It was a private ceremony on a Sunday afternoon with family and close friends in the chapel of Scotch College where my parents were married. This is what most families did and every respectable person I knew growing up was also baptised. I don’t remember anything about the occasion at all! But I don’t remember being born either – and that was an important event too! I was totally dependent on my parents for everything, and that is a good model for the baptism of infants – we are all totally dependent on God’s grace – it does not depend on any effort or act on our part, but on God’s grace. Archbishop Justin Welby of Canterbury has said: “Grace is the most beautiful word in the language of God – it means love given freely without expectation of return”. In being baptised I was received into the body of Christ – I died with Christ in the waters of the font and was raised to new life with Christ. So what does it mean for me to be baptised? There is a saying: “Baptism is a once in a life time event which takes a lifetime to complete”. Which means that we have to live out the implications of our baptism each day until we die – it is an ongoing process of transformation into the likeness of 14 Christ. It has been said that each day we fall and then we get up with the help of God. There is a story about Martin Luther who was troubled by his daily failure to live up to his Christian calling, who one day stopped and wrote in chalk on his desk: “I am baptised!” not I was baptised – but I AM baptised – it is in the continuous present: in other words I am accepted by God’s Grace and though I fail, God is loving and merciful and still accepts me. Being baptised is an ongoing process or pilgrimage of transformation which continues until the day we die when we share in resurrection. This is what all of us here share – we are all the baptised and together we are the body of Christ – the pilgrim people of God walking together to glory. When I first came to St John’s the font was in the transept and though the baptisms were now done in the context of the Sunday Liturgy we could not see what was going on.Then some years later the font was moved next to the lectern so we could now see the event. But now that the font has been moved to the entrance of the church and we are all able to gather around I feel we are much more a part of the sacramental action together, reflecting on the principle that the liturgy is the ‘work of the people’. Someone said that the font is now in the way! But I think it has become more central and cannot and should not be avoided – every time I enter I put more fingers into the water and say ‘I am Baptised’, reminding me again that I am baptised and part of Christ’s body the church. A very moving event for me is gathering around the font at the Easter liturgy and renewing my baptismal vows – Do you turn to Christ? I turn again to Christ. This emphasises the ongoing nature of our baptismal life together. Last year when my father died his body was sprinkled with the baptismal waters, reminding us that he was of the baptised also and that he had come to the end of this pilgrimage and now could share in the resurrection to eternal life which is the final crown of all the baptised. So as we come to the end of our earthly baptismal pilgrimage, we say together “may the souls of all the faithful departed rest in peace and rise in glory”. Discussion • Do you experience your baptism as a risk-­‐taking spiritual adventure? • What would help us to celebrate and proclaim the centrality of our baptism? 15 SESSION THREE Notes from the presentation on THE AMBO What’s our Story? Getting ready... • What struck me most about the liturgy today? • What do I DO each week to prepare myself to hear the Word? the ‘Word’ what is ‘the Word of God’? Living Word In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and Word was God. And the Word became FLESH... John 1:1 ,14 I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these. John 14:12 ‘Sola Scriptura’? Scripture is read [understood] in the context of worship [‘lex orandi, lex credendi’]... “[This] assumes that the reading and interpretation of Scripture form a part of the ongoing conversation between the worshipping community and God...” Bill Countryman, The Liturgy of the Word ‘Canon-­‐within-­‐the-­‐Canon’ “For the Church, the gospel book is a verbal icon of Christ’s manifestation to and presence among us.” Alexander Schmemman, The Eucharist Hearing How do we ‘hear’? What is Listening? “The Liturgy of the Word ... does not refer to the gathering of information or 16 the accurate remembering of facts”. Kenneth Stephenson “The attention required of us in the Liturgy of the Word is in fact a kind of sacrifice”. Mark Santer Encounter “Because liturgy is an encounter