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]