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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Worships which feeds the spirit
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Magersfontein Lugg
Shipmate
# 18240
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Posted
I've been thinking lately about which acts of worship I value most. Of course it varies according to where my life is, and actually also according to the seasons, liturgical and temporal.
I find Compline sung by candlelight a deeply moving service, and helpful spiritually. It is calming of the spirit, and peaceful.
I think the candles, the lowered light, the gentle music and stillness all contribute.
Which acts of worship particularly spiritually feed you at a deep level, I wonder, and what are the particular features that enhance the worship for you?
Posts: 104 | From: Bottle Street | Registered: Oct 2014
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L'organist
Shipmate
# 17338
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Posted
1. Evensong. It has a rhythm that gives space for reflection.
2. Matins: almost as good as Evensong but not quite.
3. A said communion service.
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Rara temporum felicitate ubi sentire quae velis et quae sentias dicere licet
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Gamaliel
Shipmate
# 812
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Posted
I think this will have varied at different points 'on my journey' to use a dreadful cliche ...
At one time it would have been some elements of charismatic evangelical worship - at it's best ... ie when it has been less apparently 'forced' or whipped-up ...
Old-fashioned four-part nonconformist style harmonies can still move me ...
But these days it has to be more the sort of things that have been listed - Compline, Evensong ...
Sadly, around here traditional Anglican worship is increasingly harder to find, so my exposure to these things is more occasional than I would like.
I do find the Orthodox Vespers very moving. I like the Orthodox Liturgy too, although there's a limit to which I can engage in that as I'm not allowed to 'commune' of course - although one does get the antidoron* of course - which is 'better than nothing' as one of the Orthodox told me the last time I had some.
* blessed but pre-consecrated bread. It has the 'potential' to become The Real ThingTM ...
I've only once visited a Quaker meeting and I valued the stillness and silence.
I think attending a service in a Benedictine priory or somewhere like that would really 'send' me ...
As for the happy-clappy stuff ... I don't have any real objection to it - despite my chunterings on these boards - but find that I'm increasingly indifferent towards it. It neither 'moves' me nor annoys me ... but I don't particularly want to be around when it's taking place.
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Let us with a gladsome mind
Praise the Lord for He is kind.
http://philthebard.blogspot.com
Posts: 15997 | From: Cheshire, UK | Registered: Jul 2001
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StevHep
Shipmate
# 17198
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Posted
I think that Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament can be a profound experience. There are some parishes in cities where the Sacrament is displayed during the working day so that shoppers or workers can just pop in for a few minutes to find some spiritual time and ease of heart amidst other preoccupations.
Sometimes Exposition of the Sacrament is united with Vespers which combines all sorts of elements, silence, prayer, Gregorian chant, incense, Scripture readings. These can really lead to a person leaving the service in a completely different frame of mind than when they entered.
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My Blog Catholic Scot
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Posts: 241 | From: Exeter | Registered: Jul 2012
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Gamaliel
Shipmate
# 812
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Posted
The residually Protestant part of me baulks at aspects of Exposition ... but I can see what SteveHep is saying and can see that 'physical actions' - whether following a 'prayer labyrinth' or walking to a pilgrimage site can add real value.
It's not all about singing songs.
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Let us with a gladsome mind
Praise the Lord for He is kind.
http://philthebard.blogspot.com
Posts: 15997 | From: Cheshire, UK | Registered: Jul 2001
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Oscar the Grouch
Adopted Cascadian
# 1916
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Posted
I think it depends on my mood.
- If I want something to "wash over" me, then an Orthodox service will do fine, especially with a good choir.
- A thoughtful Taize service
- An "ordinary" Parish Holy Communion during Advent (as long as we get to sing "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel")
- A sunrise Easter service on the beach
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Faradiu, dundeibáwa weyu lárigi weyu
Posts: 3871 | From: Gamma Quadrant, just to the left of Galifrey | Registered: Dec 2001
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Magersfontein Lugg
Shipmate
# 18240
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Posted
I am sure that it varies depending where we are in life.
I remember a few years back going to a House Church praise service when life was hard for me and I found the experience deeply upsetting. It seemed so full of false heartiness - just what I didn't want. I say 'seemed,' because I think it was more about where I was. At that time quiet Compline would be best.
Sometimes in worship I find the spiritual more in the horizontal - among others, over fellowship, in 'doing it' together. (I guess the imminent God )
But then for my soul at other times the transcendent is what feeds. Then I often find stillness and quiet, with others, good - and yes, say, Evensong or Benediction.
