Christian liturgy

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Christian liturgy is a pattern for worship used (whether recommended or prescribed) by a Christian congregation or denomination on a regular basis. The term liturgy comes from Greek and means "public work". Within Christianity, liturgies descending from the same region, denomination, or culture are described as ritual families.

The majority of Christian denominations hold church services on the

canonical hours are prayed, as well as the offering of the Eucharistic liturgies such as Mass, among other forms of worship.[4] In addition to this, many Christians attend services of worship on holy days such as Christmas, Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, Ascension Thursday, among others depending on the Christian denomination.[5]

In most Christian traditions, liturgies are presided over by clergy wherever possible.

History

The holding of church services pertains to the observance of the

Eusebius of Caesarea thus declared: "For it is surely no small sign of God's power that throughout the whole world in the churches of God at the morning rising of the sun and at the evening hours, hymns, praises, and truly divine delights are offered to God. God's delights are indeed the hymns sent up everywhere on earth in his Church at the times of morning and evening."[2]

Types

Communion liturgies

The

Lutheran Church in Europe but more often referred to as the Divine Service, Holy Communion, or the Holy Eucharist in North American Lutheranism. The Byzantine Rite uses the term "Divine Liturgy" to denote the Eucharistic service.[6]

Lutherans retained and utilized much of the Roman Catholic mass since the early modifications by Martin Luther. The general order of the mass and many of the various aspects remain similar between the two traditions. Latin titles for the sections, psalms, and days has been widely retained, but more recent reforms have omitted this. Recently, Lutherans have adapted much of their revised mass to coincide with the reforms and language changes brought about by post-Vatican II changes.[citation needed
]

Protestant traditions vary in their liturgies or "orders of worship" (as they are commonly called). Other traditions in the west often called "

Mainline" have benefited from the Liturgical Movement which flowered in the mid/late 20th century. Over the course of the past several decades, these Protestant traditions have developed remarkably similar patterns of liturgy, drawing from ancient sources as the paradigm for developing proper liturgical expressions. Of great importance to these traditions has been a recovery of a unified pattern of Word and Sacrament in Lord's Day liturgy.[citation needed
]

Many other

Assembly of God, and Non-denominational churches), while often following a fixed "order of worship", tend to have liturgical practices that vary from that of the broader Christian tradition.[citation needed
]

Commonalities

There are common elements found in most Western liturgical churches which predate the

Protestant Reformation. These include:[citation needed
]

Scripture readings at Gereja Santa, Indonesia

Divine office

The term "Divine Office" describes the practice of "marking the

hours of each day and sanctifying the day with prayer".[7]

In the Western Catholic Church, there are multiple forms of the office. The

None, Vespers, and Compline. The Second Vatican Council ordered the suppression of Prime.[9]

In monasteries, Matins was generally celebrated before dawn, or sometimes over the course of a night; Lauds at the end of Matins, generally at the break of day; Prime at 6 AM; Terce at 9AM; Sext at noon; None at 3PM; Vespers at the rising of the Vespers or Evening Star (usually about 6PM); and Compline was said at the end of the day, generally right before bed time.

In

Evening Prayer, the latter sometimes known as Evensong. In more recent years, the Anglicans have added the offices of Noonday and Compline to Morning and Evening Prayer as part of the Book of Common Prayer. The Anglican Breviary
, containing 8 full offices, is not the official liturgy of the Anglican Church.

In

seminaries
.

The Byzantine Rite maintains a daily cycle of seven non-sacramental services:

  • Vespers (Gk. Hesperinos) at sunset commences the liturgical day
  • Compline (Gk. Apodeipnou, "after supper")
  • Midnight Office (Gk. mesonyktikon)
  • Matins (Gk. Orthros), ending at dawn (in theory; in practice, the time varies greatly)
  • The First Hour
  • The Third and Sixth Hours
  • The Ninth Hour

The sundry Canonical Hours are, in practice, grouped together into aggregates so that there are three major times of prayer a day: Evening, Morning and Midday; for details, see Canonical hours — Aggregates.

Great Vespers as it is termed in the Byzantine Rite, is an extended vespers service used on the eve of a major Feast day, or in conjunction with the divine liturgy, or certain other special occasions.

In the Maronite Church's liturgies, the office is arranged so that the liturgical day begins at sundown. The first office of the day is the evening office of Ramsho, followed by the night office of Sootoro, concluding with the morning office of Safro. In the Maronite Eparchies of the United States, the approved breviary set is titled the Prayer of the Faithful.[citation needed]

Partial list of Christian liturgical rites

Different Christian traditions have employed different rites:

Western Christian churches

Catholic Church (Western)

Main articles: Latin liturgical rites and Catholic liturgy

Protestant churches

Historic

worship services" or "divine services
".

Congregants attend the Divine Service in a Dutch Reformed Church, Doornspijk
Reformed churches
Main article: Reformed worship

which?
] Reformed churches retained liturgies and continue to use them today.

Lutheran churches
Anglican Communion
See also: Anglican liturgy (disambiguation)

At the time of

Sarum Rite[11] as practised in Salisbury Cathedral
.

The revised edition in 1552 sought to assert a more clearly Protestant liturgy after problems arose from conservative interpretation of the mass on the one hand, and a critique by Martin Bucer (Butzer) on the other. Successive revisions are based on this edition, though important alterations appeared in 1604 and 1662. The 1662 edition is still authoritative in the Church of England and has served as the basis for many of Books of Common Prayer of national Anglican churches around the world. Those deriving from Scottish Episcopal descent, like the Prayer Books of the American Episcopal Church, have a slightly different liturgical pedigree.