between God and God’s people, the phenomenon of liturgy must embrace more than a book.” Frank Senn, New Creation: A Liturgical World View Heart “Listen carefully, my son, to the master’s instructions, and attend to them with the ear of your heart.” The Rule of St Benedict, Prologue Chew! “We find in both Biblical terminology and early Christian literature the idea of eating or ‘chewing’ the Word, as a way of expressing the act of pondering the words of Scripture.” Enzo Bianchi, Words of Spirituality Locating the Ambo (a single place for proclamation) The Pulpit is a late distortion. It divides priestly work from the work of the baptized. Space “If we have inherited a traditional building consisting of nave and chancel, we are given plenty of scope to create a Place of the Word occupying the whole of the nave with an ambo installed in the midst of the assembly. The ambo should face east to emphasize the continuing journey of the assembly to break the mould of the East End ‘stage’ on which all the liturgical furniture is arranged.” Richard Giles, Re-­‐Pitching the Tent Single Level “There is much to be said for the ambo (as with the altar) standing on the same floor level as the seating, to emphasize the equal accessibility of the whole priestly community to the sacred things of God. This is a teaching symbol of the utmost significance in our rediscovery of our shared vocation.” Richard Giles, Re-­‐Pitching the Tent 17 ‘Ambo’ “The design of a new ambo provides all kinds of possibilities for recapturing earlier stages of our spiritual journey... that will by its design ... recall us to the kind of reading desk (bema) that Jesus is described as using in the synagogues of Galilee.” Richard Giles, Creating Uncommon Worship Seats at the Ecclesiastical Opera “The Pews, which entered liturgical place only recently, nail the assembly down, proclaiming that the liturgy is not a common action but a preachment perpetrated upon the seated, an ecclesiastical opera done by virtuosi for a paying audience. Pews distance the congregation, disenfranchise the faithful, and rend the assembly. Aidan Kavanagh, Elements of Rite: A Handbook of Liturgical Style 1990 Shaping Space for the work of the baptized 18 Pilgrimage and Spiritual Development Gillian Forwood Before I begin talking about pilgrimage I want to thank David for the enormous amount of work he has done, and is doing in this liturgical series, to lead us on a path of spiritual development, and, personally, for giving me many new insights. When David set out his plan for the series, he suggested that the idea of pilgrimage was very much front and centre. In the last few weeks, we have all been travelling on a kind of pilgrimage. Not the usual kind, to somewhere like Jerusalem or Santiago de Compostella. It is more like the one in Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress – an inner spiritual pilgrimage. While we have been sitting here in the Rutherford Room, we have re-­‐walked some paths we know well, and we’ve re-­‐discovered our liturgy in a new way, especially today with our Eucharist in the round. Last week we looked at the reason why the font is now placed at the entrance to the church, and in our small groups we shared some amazing stories about our baptism. Today we’ve looked at the Word and how we receive it. Each of us has trodden a different path in our faith pilgrimage. Last week Ross told us something about his. My own journey was different. I was not baptized until I was 12 shortly before my Confirmation. I was brought up with both the Anglican and Baptist tradition, very much centred on the Word. My mother used to sit us on her knee and teach us the Catechism from the Book of Common Prayer and say ‘you are a child of God and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven’. On my father’s side my grandmother was a Baptist, an ardent member of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union in the early 1900s, who used to take bread to feed the hungry children in the needy suburbs. My father lost his faith in organized religion as a young soldier in the trenches in WW1, but we were not allowed to miss going to the Baptist Sunday School. We had to learn by heart, sometimes unwillingly, texts from the Bible and we sang missionary hymns. I attended an Anglican school where there was morning assembly every day, with a hymn, prayers and a Bible reading. On the last day of term, it was always St Paul’s Letter to the Philippians chapter 4, about ‘whatsoever things are honest, just, pure, lovely and of good report’. The Word, both the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer, formed my earliest religious experiences. It was not until my Confirmation that I felt a truly spiritual experience, and I began to