More bliss

On a similar vein, this afternoon, I had another escape to Sparkly Bear, this time for a brief perambulation around K-Mart, where I bought a nice novel - as a further incentive to finish all my assignments- and look forward to reading it once all my work is done and dusted.

After that, I indulged in coffee and cake at one of the cafés, and spent some time working on the composition of some prayers that are part of my assignment for Worship class. It was actually quite relaxing to be in a different space and working on prayers of intercession with themes for particular times in the church year.

In total, there are three pieces of work: 2 sets of prayers- a prayer of confession (including assurance of forgiveness) and prayer of intercession - for 2 different occasions in the church calendar. From the options we were given, I selected the first Sunday of Lent and the 7th Sunday after Pentecost. In addition to these two pairs of prayers (hey, I'm a poet! :-) we also need to write a brief blurb suitable for a weekly pew sheet on one of a list of topics, of which I chose the significance of Lent (with particular attention to matters of liturgy).

It's been an interesting discipline to write these prayers from scratch, with a certain degree of creativity and expression of my own personality, but also within the appropriate liturgical framework. One of the nice things about the Uniting Church is that we don't have a "Book of Common Prayer" that ministers must follow slavishly, word-for-word, but rather we have an approach of "ordered liberty" where we have a directory of worship (called Uniting in Worship, and the more recent edition is Uniting in Worship 2 - very creative nomenclature, eh? :-), which contains orders of worship, examples of prayers, collects, scripture sentences etc that may be used as is, but also may be adapted, edited, added to etc, as there is no compulsion on the minister to use any of these, and it is quite acceptable to compose one's own prayers or liturgy for most occasions.

However, there is still an acceptable framework, based on the theological understandings of the Uniting Church, (so that people don't do or say totally outrageous things- this is where the "ordered" part comes in), but within this framework, there is much scope for flexibility (the "liberty"). So for me, it has been an interesting exercise to bring my past experience of (and penchant for) the extemporaneous style of prayer into a partnership with the discipline of the appropriate form, content, theology etc... and also to 'road test' to ensure that whatever I have written actually flows off the tongue in a fairly graceful (and hopefully even poetic) manner, and doesn't sound outrageously pretentious when I say it out loud.

A little inspiration and leading from the Spirit is also an essential part of the mix, as I am intending for these prayers to be 'real', and to actually use them in worship some time in the future.

In my 'past life', I had a fairly major aversion to pre-written prayers and liturgies as not allowing any space for the leading of the Spirit (hence my preference for extemporaneous everything!) One of the things I have come to really appreciate in recent years is that it is actually possible for the Holy Spirit to provide inspiration and leadership to people who prayerfully sit down to craft prayers and liturgies in advance (and not just at the moment when they stand up to pray the prayer)!

(But I bet you knew that already, didn't you? :-)

And just to give you an example of what I'm talking about, this is the beginning of my favourite Great Prayer of Thanksgiving (which appears in Uniting in Worship 2). I don't think I've ever heard an extemporaneous prayer that was so poetic and beautiful, but yet no matter how many times I have heard it ministered, it never ceases to be real, and bring me into God's presence in a special way.

Thanks and praise, glory and honour are rightly yours,
our Lord and God,
for you alone are worthy.
In time beyond our dreaming
you brought forth life out of darkness,
and in the love of Christ your Son
you set man and woman at the heart of your creation.

And so we praise you
with the faithful of every time and place,
joining with choirs of angels
and the whole creation
in the eternal hymn:

Holy, holy, holy Lord,
God of power and might,
heaven and earth are full of your glory.
Hosanna in the highest.

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest.

We thank you that you called a covenant people
to be a light to the nations.
Through Moses you taught us to love your law,
and in the prophets you cried out for justice.

In the fullness of your mercy
you became one with us in Jesus Christ,
who gave himself up for us on the cross.
You make us alive together with him,
that we may rejoice in his presence
and share his peace.

By water and the Spirit
you open the kingdom to all who believe,
and welcome us to your table:
for by grace we are saved, through faith.

(the prayer then goes on to outline the institution of the Eucharist, and ultimately leads to the liturgy of the sharing of Holy Communion)