The Big 3: Liturgy

TypePad has a little button, Stats, that tells me how many pageviews I've gotten in the last 30 days and where they came from. I'm a sadly addicted glory hound. But thanks to those who listened to my late night rant.

I've been trying my hand at writing some liturgy. We have a tradition of creative and celebrative worship. This is wonderful, except that it means someone has to do some writing or some searching/cutting/pasting every week to prepare the worship experience. Back in the spring, I wrote the order of worship for our Good Friday service. It was pretty difficult and took me a while to get everything to flow in just the right way. Most recently, I wrote just the litany for the Sunday when we gifted Bibles to the Confirmation class. The Bibles are actually purchased by our older adults' fellowship, so they participated in the service as well.

See what you think... The Psalm 145 paraphrase is my own. Next at bat is Children's Sabbath!

Worship Leader: Let each generation tell its children the stories of history, of people who lived radically, of events that revealed the Spirit. Let each generation tell the stories its own way, proclaiming Truth and Power with fresh voices.

–Psalm 145:4, paraphrased

Worship Leader: If indeed these are the times and we are the people, then the time is now to bequeath to these fresh voices the stories of our faith. Today, we give our young people Bibles. Along with paper, ink, and glue, we give them a heritage of learning, struggling, and interpreting. We give them story and metaphor, heroes and villains, inspiration and even confusion.

Worship Leader: We pray, mindful of men and women among us and throughout human history who allowed the Spirit of Life and Love to work in them for the betterment of our world and humanity.

All: For their lives and their inspiration, we give thanks.

Worship Leader: We pray mindful of the stories that shape us; of the blessings of scripture, the shared library of our faith tradition.

All: For the stories and our ever-evolving tradition, we give thanks.

Worship Leader: We pray in gratitude, for the gifts of wisdom and discernment; in humility, recalling the discipline and passion needed for teaching and interpreting; in hope, for the energy and fresh eyes of youth.

All: For these students and their questions, we give thanks.

Worship Leader: We pray, mindful of all that has brought this Confirmation Class together; of the Spirit at work in their lives already; and of what may be possible if we allow the Spirit to work freely in each of us.

All: For these possibilities before us, we give thanks.

Worship Leader: We pray together -

All: Inviting the Spirit of Life and Love to move freely in our words and actions.

Have a great week!