feel the power of prayer. After Peter and I were married and we moved to Melbourne in 1968, I did not know anyone, except one friend who suggested I join the St John’s Young Wives. We met monthly for companionship, talks and pastoral work, such as packing parcels for the New Guinea mission. Canon Russell Clark was vicar until his retirement in 1978. When our children were growing up, the 19 Youth Group was active and we joined in many family excursions and picnics. Later there were retreats, and it was through St John’s that we began bushwalking. With friends, I discovered the healing power of nature, walking near the sea or in the mountains, where there have been moments that cannot be put into words. St John’s has shared our joys and sorrows; there have been times of spiritual emptiness and darkness and times of light. Two of our babies were baptized at St John’s and the funeral of our youngest baby was held in the Chapel. It has sometimes been a bumpy road on our pilgrimage at St John’s. We’ve seen many changes in the liturgy. A big change came when the Communion table was moved down from the Sanctuary into the Chancel. Another change came when the front pews were placed at an angle, and the back pews were removed. Incense and the crucifix being placed behind the pulpit were such spiritual roadblocks for some parishioners that they left the parish. It is hard to believe that way back Canon Clark had to work hard to introduce candles on the altar, when now we each can light a candle with our prayers. Our St John’s pilgrimage continues. Last Sunday after the session on the Font, I was in the garden watering, and as I stepped from one paving stone to the next a Spanish saying came into my head: ‘the path provides the natural next step’. If you write it in Spanish, it reads as a palindrome, the same backwards as forwards: ‘la ruta nos aporto otro paso natural’. The words themselves tell us something about pilgrimage – we may appear to be the same at the end as the beginning, but in some way we are transformed. Where will the natural next step of our pilgrimage lead us? We don’t know, but let us embark on it together. How earlier generations experienced church buildings Muriel Porter We have been talking today about the ambo, the place of proclamation of the Word, and the preaching of the Word. In the 16th century Reformation when the Church of England became a national state church, preaching became the highest priority, in fact the centre of Sunday worship. Sermons lasted at least an hour and often much, much longer. Before the Reformation, in most places, there was no seating in church buildings. The people were on their feet, moving about, mingling. The congregation was mobile, the social classes were not differentiated, and people could and did interact. In the late Middle Ages, seating for the congregation had begun to be introduced – it has been called perhaps the most drastic change in church interiors since Christianity began. At first the seating was backless stone benches around the walls for the elderly and infirm – hence the 20 saying ‘the weak go to the wall’. Pews were not standard in English churches until the Reformation in the 1500s, because with sermons lasting for an hour and more, people needed to sit. And the clergy wanted people pinned down in place to focus on the sermon. Pews did more than provide seating – they changed the dynamics of the congregation as people became custodians of individual spaces which they occupied throughout the service, and social distinctions made some spaces more privileged than others. The rich and important – the local squire in a village setting, for instance – created lavishly comfortable seating for themselves, with cushions, heating etc. Their seating, which they often locked, was in the most desirable part of the church, and often elevated to emphasise their importance. Rich people paid for their pews and in time pew rents were introduced as a means of raising church income. That meant the wealthy and important could control where they sat and keep themselves separate from the hoi polloi. Poorer people often had to stand at the back or were allocated rough seating in the worst part of the building. There is still a hangover of this today, when some people get quite annoyed if someone sits in their usual place! This change suited more than the long-­‐winded preacher. It suited the sovereign as well, because in the English Reformation, the church was the place where the people were given their orders. The sovereign would send letters to be read out in church, and also commissioned sermons to be written, all designed to tell people what to do, and how to behave. There was no other way of doing it when there was no postal service, no telephone, no