Trinity
Parish Instructed Eucharist
October 6 and 13, 2013
[[--]] indicates phrases omitted at said
Eucharist
CAPITALIZED AND ITALICIZED indicates rite as outlined in program bulletin
PART ONE -- THE ANTECOMMUNION
(Gathering and Liturgy of the Word)
Before
the Service Begins (from the Narthex)
CELEBRANT:
Today and next Sunday
here at Trinity, we are doing something out of the ordinary. In our worship services, we are going to
pause and explain what we are doing and why. This will take time, so we will not have homilies
either Sunday. There will be a short
question time after the service in the Parish Hall.
NARRATOR
I: For around 2,000
years, Christians have come together week after week, communing with God in a
very special way, the “Holy Eucharist.” Eucharist
is a Greek word for “Thanksgiving.” In
the Greek Church it is called the Divine
Liturgy, which means the Work or Duty of God’s people. In the West, we
call it Holy Communion (sharing and becoming one with God), the Lord’s
Supper (in memory of Jesus’ Last Supper with his friends), and sometimes
the Mass (the sending of God’s people into the world). Whatever we call it,
Eucharist is the center of our worship and life together.
NARRATOR II:
In the Episcopal
Church, our order of service comes from the Book
of Common Prayer. First published in
1549 England based on earlier liturgies, and most recently revised in the U.S.
in 1979, the Prayer Book makes us part of a great dialogue of prayer and
worship going back to Jesus’ earliest followers. Much
of our Sunday bulletin here at Trinity comes from gender-inclusive updates of
the 1979 Prayer Book called Enriching our
Worship, approved by the General Convention of the Episcopal Church.
NARRATOR III: There are two halves to the Eucharist: what the Prayer Book calls “The Word of God,”
and “The Holy Communion.” The Liturgy of the Word is often called Ante-Communion. It is the part before the sharing of the
Peace midway through our worship. Holy
Communion, also called the Liturgy of the Table or the Great Thanksgiving, is
the part that comes after the Peace.
CELEBRANT:
This week in our
Instructed Eucharist, we will comment on the Liturgy of the Word. Next week, we will comment on the Liturgy of
the Table.
THE GATHERING
NARRATOR I (from
Narthex):
We enter the Church
preparing to worship. The church bell calls people to prayer and worship. At the door, there is a baptismal font filled
with blessed water. Some of us as we
enter, use it to touch our foreheads or make the sign of the cross. (Narrator
II demonstrates) It reminds us that the waters of baptism give us entry to
the Church, just as the Waters of the Red Sea put the Children of Israel on
their way to the Promised Land. Some
give a slight bow to the altar (Narrator
III demonstrates) as they cross the center aisle to go the pews, a sign of
reverence for God being made manifest to us in this holy meal.
NARRATOR II (from
Narthex):
We keep silence and
use the time to prepare, meditate, and pray.
Many use the prayer before communion found on page 832 of the Prayer
Book:
ALL THREE NARRATORS TOGETHER:
Be Present, be present, O Jesus, our
great High Priest, as you were present with your disciples, and be known to us
in the breaking of bread; who live and reign with the Father and the Holy
Spirit, now and forever, Amen.
[[MUSICIAN
(from lectern):
The first act of our
worship is the gathering of the people at prayer. The word “church” means “assembly”
or “gathering.” Prelude music gathers
our hearts and our minds, followed by the opening hymn. The choir processes in, and then the ministers
of the service. Processions remind us
that the people of God, through time and history, are moving toward God's
Kingdom – following the Cross of Christ – and bringing the Light of the Gospel
to the whole world.]]
NARRATOR
I (from Narthex): We bring to our worship our whole being. We pray not just
with words, but with all our being, all our senses. We pray silently and out
loud; [[we pray through speech, and through music.]] We pray with our bodies as
able through our postures of standing for praise, sitting to listen, and kneeling
to pray.
NARRATOR
II: We pray by sight
through visual symbols and colors. We
pray with our sense of smell through the scent of candles, altar flowers and
greens, and occasionally incense. We
pray with taste through the bread and wine we share.