And yes why is the silence, the beauty, the richness of image and word, getting more difficult to find in the dear old C of E!
Posts: 104 | From: Bottle Street | Registered: Oct 2014
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Zappa
Ship's Wake
# 8433
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Posted
For three decades now nothing for me has surpassed Eucharist, sung, said, or mimed. Not that I've ever attended a mimed liturgy but it would move me equally. To recall the saving acts of God and then experience their incarnation in the elements (whether I am presiding or participating in other ways) is beyond-words-sacred and there is for me no near match.
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shameless self promotion - because I think it's worth it
and mayhap this too: http://broken-moments.blogspot.co.nz/
Posts: 18917 | From: "Central" is all they call it | Registered: Sep 2004
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Magersfontein Lugg
Shipmate
# 18240
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Posted
I too find sacramental worship very important.
And yet too Quaker meeting for worship too.
Ethos / preparation before it all begins is helpful to me too. I hate a noisy church that then crashes into worship
Posts: 104 | From: Bottle Street | Registered: Oct 2014
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womanspeak
Shipmate
# 15394
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Posted
In my old age I feel really fed by lively worship singing. I spent a week this year at a Bush Church Aid retreat with fellow missionaries from all over Australia.
And while the whole week was heavenly for a couple who usually travel and minister apart from out home church for most of the year, it was the worship band and the whole hearted praise of 100 faithful Christian families that fed the spirit.
A fiddler and pianist from SA, an Aboriginal singer from NSW, plus bass, percussion, drums and lead guitar and singer in a moving feast of musicians each morning for morning prayer fed my very soul.
As one who usually experiences very ordinary musicianship in church,( the dreaded 90 yr old slowing down organist) the enthusiasm and inclusiveness of lively modern music was almost too much.
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from the bush
Posts: 62 | From: rural australia | Registered: Jan 2010
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Gamaliel
Shipmate
# 812
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Posted
Interesting ... it makes a change to hear some more positive and appreciative reactions towards contemporary worship styles ... they are usually criticised on these boards.
I think it reinforces the view I'm coming to that it's all a matter of 'context' ...
If you're out in the bush or on the mission field or something then the kind of high-octane worship-songs/chorus format is going to give you a boost.
What I found, though, when I was involved with churches whose main worship diet consisted of that sort of approach, was that it soon cloyed and became 'the norm' - I was desperate to get to a traditional 1662 service or similar for some respite ...
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
A lot of it depends on what's going on around us and what the context is ...
Personally, I wouldn't lose any sleep if I never attended a service such as Womanspeak describes ever, ever again ...
I wouldn't have a visceral reaction against it, nor would I dismiss its value or importance for those who are participating in it ... but it wouldn't be where I was 'at' ...
Equally, where I'm now 'at' isn't where other people are 'at' and they'd struggle with I'd go for just as I'd struggle with their 'thang'.
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Let us with a gladsome mind
Praise the Lord for He is kind.
http://philthebard.blogspot.com
Posts: 15997 | From: Cheshire, UK | Registered: Jul 2001
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Jengie jon
Semper Reformanda
# 273
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Magersfontein Lugg:
Ethos / preparation before it all begins is helpful to me too. I hate a noisy church that then crashes into worship
I have worked close enough with charismatic worship leaders (I worked the OHP) to know that what you experience as random noise is anything but. There is a slight difference. The planning looks far more like an emergency planning session than a military manoeuvre. It has a lot of "If this then that... ". This is so as make it responsive to Holy Spirit/worshipping congregation. This includes repetitions and such.
Actually my impression is a lot more care is put into selecting what is sung by the congregation in your average Charismatic Service than is your average Anglican family communion.
Yes I know how it sounds (I have hyperacussis, and loud means to me cacophonic. I avoid opera for much the same reason. However, the volume, the music style and such responsive planning do not add up to a lack of planning. Yes some people like to know exactly what is coming next but others like to feel that worship responds to them.
Jengie
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"To violate a persons ability to distinguish fact from fantasy is the epistemological equivalent of rape." Noretta Koertge
Back to my blog
Posts: 20894 | From: city of steel, butterflies and rainbows | Registered: May 2001
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Gamaliel
Shipmate
# 812
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Posted
Most self-respecting charismatic churches have gone beyond the OHP these days, Jengie Jon ... but I know what you're getting at and wouldn't disagree when it comes to comparisons with - generally baneful - Anglican 'Family Worship' ...
Indeed, I'd largely suggest that the use of worship-songs and choruses doesn't tend to 'work' so well in less avowedly charismatic settings precisely because they are missing out on the dynamic that you are alluding to.