internet, no newspapers, and most people couldn’t read in any case. People were forced to attend church – they were fined if they didn’t – and became a captive audience once there. They were no longer participants – liturgy was no longer the work of the people, but the task of the ordained clergy who had effectively become mouthpieces of the sovereign. The church became more of a sit/watch/listen meeting than an interactive community gathering. I have sung in church choirs since I was nine years old. There have been some gaps in those years – when my children were very young for instance – when I sat in the congregation. Obviously I sit in the congregation when I am on holidays. Whenever that happens, I find the dynamics very, very different. In a church choir, you really feel part of the activity, a full participant in the liturgy. Sitting in the pews is for me quite inhibiting. Favourable comment has been made a couple of time during these sessions about the choir mingling in the congregation in January – I have to tell you that I always find that quite stifling, not so much because I am confined in a regimented set of pews, but because of what it symbolises for me. I am a spectator, a member of an audience, rather than a fully engaged participant in the liturgy. I long for February! 21 Today, worshipping ‘in the round’, with everyone on the same level, has been a wonderful experience. As I led the singing of the psalm, it was wonderful to hear the whole congregation joining confidently in the response. And in the hymns and the mass setting. That for me is the best signal for how we can all be part of the liturgy – people singing confidently because they are close to the choir and each other rather than isolated in pews. They are also close to the clergy and servers, and so an integral part of the liturgical action. Discussion • What is your experience of the ‘liturgy of the Word’? • Seating arrangements and liturgical furniture will always tell a story. Which story shall we tell? 22 SESSION FOUR Notes from the presentation on ALTAR-­‐TABLE Becoming what we eat? Getting ready... • When I think of ‘the Body of Christ’, what comes to mind? • What was my offering at the Altar-­‐Table today? Liturgical Theology Communion in Christ “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them”. John 6:56 “Say ‘Amen’ to what you are!” Augustine of Hippo “Christ became as we are that we might become what he is”. Irenaeus of Lyon Presider One We break this bread to share in the Body of Christ. We who are many are one body, All for we all share in the one bread. New Humanity “The Holy Communion is the great workshop of the new world, where the 'we who are many' are recreated as the true, the new community in Christ. The Communion is social dynamite, if we really take seriously the pattern of community known at the altar.” John A T Robinson, Liturgy Coming to Life 1960 Crucible “Here, indeed, is the very theatre of salvation; this is the molten moment of the new creation, that new continuous creation, which was begun in the crucible of Golgotha and which goes forward till all things are made new”. John A T Robinson, Liturgy Coming to Life Immanence-­‐Transcendence “We are the Body... This is the Body...” The two statements go together inseparably to their completion. John V Taylor, The Uncancelled Mandate 23 Flesh! “The Word was made flesh! Flesh! There is nothing so eloquent. When the soul most aches for expression, one’s speech becomes strangely broken and incoherent. We never understand words until they are ‘made flesh’.” F.W. Boreham, My Christmas Book: A Handful of Myrrh, Aloes & Cassia un-­‐Amnesia ‘anamnesis’... is a word seriously undertranslated by our word ‘remembrance’, which inevitably suggests for us the mere mental recollection of something absent. But in biblical usage the word means the bringing back of something out of the dead past, so that it becomes actually effective here and now. The stress is on presence rather than absence. John A T Robinson, Liturgy Coming to Life the Work of the People The ‘Offertory’ “For the Eucharist cannot get going, there is nothing for it to work on, until the world in which the laity live and work is brought into Church and laid upon the altar.” John A T Robinson, Liturgy Coming to Life ”...the moment of relinquishing what is ours is crucial in the eucharistic process”. Rowan Williams, Resurrection: Interpreting the Easter Gospel 2003 4 Actions “The action by which Christ spelt out to the disciples the meaning of his sacrifice, showing them how his life was to be taken and consecrated, broken and poured out for the world are the same actions that he lays upon us”. John A T Robinson, Liturgy Coming to Life One in Christ We know that in this offering Christ is “the Offerer and the Offered, the Receiver and the Received”. Alexander Schmemman, The Eucharist: Sacrament of the Kingdom 2003 “We share in Christ’s offering, are taken up into his offering, become united with him in his offering”. Neville Clark, in Bread of Life & Cup of Joy 24 un-­‐Fenced “No longer the centrepiece of the holy of holies, hedged about with steps and fences... no longer the sole possession of the priestly caste... the altar table once again belongs to the holy community, and it must be seen to be so.” Richard Giles, Creating Uncommon Worship The Centre “The holy table is the main architectural symbol of Christ’s abiding presence”. Aidan Kavanagh “We need to be able, not merely to glimpse, but to stand around the Altar-­‐
Table, for this is Christ in our midst, the centre of our life, our life lived for the sake of the world.” Richard Giles, Creating Uncommon Worship Equal-­‐sided “The altar should be square in shape... in order to emphasize that there is no ‘back’ or ‘front’ and that it is not a ‘counter’ across which the assembly is being ‘served a meal’ by a member of a priestly caste; all members of the priestly community participate in the offering and have equal access. Richard Giles, Re-­‐Pitching the Tent Altar-­‐Table Clare Tomasov Beginning: As I reflected upon the altar, the table, the altar-­‐table, a book by Edwina Gateley called Growing into God (2000), sprung to mind. You might be able to see that the title emphasises the into. Growing into God succinctly expresses for me my on-­‐ going experience of coming to our Lord’s Table to celebrate the Eucharist. For me, the Altar-­‐Table can be in a church building, it can be a card table on the beach, it can be made of sand on the beach and decorated with seaweed, it can be at the dinner table in a home – all of these different settings for celebrating the Eucharist with others have shaped, challenged, and enriched my relationship with Jesus and with the others who gather, my sisters and brothers in Christ, at the Lord’s Table. The Table-­‐Altar for me is about inclusiveness, invitation, transformation, conversion, relationship, none of which are mutually exclusive of course but naturally intersect, overlap are ongoing. I would like to talk briefly about some of my experiences at the Table-­‐
Altar that were significant moments of invitation, transformation, conversion, relationship and inclusiveness. 25 About inclusiveness: My family were not a church going family but followed the norms of their generation and had me baptised as an infant and confirmed as a 12 year old. There was no explicit expression of any faith in my home life except on one occasion I remember, as a young teenager, telling dad that I’d had a hamburger on Good Friday and getting into trouble for eating red meat! As a teenager, you can imagine, I was like, go figure! However, there was Aunty Edith. I was always drawn to Aunty Edith who seemed to have an aura of peace and love. Aunty Edith was an Anglican who in later life became a Catholic. When she died, a requiem mass was held for her in a Catholic church. I was really looking forward to sharing in the mass with Aunty Edith, unaware of the practices of giving Holy Communion in a Catholic setting. Non-­‐catholics were invited to come to the altar rails to receive Communion – which I believe is considered quite liberal – so I went forward to receive the bread and then the wine, but was only allowed to receive the bread. I was deeply grieved. I felt excluded from a sacred moment I desired to share with Aunty Edith and the God whom I love. I felt that a barrier had been put between myself and God, my desire to share the Eucharist with Aunty Edith, who although not physically present was very much present in my heart. This was for me a personal experience of brokenness at the Table-­‐Altar where I believe Christ includes all. So in a roundabout way, my experience of feeling excluded opened for me a knowing that ALL are welcome at the Lord’s Table. About invitation: We were gathered around a table to receive the bread and the wine after hearing the Gospel and a reflection on the Gospel and I came into a deep awareness that Jesus was asking of me – “Are you able to drink from the cup from which I drink” (Matt 20:22). Prior to this time, I had always in intincted the bread in the wine, I had never actually taken the cup. There was a deep response in my being, that yes, I wanted to drink from the cup, then, now and always, and it has become for me an external expression of a profound truth, a deep desire, that I want to be one with Christ. Ever since I have always taken the cup, and those who administer the Eucharistic in this parish are probably aware that when I come to receive communion, it is important for