NARRATOR III: We begin by standing as a sign of attentiveness,
[[prepared to sing]]. Our attention
should follow the Cross as it enters and proceeds to the altar. Many people turn and follow facing the Cross as
it processes. It is customary to give a
slight bow to the Cross as it passes us, a sign of our thankfulness for
Christ’s redeeming work. And so let us
gather [[as we sing]]…
[[OPENING HYMN &]] PROCESSION (including
narrators)
NARRATOR I (from
lectern): The Gathering includes an opening acclamation, the collect or
prayer for purity, and then a Song of Praise like “Glory to God in the
Highest.” Then the opening prayer
assigned for that day is said. A short
prayer like this is called a Collect
because it collects our thoughts and
desires.
OPENING ACCLAMATION, COLLECT FOR
PURITY, SONG OF PRAISE, & COLLECT OF THE DAY
ALTAR GUILD DIRECTOR (from pulpit): The clergy,
acolytes and choir members wear vestments. In the Episcopal Church, there are
no such things as “robes.” Rather, all of the vestments have names. Vestments remind us that our worship is not
just here in this place and time, but part of a great current of faith and
prayer. The Church is embodied in
specific groups of people, but belongs to no single time or place. It is universal as well as local. Vestments remind us that we are part of this
larger current.
We have different colors that mark each season of the year. We are using green today because we are in
Ordinary Time between Pentecost and Advent.
The Altar Guild prepares all of the things needed at God’s Table: the bread and
the wine, as well as chalices or cups and the plates or patens to hold them. The Altar Guild does a myriad of other
tasks, including preparing the linens and vestments. And, by the way, we can
always use new members of the Altar Guild, both women and men.
THE LITURGY OF THE WORD
NARRATOR I (from lectern): Next we hear lessons from the Bible. Before the time of Jesus, before the time of
Moses, before the Bible, before written words, the people of God sat around the
campfire, shared a meal, and they told The Story – how God saved their
ancestors and brought them out of crisis and calamity and saved them, bringing
them into new life. What we do next is an echo of that very ancient human act –
we are sitting around the campfire – the candlesticks – and we are about to
share a meal, our Eucharist, and hear the ancient story of our ancestors and
how God saved them. Those stories were recorded by the Jewish people in what we
now call the Bible, or Holy Scriptures. The word “Bible” comes from the Greek
word that means “the little books.” They are not so much the words dictated by
God as they are the field notes of God’s people.
NARRATOR II (from pulpit): We will hear four
passages from the Bible, assigned for each Sunday in a three-year rotating
cycle called the “Revised Common Lectionary.” We hear the same texts as heard in
other churches—Episcopal, Lutheran, Methodist, Roman Catholic and others. This is part of our connection with those
other people in other places. We are currently in the third year of the cycle –
“Year C.”
NARRATOR III (from pulpit): First we will hear a reading from the Hebrew
Scriptures, what Christians often call the “Old Testament.” Then we hear a psalm,
sometimes helping to recite it. We then
hear from one of the New Testament letters. The New Testament was written in
Greek, which was the common language of the Roman Empire of the time.
At the end of each lesson, the prayer book has the reader declare: “The Word of
the Lord. ” By saying “word” we do not
mean that God wrote the words, but
that God can speak to us through these stories and texts. Another common ending for the lesson is
“Hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches” –a phrase taken from the
Revelation of John, the last book in the Bible. Our reply is “Thanks be to
God.” The fourth lesson is always from
a Gospel.
THE HEBREW SCRIPTURE, PSALM, AND
EPISTLE LESSONS (from lectern)
DEACON (from pulpit): The gospel is a Greek word meaning “good
news” and that is the title given to the first four books of the New Testament
– Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, stories of the life of Jesus. The Gospel lesson
is always read by a member of the clergy, as a sign of the Gospel’s special
place for us in our scriptures. It is a
Deacon’s special task to read the Gospel among the people. On special occasions, the Gospel may be sung
or chanted.
On most Sundays, there is a Gospel procession into the center of the congregation,
signifying that the Gospel is at the center of our life as a faith community.
The Gospel Procession is led by the Cross and candles. For Eucharists, it is appropriate for us to
stand up and turn to face the Gospel book and reader as a sign of attentiveness.
