a priest's musings on the journey

So, the head rector wants us to be creative for Pentecost. His vision is an ancient-future, emergent liturgy in which the experiecne of worship is itself the sermon. He envisions something Rite 3-ish (and since this is the third Mass of the day that's permitted by the rubrics). We will have Baptisms on that day- and so I have suggested we baptize by immersion. My other thought has been to project images of icons and symbols of the Holy Spirit and the Fruits and Gifts of the Spirit on the wall throughout the liturgy. But that's all I have... and even that, I am sure, will unsettle the ECW. I am after all a good Anglo Catholic boy... The very idea of Rite 3 on Sunday unsettles me. Nonetheless, I will be a dutiful assistant and try and create a liturgy that is both creative- as the rector desires (in praise of the Creative Spirit) and transcendant. I would ask for help from you all, though, because I really have no idea what I am doing. It is not my nature to *create and innovate liturgy*... So, what are your ideas? What does liturgical, creative, experiential worship for Pentecost look like? Share your ideas pelase!!!

Thanks

Come to us, Creative Spirit

Bravo to your Rector and Bravo to you for taking the ride!

A suggestion from my SGN days: the congregation was invited to bring in Bibles of their languages, or languages of their ancestors or languages of their learning - whatever. Google 'em on the internet and print them out...

The Gospel-of-the-day was read in Koine by a deacon. Then, suddenly, the entire room would erupt in these languages - everyone reading aloud in their tongues. As the tongues subside, the Gospel is read in English.

I second Huw. This is also a perfect opportunity to use language that is not exclusive because of overwhelming maleness. (I'm not saying get rid of maleness, I'm saying do not let it dominate the language of our prayer.) We worked on this very hard at Good Shepherd, Berkeley (with some fine liturgical scholars who also had a feminist consciousness) and we also had language that honored creation. I will see if I can dig out some of our old worship leaflets, I saved a lot of them because they were so beautiful. Good luck!

Even traditional congregations these days use a multi-lingual approach for Pentecost.

Hey Rob, I'm still working on the liturgy and researching for you. I hope to be of some help.