Copyright: © 1998 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.

Parts of this essay first appeared in Gathered for Worship a resource for worship published in 1995 by the ELCIC. Portions of Gathered for Worship are available in Section 3: Helps for Leaders in Worship and Spirituality, at the Lift Up Your Hearts site.

I confess to having risked offending your pieties, gentle reader -- not for the first time! -- in my most recent essay in this space: See Essay 17: "The Cincture Test", above. Let me take the same risk again, with what I call my "ribbon test": You show me a pastor who does not utilize the ribbon page-markers in the "altar book" (that is, the LBW Ministers Edition: LBW/ME) when leading worship, and I'll show you a worship leader who is, at best, careless about the tools of her trade, and, at worst, contemptuous of the First Article of the Creed. (See Essay 17, et al, above, for the theological premise that informs this polemic.)

(You say you don't use the LBW/ME in leading worship at all? For shame! The Liturgy Police are sure to haul you off before the Judge of Ritual Offenses, who will pronounce your guilt and your sentence: To sing for the rest of your life only "praise choruses" from overhead projectors in mega-church "worship opportunities" featuring "entertainment evangelism". "Oh! The horror! The horror!" I hear you whimpering: "Mercy, righteous Judge!" Still the Judge is unyielding... But I digress...)

First, the book itself, the LBW/ME. Then, its ribbons.

The LBW/ME is a large, handsome book with hubbed binding, gilt page-edges, and multi-coloured ribbon page-markers. It could be thought of as one of the most important tools in any pastor's toolbox. When used in the leadership of worship, it is one of the marks of your presidency, your leadership. For the large altar book in the leadership of public worship, the smaller "Ministers Desk Edition" (LBW/MDE) -- like the "pew edition" -- is not an appropriate substitute. That volume is intended to be just what its title suggests: an edition for use in the pastor's study, on the pastor's desk. The smaller volume is lacking, for the purposes of leading public worship, in three respects:

1) It does not possess ribbon page-markers (see below);

2) It does not include the small bracketed page designations that correlate its pages with those of the "pew edition;" and

3) It is simply too small to be visually satisfying in public worship.

All three considerations are important. Worship leaders, ordained and lay, will want to get into the habit of using the altar book exclusively for the leadership of public worship. Pastors do well to train themselves, their Assisting Ministers, and their Acolytes, to become familiar with it. The altar book is designed specifically for the leadership of corporate worship: the worship leader's role is printed in large, boldface type, and its size and scale are visually satisfying, in a way the other two volumes cannot match.

The altar book, further, will be a symbol that functions. The altar book will not remain on the altar unused throughout the Service: rather, at the entrance, the pastor will carry it in procession to the place of presiding, or enlist an Acolyte to carry it. The Assisting Minister will sing the chants of the entrance rite from its pages; the Prayer of the Day (the Collect) will be read from it. The altar book will be carried to the altar at the Offertory, placed there on missal stand or pillow, and used at the Great Prayer of Thanksgiving. The Assisting Minister will read the Post-Communion (dismissal) Prayer from its pages. (Note, however, that the Apostolic Greeting and the Benediction will surely be committed to memory. Presiders will not need a text in front of them for these supremely personal moments.)

As for the ribbon page markers: Get in the habit of using them! An altar book bristling with paperclips or "Post-it" notes is not an edifying sight for the assembly. Instead, devise a system for the use of ribbon page-markers that makes sense to you, and stick with it, week after week. "The green ribbon marks the Propers for the Day; the red ribbon follows, page by page, through the order of worship for the Day; the blue ribbon identifies the Proper Preface each Sunday; the maroon ribbon for the Psalm..." -- that kind of thing. You'll be surprised how useful they can be!

You can even develop the habit of "stacking" your ribbons by angling each ribbon you'll use so that they exit at the page-edge opposite the spine. These are the "live" ribbons. "Dead" ribbons -- the ribbons you won't use, and the ribbons you've used already -- rest along the binding, and exit the volume at the spine. Then the first ribbon you'll use is positioned near the bottom of the page-edge; the second ribbon you'll use is positioned -- "stacked" -- just above that; and so on, up the page-edge. As each ribbon is used, place it in its "dead" position, at the binding: only "live" ribbons remain at the page-edge.

Granted that my temperament may be only a little less obsessive- compulsive than that of the Jack Nicholson character in As Good As It Gets (Have you seen that movie? Marvellous!): still, I'll argue that proper respect for the tools of your trade, including the altar book and its ribbons, identifies you as a careful and competent "mechanic" in worship leadership. Why should we expect worship leaders to be less loving in the respect they show to their "tools" than the mechanic who works on your car at the garage? Surely worship leaders should likewise love and respect the "tools" of their "trade" -- not excluding the LBW/ME.

Further: If I sound obsessive-compulsive and fuss-budgetty in this description, you should know that those ribbons are a godsend on Sundays, once you develop a system for their use! Not for nothing have altar books been fitted with ribbon page-markers for generations!

As for those of you determined NOT to use the ribbons -- or even the altar book! -- despite my pleadings here: Be assured that Jesus still loves you, and so may other people. (Even I will be willing to love you!) And you may have many other fine gifts for ministry: preaching, teaching, counselling, parish administration. But I don't want you leading worship in my congregation! At least, not without your doing some homework.