GOSPEL PROCESSION
DEACON (from among the people): This procession echoes the Jewish practice of
carrying the Torah – the scrolls containing God’s Law – into the congregation. It also reminds us that we are to carry the
Good News of Jesus Christ into all the world.
Making the Sign of the Cross with your thumb on the forehead, mouth and chest
at this time asks God’s blessing “in my mind, on my lips, and in my heart.”
This way of making the sign of the cross is one of the earliest known symbols
of the Church, dating from the Second Century.
THE GOSPEL READING AND RECESSION
CELEBRANT (from pulpit):
At this point in the service, we usually hear a homily, or short reflection on the scriptura;
passages, or a longer sermon. The
preacher is to make the lively word of God accessible and understandable to the
people, proclaim God’s love and forgiveness, and stir up the people to
repentance and amendment of life. A good
preacher comforts the afflicted and afflicts the comfortable.
Following the homily, we take a few moments of silence to reflect. Then we respond
to the Word of God by reciting together the Nicene Creed, a fourth century statement
of the Church's Trinitarian belief in God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Originally a loyalty oath for bishops, it has
since evolved into a symbol of our shared faith in the larger universal Church,
what the Creed calls katholikos,
“according to the whole,” or catholic (with a small c).
NARRATOR I (from lectern): The Creed
expresses thus the faith of the whole Church in all times and places. Bishop John Shelby Spong once said that when
he recites the Creed, he always finds
objections and, but when he sings it,
he believes it with all his heart. Although
the meaning of some of the phrases may not be clear to you, think of the Creed
as a prayer or a song that you share with all Christians in all times and
places.
NARRATOR II (from
pulpit): Here at Trinity, we recite the Creed
according to its original text in the Fourth Century, rather than the slightly
expanded form that later became popular in the Western Church. We thus say simply that the Holy Spirit
“proceeds from the Father.” This is
approved by the Episcopal Church and is a way of showing our solidarity with
Christians of all traditions, both Eastern and Western.
NARRATOR III (from pulpit): Some people make the sign of the cross at the end of
the creed to remind us that at our baptism we were signed with the sign of the
cross and made Christ's own forever. Such acts of reverence are ways in which
we show outwardly what we believe inwardly.
RECITE THE NICENE CREED
INTERCESSOR (from where Prayers of People are read):
We now further respond to the Gospel by offering prayer, for Christ's Church
and for the world. Together, we pray for the Church, for ourselves, and for the
departed. These prayers are called
“Prayers of the People” because they represent our deepest longings as God’s
people at prayer. In them, we intercede,
or pray for others.
THE PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE
DEACON (from pulpit): Now we ask God's forgiveness for the wrongs we
have done, both individually and collectively. Confession is an important part
of prayer whether we do it privately or in church with others. After the
confession is announced, there is a time of silence for private, silent
individual confession. Then we recite together the words of confession. Please
notice that our confession of sin is not just about individual failings and
shortcomings. It also includes the evil
done on our behalf, and the evil that we commit in our institutions and
corporate life. We kneel, as able, for
confession as a sign of humility. After
confession, the Priest says the words of ABSOLUTION, or forgiveness, assuring
us that God has forgiven all of us.
CONFESSION AND ABSOLUTION (at
gradus)
CELEBRANT (from gradus): The first part of the service is now completed.
We greet one another joyfully in the spirit of friendship and reconciliation
and in the love of God, exchanging the PEACE with one another. It is way for us
to heal from our grudges and wounds before coming to the table of Communion. The “passing of the peace” is a very ancient
way for people to greet one another. Jesus taught us that we should love one
another as sisters and brothers. The apostle Paul taught that we should forgive
one another as God forgives us before we come to the table to share in the
bread of Communion.
THE PEACE
END PART ONE OF INSTRUCTED EUCHARIST
PART TWO -- THE HOLY COMMUNION
Before
the Service Begins (from the Narthex)
CELEBRANT:
Last week and today
here at Trinity, we are doing something out of the ordinary. In our worship services, called “the
liturgy,” we are going to pause and explain what we are doing and why we do it
the way we do it. The word “liturgy”
means “the people’s work” or duty, so please consider this teaching exercise as
the work we will all be doing together. Because this instruction takes time, we are
not having lectionary homilies either Sunday.
