LITMIR.BIZ

      1.

      What Do We Mean by Liturgical Planning?

      Many Episcopalians seem to feel that, since we have a Book of Common Prayer, liturgical planning is unnecessary. Once upon a time, it is true, someone had to choose whether we use Rite One or Rite Two for this service. But since that has already been decided once and for all, no further planning is necessary. All you need is to get a calendar to tell you what the proper lessons are, to choose three familiar hymns from the available list of about twenty-five, to ask the choir director the name of the anthem for the program, and we are ready to start.

      I hope this picture is wildly exaggerated, but I have attended many services that leave me wondering whether it is. Some parishes ignore all possible options and always conduct the service in a single inflexible way, as if this had been handed down from heaven on golden tablets. Others approach the options provided in the Prayer Book with the enthusiasm of a teenager at a “build-your-own-sundae” counter. There is no thought of congruity and coherence but boundless enthusiasm for getting some of everything.