me to hold the cup in my hands and then drink from the cup. Each time I receive the bread and the wine at the Altar-­‐Table I hear Jesus’ invitation “Are you able to drink from the cup from which I drink?” About transformation and conversion: In my teenage years and early adult years the message that was presented to me about being a Christian was that of a singular moment of conversion in one specific moment of time and that from that moment you were transformed – job done. My understanding is very different today and has in part been formed by sharing the Eucharist at the Table-­‐Altar. When I come to the Table-­‐Altar, in community, I experience conversion and 26 transformation, as an ongoing process. One such experience of transformation/conversion that happened for me at the Lord’s Table involved relationship. About relationship: Jesus said in Matthew’s Gospel that where two or three are gathered in his name, he would be present (Matt 18:20). For me, coming to the Altar-­‐Table is not just about me, about something I do, though it is deeply personal, it is, importantly in my opinion, deeply communal. We share the Eucharist, we come to the Altar-­‐Table together. We may gather at the Altar-­‐Table with people we know, with people we don’t know, even with people we don’t like. It is the latter I would like to talk about. One time I was with others at the Altar-­‐
Table, receiving the Eucharist, and I experienced a profound moment of grace when I was aware of God as love, Jesus as love, Spirit as love. I was deeply humbled by this knowing, which was not of the head, but of the heart, and I felt a deep and genuine love for someone with whom I was sharing the Eucharist with who, to be honest, I didn’t particularly like. It was a moment of transformation for me. It was a moment of conversion for me. It happened at the Altar-­‐Table. It was unexpected, it was in a way shocking as my attitude towards this person was laid bare before me in the light of Jesus’ love and it was liberating as Jesus, present in the Eucharist, looked upon me with love and acceptance. Wrapping Up: I return to Edwina Gateley. Edwina talks about Growing into God as “the deepening process of faith by which we come, ultimately, to whisper our assent to the amazing reality of God – in us. It is a growing awareness of the incarnation of God in our very selves.” Jesus Christ knew this sacred truth. At Altar-­‐Table we are transformed by this sacred truth. Gathering at the Lord’s Table, we are forever becoming the body of Christ. Discussion • What new insights have you gained in this series? • Where do you want to go from here? 27 2015 Spring Series Parishioner Feedback For me the recent Spring Series was a valuable educative opportunity for wide-­‐
ranging discussions on faith matters vital to us individually and as a community. The format worked well providing ample time for reflection, discussion and disclosure from the participants in a supportive and non-­‐threatening environment. My gratitude goes to the vicar and his team for planning, implementing, leading and resourcing this innovative series. I look forward to the next one. Adrianne Bolch The Spring Series 2015 was an inspirational, meaningful and deeply spiritual initiative of ministry for St John’s. Led by the Vicar with insightful input from a group within the parish the series provided an opportunity to corporately explore how the physical nature and the story behind our sacred space influence our understanding and experience of liturgy and worship. I look forward to the Spring Series 2016. Noela Manton Excellent presentation material – many thanks for all your work. • The material was both informative and challenging -­‐ breaking new ground for many. • The involvement of the committee members to both present some ideas and guide the group sessions gave a feeling of shared commitment from lay leaders, • The group session generally worked well and brought many parish members into the discussion. • The timing of the sessions in October and following the 10 am service was probably the best choice to achieve very good attendance which it did. The key question now is where to from here? It is important I feel that the momentum need to be maintained to see how we move ahead to gain a much closer and deeper connection to the Eucharist. All matters raised in the Spring Series need to considered (including the choir!!) with some suggestions about how we proceed. I suggest the working group meets soon for this purpose. Graham Pratt Pleasing attendance, and a very well organised Series. Literature distributed in advance a welcome feature. Stimulating discussion in both plenary and smaller groups. Excellent presentations by Vicar, and adept leadership of groups. Margaret Taylor 28