Copyright: © 1999 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.

In the early years of my ministry, one of my heroes and mentors was J.A.T.Robinson, the (Anglican) Bishop of Woolwich. In 1963 he caused a sensation in the British Isles with his Honest to God, a popular introduction to the thought of Tillich, Bonhoeffer, and Bultmann, who were largely unfamiliar, until then, to an English-speaking public. But Robinson caught my eye three years earlier -- thanks to another hero and mentor, Henry Horn -- with his Liturgy Coming to Life, one of the three books that I can claim have changed my life significantly.

We actually crossed paths, Robinson and I, on two occasions. First, he was theologian-in- residence for a full week during the Spring of 1969 at the Graduate School of Ecumenical Studies at Bossey, Switzerland, where I was a student; it was fun to get to pick his brain during those days.

Second, he came in the mid-'Eighties as guest lecturer at the University of Waterloo, where I was serving as Lutheran Campus Pastor. In his remarks that day, he urged his audience (an ecumenical cross-section of contemporary Christianity) to keep a focus on the central issues of faith, and not to concern themselves overmuch about what he called the edges. Addressing the then-current fundamentalist revival on campuses and its ecclesiology, he urged us not to worry obsessively about who is inside the edge of our orthodoxies and who is outside that edge; let's all keep an eye instead, he said, on the centre.

In the question period that followed his address, I asked this of him: "If we are to keep our attention focussed on the centre of faith, what is that centre? Could you define that centre in twenty-five words or less?"

Without a thought, he shot back: "I can do it in less than twenty words. It's this: the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ; the love of God; and the communion of the Holy Spirit." I found myself grinning in satisfaction at this splendid response.

And, ever after, grinding my teeth at those pastors who begin worship each week with a cheery "Good morning!"

"Good morning!..."? "The Lord be with you..."? "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ..."? Whatever: Does it make any difference how you begin worship? As it effects your eternal salvation, gentle reader: not at all. But as it effects vital and faithful liturgy: everything! This question, that is, pertains (yet again!) to the First Article of the Creed, not to the Second. But there ought to be -- there is! -- a better way to begin worship than with that vapid cheer. Each time I hear it, I think of that mindless classroom litany:

Teacher: "Good morning, children." Pupils: "Good morning, Miss Weyerheuser." In my mind's eye, I see that inane yellow circle with the smiley face. And my teeth grind.

And they grind again, five minutes later, after the Entrance Hymn, when the minister dashes off a second Greeting, a perfunctory "The grace of our Lord..." without putting any apparent thought -- or heart! -- into these splendid, gracious, life-changing words that constitute the Apostolic Greeting.

OK, you say. But what about announcements? Do you just charge into parish notices, before worship begins, without any ritual acknowledgement that there are people out there in front of you?

And what about the Brief Order for Confession?

First, this Important Principle: I'd want to preserve those gracious words of the Apostolic Greeting -- THE centre of our faith, after all, according to Robinson! -- as the first public words of the Presiding Minister. When I lead worship, I'm going to insist that some way be found so that the very first public words out of my mouth are "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ..." And I'm going to mean them, as an intensely personal greeting. And I'm going to try to deliver those words so as to suggest that I do mean them, as an intensely personal greeting.

That's first. I say "my first public words", above, because it's my custom to greet each worshipper, individually, at the narthex door, before worship begins, sometimes even walking among the pews, during the Prelude, to "press the flesh" of worshippers who got to their seats before I emerged from the vestry.

This, in turn, means that I must get my act together, in chancel and in pulpit, and with acolytes and assisting ministers, well before worship begins. Many liturgists these days are arguing that to greet worshippers at the door, as they enter, before worship begins, is even more important than greeting them at the door after the Service is over. You are, after all, the host of the party; and hosts greet guests as they enter.

What about announcements, then? Or the Confession? My best suggestion: Get someone else to do them.

Parish notices can certainly be announced, before worship begins, by a lay leader in the congregation, perhaps the chair of the Church Council. Perhaps better yet would be to delay their announcement until later in the rite, say, before the First Lesson. There's no ideal place for announcements, and you do need them. It's a problem I haven't seen successfully solved in 45 years of ministry. Any good ideas out there?

As for the Confession, don't use it at all, on many Sundays. I'd forget the Confession on every "white" day -- that is, when the liturgical colour is white -- and on every "red" day too. You don't need a Confession every Sunday. The entire Mass, every week, has the character of confession.

On Sundays when a Confession is appropriate (throughout Lent or Advent, for example), I'd enlist, if possible, a retired pastor in the congregation to lead it for me, if I were presider. (Not incidentally, you might enlist retirees, as well, to preside and preach, every now and then, and so give them opportunity to exercise their ordination, even in retirement. They'd feel honoured.)

And if you don't have another ordained pastor in your membership?

Then you've got a problem, at least in Lent and Advent. It's inappropriate to ask a lay person to lead the Confession, of course. (And of course, we're still talking First Article!) I suppose, during Advent and Lent, you'll have to violate my Important Principle, above, at least if you're the sole ordained pastor in that place. (Life is a compromise: "There's no free lunch", not even in liturgy.) Perhaps during Advent and Lent, and whenever pastoral considerations suggest that a Confession is appropriate, you could separate the Confession from the Mass itself by inserting the Prelude between them.

Anyone out there with a better idea? I'm listening.