There is a kind of unwritten 'expectation' within charismatic circles - which doesn't necessarily imply it's false or 'forced' - about what the 'worship set' approach is intended to achieve. Consequently - whether consciously or unconsciously - there's a kind of two-way flow going on between the worship leader/s and the congregation ... which isn't generally the case - or conducted in quite the same way - in more 'traditional' settings.
The danger, I think, is that this two-way interaction can lead to a certain level of dependency and also creates space and opportunity for emotional manipulation. But the mileage varies.
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Let us with a gladsome mind
Praise the Lord for He is kind.
http://philthebard.blogspot.com
Posts: 15997 | From: Cheshire, UK | Registered: Jul 2001
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Magersfontein Lugg
Shipmate
# 18240
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Posted
I find difficult services that try too much and so are embarrassing or a strain. I went a few months ago to a country church whichj had the old BCP and 5 hymns from ancient and modern (an old edition) and about ten of us there with a not very good organist. It was such a strain and not very spiritual I am sorry to say.
How much better if we'd had warmth (it was cold) - simple gentle recorded music and sat quiet instead of all those hymns and then sang two hymns...
But thats where I was maybe the old lady next to me thought the opposite!
Posts: 104 | From: Bottle Street | Registered: Oct 2014
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womanspeak
Shipmate
# 15394
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Posted
Maggestfontein Lugg I concur.
I have experienced too many badly sung, badly accompanied Sung Eucharists in small country churches with clergy robed to the nines in century breaking temperatures.
I love cathedral worship but the nearest is 700 kms away. And yet some clergy feel that the only true worship is an Oxford Movement influenced Eucharist with bells and smells and sung responses in the wrong context of a small ( less than twenty) congregation with few musical resources.
The result does not feed the spirit but alienates newcomers and regulars alike.
I've moved on to a more responsive denomination whose music is a simple combination of modern worship songs accompanied by guitar and piano accompanied hymns which suits the context of all age worship. Worshippers include a large number of runaway Anglicans like me and manspeak.
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from the bush
Posts: 62 | From: rural australia | Registered: Jan 2010
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Gamaliel
Shipmate
# 812
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Posted
I can understand all that, Womanspeak, even though these days my inclination is to flee in the opposite direction from the one you've chosen ...
I don't see why traditional forms of worship need be disengaging and off-putting in and of itself, but sadly they often are because delivery can leave much to be desired.
Mind you, 20 people in a hall somewhere trying to replicate the sound and atmosphere of one of the big evangelical rallies doesn't work any better than attempts to replicate cathedral worship in a tin-hut somewhere with nine people and a dog.
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Let us with a gladsome mind
Praise the Lord for He is kind.
http://philthebard.blogspot.com
Posts: 15997 | From: Cheshire, UK | Registered: Jul 2001
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no prophet's flag is set so...
Proceed to see sea
# 15560
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Posted
To those who are lucky enough to have all these services and settings, I can only be jealous. With the limited resources and sparse churches, ths best service for Anglican, Lutheran or RC is one without country gospel.
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Out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety.
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Posts: 11498 | From: Treaty 6 territory in the nonexistant Province of Buffalo, Canada ↄ⃝' | Registered: Mar 2010
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georgiaboy
Shipmate
# 11294
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Posted
There is a hymn that begins 'Sometimes a light surprises the Christian while he sings.'
I am fortunate to worship in a parish which offers a daily low mass at 8 am; I intend to be there every day and usually get there. The format almost never varies: low mass (in complete vestments) 2 lessons, a brief homily if a saint's day, the so-called 'Gregorian' canon; attendance varies from 2 to 15.
Some days I feel like it's just playing the auto-tape, but this morning 'the light surprised'. I had been pretty much dreading Christmas Eve and was feeling rather cranky about it all, and today's mass just picked me up and wrung me out. (In the best possible sense).
So you never can predict, but just give thanks when it happens.
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You can't retire from a calling.
Posts: 1675 | From: saint meinrad, IN | Registered: Apr 2006
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sabine
Shipmate
# 3861
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Posted
Four-part acapella singing at the Mennonite Church I attend. (I am still a Quaker, but I love this congregation--so engaged with the world and all it's needs/issues/brokenness....)
But back to the singing. I cannot read music, and you wouldn't want to hear me sing by myself. But in community, I find my place and it comes together in a lovely sound that makes me want to be a sister to my fellow humans in kinder ways.
sabine
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"Hunger looks like the man that hunger is killing." Eduardo Galeano
Posts: 5887 | From: the US Heartland | Registered: Dec 2002
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