What is in Kelvin's Head?

US Liturgy Resources new downloads

12/11/2013
One of the busiest sets of pages on the Scottish Episcopal Church’s website is the set of pages which allow people to download the liturgies of the Scottish Episcopal Church. This has been the case for quite a while and was very much proved when we had a difficult week last year when the site was hacked and went off-line. All of a sudden we started to hear from people who needed, sometimes urgently needed, some liturgical resource or another. People seem particulaly interested in the Marriage Rite as clergy use that with couples in helping them to plan their special day.

Anyway, good news on the horizon from over the Atlantic with the news that the US based Episcopal Church is also now allowing its liturgical resources to be downloaded freely online. Like here, you can still buy the books but you can download the pdfs too.

There’s quite a lot to have a look at too and some of it is excellent stuff that we just don’t have over here, like pastoral material for using with families when life-support coming to an end and a lot of material for different pastoral situations like the death of an infant.

Well worth a look.

Here’s what you can download:
- The US Book of Common Prayer – note for UK audience, this is mostly modern language material.
- Enriching Our Worship 1: Morning and Evening Prayer, the Great Litany, and the Holy Eucharist
- Enriching Our Worship 2: Ministry with the Sick or Dying; Burial of a Child
- Enriching Our Worship 3: Burial Rites for Adults, together with a Rite for the Burial of a Child – including the Burial of one who does not profess the Christian faith
- Enriching Our Worship 4: The Renewal of Ministry and the Welcoming of a New Rector or Other Pastor
- Enriching Our Worship 5: Liturgies and Prayers Related to Childbearing, Childbirth, and Loss – note the resources dealing with infertility which we’ve not even begun to think about in liturgical terms over here
There’s also the new US resources for blessing same-sex couples that can be downloaded. (I say merely in passing that I don’t actually think that much of this venture, but that’s for another day).

One of the interesting things, particularly for those of us in congregations with an international flavour is that some of these resources are available in German, French and of course, Spanish. Having good quality liturgy translated already into other languages is a big bonus.

All well worth having a look through. Hurrah for the internet and hurrah for people prepared to share these gifts of God.

[Tip of the biretta to Scott Gunn]
liturgies, US Episcopal Church

7 responses to “Well-meaning but homophobic”

June Butler

26/08/2014

Seems to me “well-meaning but homophobic” in these days and times implies vincible ignorance and is no longer useful as an excuse for homophobic language. The leaders of the C of E seem paralyzed, unable to articulate policies to move forward on equality for LGTB persons that are other than laughable. Think “deer in the headlights”.

Reply
Lawrence Rosenfeld

26/08/2014

I suppose @RevArun might say that women are welcome for the same reason, eh?

Reply
1. margaret of the sea of galilee
  
  27/08/2014
  
  Exactly what I thought.
  
  Reply
Kelvin

26/08/2014

I’ve removed a previous comment. I’d prefer to retain the focus on the institutional elements of this rather than speculating about an individual.

Reply
Dharma Nicodemus Cuthbert

26/08/2014

As society changes many people are not sure of the new, and therefore condemn it, without thought. I am safe, with the Devil l know. It’s a way of life, not dealing with changes. If we think about how much has changed; homosexuality was illegal until 1969 in England; Scotland caught up in 1983; women have a right to equal pay; the only job that is still excluded from them is working down a mine:
There are men who are prepared to wait to see a male doctor, especially if it is the genitals.
Racism is not tolerated by most, but it is still used by people who want a reaction. There was, when the world and I were young, a shoe polish, called nigger brown. This wasn’t considered at the time as being wrong.

Reply
John O’Leary

27/08/2014

I take your point, and I don’t disagree. If we look at another person and only see the gay part as ‘broken’, then that’s homophobic, no matter how well intentioned. Plus I always find something disturbingly patronising when people say ‘We’re all broken’, as if the speaker doesn’t quite believe it of him/herself, while seeing it very clearly in the other.

However, there’s another way of looking at it. The very fact that we are human means that we are broken. If being gay is part of that humanity, then it’s part also of that brokenness. It’s all part of the messy mixture that we struggle with, and build our rickety lives with, but for which we also should praise and thank God.

Reply
Allan Ronald

27/08/2014

‘Thinking Anglicans’ has a post up about Vicky Beeching’s coming out but does not link to the discussion here. I asked why but they did not reply let alone publish my question.

Reply