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A Postscript on Starting to Deconstruct Church
My favorite part of exploring ideas is seeing how ideas affect other people. The other day I shared an article suggesting that instead of tinkering with Daylight Savings Time or opting out of it, what if we adopted it all year round? It is not as novel a concept as one would think and has far…
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Liturgy & the Event
The earliest rule I remember about church was my Mom telling me when I was 4 or 5, sitting in the balcony at the back of Trinity, Alpena and she pointed to the Lord’s Prayer and said to me that this is the one thing she expected me to memorize. The rest of the service,…
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Membership
When I used to walk into a church for the first time, I’d show up within 5 minutes of the start of worship. I’d try to find a seat in the back, and I would just sort of find my way in. I didn’t really want to be shown how to worship there. I knew…
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Announcements
I truly value communication. It has always been one of my top priorities. For a church, I’ve built a website, set up social media pages, published a weekly email newsletter, not to mention planned the weekly liturgy, written letters, visited with people, and made the obligatory announcements on Sunday morning. And strangely, one thing has…
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Nicene Creed
The strangest moment in worship happens in the middle. For many of us it is sitting right in the center of our worship. And everything around it is far more worshipful and embodies the people at prayer. We open in prayer and we read scripture and we sing and pray a psalm and we proclaim…
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Epiklesis
The epiklesis is the magic moment of the Great Thanksgiving. It is the great crescendo of the service of Holy Eucharist. It is the “shhh, everybody, shh! Here it is!” moment of the preparation of the table for communion. The prayer, which begins in a great gathering, tells of the great story, and reminds us…
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Words of Institution
The Eucharistic Prayer begins with the Sursum Corda, a conversation between the presider and the people. The Lord be with you! And also with you. Lift up your hearts. We lift them to the Lord. Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. It is right to give him thanks and praise. This is…
