Lessons in Liturgy: Worship Changes for the Fall

We vary our worship from time to time to give it a fresh hearing, to approach God with a renewed perspective. Changes can be distracting initially. So we do not make constant changes. Rather we vary styles by season.

The ancient liturgy remains constant in its shape: Word, Prayer, Sacrament. What changes is the style: musical responses, ways of saying the Psalm, form of Prayers of the People, Eucharistic prayer. The changes in style are deliberate as we endeavor to set a mood for the seasons.

For the fall we return to a more traditional tone. In the summer we have played a little. Our worship and music had a more contemporary tone. As fall approaches we return to more familiar routines and disciplines much as the world around us settles into to school and the regular work season. We rejoice at the work we have been given to do.

Our service music will all be familiar tunes from the 1982 Hymnal. We will say the Psalm in unison evoking our unity and working together. One of the strengths of recitation in unison is that all of the voices in the church are supporting each other.

For Prayers of the People we will be using Form V. It is a more direct call and response than the form we have been using during the summer. There is also a period of silence for individual prayer but near the end rather than at each petition. The emphasis is on praying as a church.

We will use Eucharistic Prayer A. It is a return to the move traditional, slightly more penitential language of the Church. Like Prayer C, it reminds us that we are called to be a new people in God. Prayer A is less dramatic but perhaps more profound. Immediately after the priest prays for the sanctification of the bread and the wine, he prays; “Sanctify us also that we may faithfully receive this holy Sacrament, and serve you in unity, constancy, and peace”. We do not offer just the bread and the wine. We offer ourselves. It is not just the bread and wine that become the Body of Christ. We ourselves are sanctified as the Body of Christ.

For the fall we will enter into the simplicity of speaking the fraction anthem. The priest says, “Alleluia, Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.” The congregation responds, “Therefore let us keep the feast, Alleluia.” Through Christ’s death and resurrection we are invited to God’s table. We are eager to join the feast!

In fall the world seems to go back to work. We take the opportunity in our liturgy to remind ourselves that God has made us a new creation with work to do serving the world in Jesus’ name.

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