Methodist churches

The

Methodist liturgical tradition is based on the Anglican heritage and was passed along to Methodists by John Wesley (an Anglican priest who led the early Methodist movement) who wrote that

there is no Liturgy in the world, either in ancient or modern language, which breathes more of a solid, scriptural, rational piety, than the Common Prayer of the Church of England.[12]

When the Methodists in America were separated from the Church of England, John Wesley himself provided a revised version of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer called The Sunday Service of the Methodists. Wesley's Sunday Service has shaped the official liturgies of the Methodists ever since.

The United Methodist Church has official

United Methodist Hymnal and The United Methodist Book of Worship (1992).[13] Many of these liturgies are derived from the Anglican tradition's Book of Common Prayer. In most cases, congregations also use other elements of liturgical worship, such as candles, vestments
, paraments, banners, and liturgical art.

Because John Wesley advocated outdoor evangelism, revival services are a traditional worship practice of Methodism that are often held in local churches, as well as at outdoor camp meetings, brush arbour revivals, and at tent revivals.[14][15][16]

United and Uniting churches

Church of South India

The liturgy of the Church of South India combines many traditions, including that of the Methodists and such smaller churches as the Church of the Brethren and the Disciples of Christ. After the formation of the Church of South India the first synod met at Madurai in March 1948 and appointed a liturgical committee. The first Synod in 1948 (where the Holy Communion service was that of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland) appointed a liturgy committee, composed mainly of Western theologians. The liturgy so prepared was first used at the Synod Session in 1950 and approved for use throughout the church "wherever it is desired" in 1954. The first version of the Confirmation Service for the new church was also released in 1950, translated into regional languages and was quickly adopted by the various dioceses.

By 1962 the Liturgy Committee was able to prepare a number of Orders. They were Eucharist, Morning and Evening Prayer, Marriage Service, Burial Service, Ordination Service and Covenant Service (1954), Holy Baptism (1955) and Almanac (1955–56). The Book of Common Worship of the CSI was published in 1963 with all the above orders of service. The orders of service consist of: Order for Morning and Evening Worship, Order of Service for the Baptized Persons, Order for Holy Baptism, Order for the Churching of Women, Order for Holy Matrimony, Order for the Burial Service, Order for the Covenant Service, Order for Ordination Services.

The CSI liturgy was again revised in the year 2004 and published as a hardback book in 2006.

The CSI Synod Liturgical Committee has developed several new orders for worship for different occasions. The order for the Communion Service, known as the CSI Liturgy, has been internationally acclaimed as an important model for new liturgies. The Committee has also produced three different cycles of lectionaries for daily Bible readings and "propers", and collects for Communion services. In addition, the Committee has also brought out a Supplement to the Book of Common Worship.

Eastern Christian churches

Eastern Orthodox Church

Oriental Orthodox Churches

Assyrian Church of the East

The Eastern Catholic Churches

Main article: Eastern Catholic liturgy

See also

Notes

  1. seventh-day Sabbatarianism organize worship on Saturdays.[1][2]

References

  1. ^ Hughes, James R. (2006). "The Sabbath: A Universal and Enduring Ordinance of God" (PDF). Reformed Presbyterian Church. Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 October 2020. Retrieved 6 October 2020.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g "Why an Evening Worship Service?". Christ United Reformed Church. 8 December 2010. Retrieved 6 October 2020.
  3. ^ The Korean Repository, Volume 3. Trilingual Press. 21 August 1896. p. 361. The Sunday morning service has been well attended, as have also the Sunday evening and Wednesday evening services.
  4. ^ "Times of Worship". Saint Paul's Free Methodist Church. Retrieved 5 August 2021.
  5. ISBN 978-0-2280-0028-0
    . Starting with Shrove Tuesday (locally known as Pancake Day), and proceeding through Ash Wednesday to Good Friday, families increased their church attendance and, especially, engaged in the embodies practices of fasting and/or "giving up something for Lent."
  6. ISBN 1-878997-00-9
  7. ^ Fernand Cabrol, "Divine Office" in Catholic Encyclopedia (New York 1911)
  8. ^ United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. "Liturgy of the Hours". Retrieved 19 January 2015.
  9. ^ Second Vatican Council, Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium, 89 d Archived February 21, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  10. ^ F Procter & W. H. Frere, A New History of the Book of Common Prayer (Macmillan, 1905) p. 31.
  11. ^ Bevan, G. M. (1908). Portraits of the Archbishops of Canterbury. London: Mowbray.
  12. ^ Works of John Wesley, vol. XVI, page 304
  13. ^ 2008 Book of Discipline paragraph 1114.3
  14. ISBN 9781630878320
    . In addition to these separate denominational groupings, one needs to give attention to the large pockets of the Holiness movement that have remained within the United Methodist Church. The most influential of these would be the circles dominated by Asbury College and Asbury Theological Seminary (both in Wilmore, KY), but one could speak of other colleges, innumerable local campmeetings, the vestiges of various local Holiness associations, independent Holiness oriented missionary societies and the like that have had great impact within United Methodism. A similar pattern would exist in England with the role of Cliff College within Methodism in that context.
  15. ISBN 9781625849045
    .
  16. ISBN 9780802803917
    .

Further reading

  • Reed, Luther D. (1947) The Lutheran Liturgy: a Study [especially] of the Common Service of the Lutheran Church in America. Philadelphia, Penn.: Muhlenberg Press. N.B.: This study also includes some coverage of other Lutheran liturgical services, especially of Matins and Vespers

External links
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