Copyright: © 1996 Paul F. Bosch.
This document may be freely reproduced for non-commercial purposes with credit to the author and mention of the Lift Up Your Hearts web site http://www.worship.ca/ as the source.

What's the most frustrating aspect of teaching worship, in a Seminary setting -- or, for that matter, in a parish setting? After almost forty years of teaching worship, formally and informally, in one setting or the other, I have a three-part answer: 1) the constraints of word-reductionism; 2) the presuppositions of popular piety; and 3) the limitations imposed by a contempt for the three R's of ritual. Let me spell out each of these in turn.

Word Reductionism

1) "Word-reductionism" is my own term. Is there a better one? I stand ready to modify my terminology -- for the view you encounter so often in our parishes that reduces all the meanings of Christian worship to the sense residing in the words used there. In this "word-reductionist" view, that is, worship consists almost exclusively of words: words sung in hymns, words prayed in prayers, words read from scripture, words preached in sermons. And if we have the words down right, in this view, that's all that matters.

Word-reductionism, that is, is content to focus its energies almost exclusively on texts, ignoring all the non-verbal elements that are a necessary and indispensable aspect of Christian worship: the architectural arrangement; the postures and gestures of corporate prayer; the music of our hymns and chants; the artifacts of worship such as book, bread, and cup. Word-reductionism dismisses each of these as "merely adiaphora", and denigrates concern for them as elitist.

But Christian corporate worship embraces word and action -- and even things: stuff. Even non-sacramental Christian worship, such as Evening Prayer, is informed and shaped by a sacramental spirit, an incarnational spirit. Adiaphora are never "merely adiaphora" -- there is a pedagogical potential in all of the non-verbal elements in Christian worship: architecture, action, artifacts. These adiaphora also speak; they teach.

So concern for the non-verbal aspects of worship is not fuss-buggety elitism; it is simply part of our homiletical homework. Worship is action: people doing something together. After all, Jesus said at the Last Supper, "Do this..."

Popular Piety

2) Popular piety is a second source of frustration in teaching worship. It's evident in the view, more often implied than spoken, that seems to say, "I've been a Christian all my life; I've been praying all my life. I don't need to learn anything about prayer. Besides, one person's prayer is as good as any other person's prayer..."

But private prayer is one thing; Christian public prayer is quite another. And leading Christian corporate prayer is still another. Sorry: If you intend to lead Christian corporate prayer, you have some learning to do. Why should anyone assume there's lots to learn in Biblical studies, let's say, or Church history, and NOT assume there's anything to learn in Christian worship?

Popular piety becomes the enemy of worship when it imagines there's nothing to be learned about Christian public prayer.

The Three R's of Ritual

3) The third enemy of worship education is an often-unspoken contempt for what I would call the three R's of ritual: rites, rubrics, and roles. You can find this contempt in the view that refuses to honor the integrity of the rites of our tradition; the rubrics or "stage-directions" in our service books; and the distinctive roles or ministries of our various worship leaders.

Contempt for rites, for example, shows itself in an inappropriate mixing of worship forms from one rite to another, without regard to the integrity of each of the rites themselves. Contempt for rubrics is manifested in a kind of ritual slovenliness: remaining seated, rather than standing, for example, at the singing of hymns or at the exchange of a liturgical response. And contempt for the distinct roles of leadership in worship is evidence of an ignorance of the importance of the varied ministries in corporate worship: presiding minister, assisting minister, lector, acolyte, server, usher, musician, greeter.

Of course, it may well be that the rites in our present worship books need revision; it may well be that our current rubrics need a second look; that our current designations of ministry and service in the roles of worship leaders need reformation. There is nothing human that cannot be improved. And as the poet says, "Time makes ancient good uncouth."

Nevertheless, it would be prudent, at the very least, for pastors and people to honour what the Church has given us in its tradition, and humbly seek to learn from it; to let it work its work in us; to let it teach us, shape us, correct us.

Reform and renewal will surely come -- even to our rites and rubrics and roles of leadership -- but only after we've learned, and learned to love, what we've already got, in humility and gracious openness to the Spirit's gentle suasion.