Planning the Church Year

Planning the Church Year

A comprehensive, detailed handbook for the entire liturgical year that includes colors, music, and decorations for each season and occasion. This guide for clergy, parish musicians, lay readers, and congregational representatives covers all the stages of organizing worship services for the entire year. Using The Book of Common Prayer and Hymnal 1982 as primary resources, it explores the rich variety of options―both time-honored traditions and accepted innovations. Times and seasons covered in depth include Advent, the Twelve Days of Christmas, Lent and Holy Week, Easter and the Great Fifty Days, and the Sundays after Epiphany and Pentecost. Planning the Church Year explains the preparations that make for meaningful holy days and special occasions, such as Lesser Feasts, Thanksgiving Day, Vigils, Michaelmas, All Saints’ Day, the bishop’s visitation, the Patronal and Dedication Festivals. Leonel L. Mitchell was an Episcopal priest, theologian, and professor of Liturgics at Seabury-Western Seminary. He is the author of Planning the Church Year, The Way We Pray: An Introduction to the Book of Common Prayer, and Pastoral and Occasional Liturgies: A Ceremonial Guide. He died in 2012. Planning the Church Year By Leonel L. Mitchell Church Publishing Incorporated Copyright © 1985 Leonard L. Mitchell All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-0-8192-1554-3 Contents 1. What Do We Mean by Liturgical Planning?2. Who Should Do the Liturgical Planning?3. Getting Started on Planning4. Planning for Advent5. Planning for the Twelve Days of Christmas6. The Baptism of Christ7. Planning for Lent8. Planning for Holy Week9. Planning for Easter and the Great Fifty Days10. The Seasons after Epiphany and Pentecost11. Holy Days and Special Occasions CHAPTER 1 What Do We Mean by Liturgical Planning? Many Episcopalians seem to feel that, since we have a Book of Common Prayer ,liturgical planning is unnecessary. Once upon a time, it is true, someone had tochoose whether we use Rite One or Rite Two for this service. But since that hasalready been decided once and for all, no further planning is necessary. All youneed is to get a calendar to tell you what the proper lessons are, to choosethree familiar hymns from the available list of about twenty-five, to ask thechoir director the name of the anthem for the program, and we are ready tostart. I hope this picture is wildly exaggerated, but I have attended many servicesthat leave me wondering whether it is. Some parishes ignore all possible optionsand always conduct the service in a single inflexible way, as if this had beenhanded down from heaven on golden tablets. Others approach the options providedin the Prayer Book with the enthusiasm of a teenager at a "build-your-own-sundae" counter. There is no thought of congruity and coherence but boundlessenthusiasm for getting some of everything. Considering the Options What is necessary is to consider the various options available in the servicesof The Book of Common Prayer as a part of a total program in which theindividual elements are seen primarily as parts of an integrated whole,including readings, prayers, hymns, service music, and sermon. This process iscalled liturgical planning. If we do not plan, we soon fall short of even theminimum requirements of the Prayer Book. We sink into "We always do Rite One,"or a mindless mix-and-match of incomprehensible alternatives. The individualelements may be excellent, but the service itself appears to have been assembledfrom the menu of a Chinese restaurant, taking two items from column A, one fromcolumn B, etc. The liturgical year is neglected, and the Christmas midnighteucharist becomes distinguishable from Ash Wednesday only by the hymns and thecolor of the vestments. There is no continuity or integrity in the services fromSunday to Sunday, and we come to the end of a liturgical season with the feelingthat there has been no overall theme or plan to what we have experienced,although some of the individual moments may have been excellent. I say thesethings, not from any lofty vantage point of omnicompetence from which to lookdown on others, but as a fellow offender and one who is twice guilty because heteaches others how to do what he so often fails to do. Liturgy and Church Life Liturgy is the expression of the life of the Church. It expresses our unity inthe One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. It is our bond of unity with otherChristians and in particular with those with whom we are bound in communion .This is not simply a technical term. It means those with whom we celebrate theeucharist and receive communion, for our common liturgy binds us together. Theliturgy of The Book of Common Prayer identifies us as a congregation of theEpiscopal Church. It visibly identifies this congregation with othercongregations, and where this continuity from congregation to congregation isnot apparent, we fail to manifest our unity in Christ. The liturgy is also an expressi