We are going to give you a quick tour of the liturgy, pausing at key
moments to explain. There will be a
short question time after the service in the Parish Hall.
Last week, we gave
commentary on the first part of the liturgy, the part before the Passing of the
Peace. We saw that this is the
ante-communion, the Liturgy of the Word.
We talked about preparing for worship, and some of the small acts of
devotion we use to set apart our time here as holy. The Liturgy of the Word included the
Gathering, the Reading of Scripture, the homily or sermon, Prayers of the
People, and Confession of Sin and absolution.
Today, our comments
will be on the second part, the Liturgy of the Table itself. Our narrators will begin their commentary
after the Passing of the Peace.
THE ANTECOMMUNION
THROUGH THE PASSING OF THE PEACE
At the end of the Peace, before the
Offertory:
NARRATOR I (from pulpit): We now begin the second part of the Eucharist,
Holy Communion itself, or the Liturgy of the Table. There are four parts to this: We first offer to God money for the Church’s
ministries, food for the poor, and the bread and wine we will use at Communion.
We then together offer a prayer of
thanksgiving and consecration of the bread and the wine. After this, we break the bread. Finally, we share in the bread and wine.
The Great Thanksgiving begins with the offertory sentence that bids us to
remember that all our possessions are really gifts we have from God. We pass alms basins to collect the fruit of
our labors as an expression of thanks.
We do this now rather than at some other point of the service because
offering our gifts back to God is a key part of our Great Thanksgiving. The
Music ministers give their own offering, one of art, to God at this time as
well, the Offertory Anthem.
NARRATOR
II (from lectern): During the Offertory, the deacon “sets the
table” by laying first a corporal, a white linen cloth serving as a placemat,
upon which are placed a chalice, a cup for the wine, and a paten, a plate for
the bread. The purpose of the corporal is to hold any crumbs that may come from
the bread, since they are considered sacred once the bread is consecrated. Next, wine is poured into the chalice and a
little water is added. Adding a little water to the wine was a sign of
hospitality in the Middle East in the time of Jesus, increasing the wine’s
flavor and thirst-quenching power. It
later was taken as a symbol for the mixture of divine and human elements in the
person of Jesus.
THE OFFERTORY SENTENCE; OFFERTORY,
SETTING THE TABLE
DEACON (from pulpit): In the early days of the Church, worshippers
brought their own bread and wine to the service. The deacons chose what was
needed for the consecration, and the rest was set aside for the poor. Today we
have lay people who bring the bread and the wine to the altar along with the
other gifts of the people. The bread and the wine, along with the money
collected for the work of the church, are the offerings that will be presented
to God.
The bread and wine are called oblations,
or things offered up. As the gifts are
offered to God, we often express our offering in a responsive phrase such as
“All things come from you, O God, and of your own have we given you,” or by
singing the Doxology, “Praise God from whom all blessing flow.” Recognizing that all blessings come from God
and that we owe God our thankful gifts in return, is the basis of Christian
Stewardship.
THE OBLATION AND
DOXOLOGY
DEACON (from pulpit): Before the priest begins speaking the
Eucharistic prayer, it is the custom in many churches for the acolyte to pour a
little water over the priest’s hands. In
the early church, offerings included farm produce and animals, so it was
important to wash the priest’s hands after
handling the offerings. The
receptacle for this purpose is called a “lavabo bowl.” “Lavabo” means “I will
wash” in Latin. This reminds us that we
should all come to God's altar with clean hands and pure hearts. It has long
been the custom for the head of the Jewish household to wash his or her hands
in a similar way before the prayers at the Passover meal. Jesus probably did
this at the Last Supper.
ACOLYTE POURS WATER
CELEBRANT (from altar): The Priest is now ready to say the GREAT
THANKSGIVING or the PRAYER OF CONSECRATION.
The prayer follows an ancient format preserved in the writings of Hippolytus
of Rome from the Second Century. It is based
on the accounts of the Last Supper found in the Gospel of Luke and the letters
of Paul. The Prayer Book provides
several versions of the Prayer: Prayer A
follows traditional Anglican forms and emphasizes the Cross, Prayer B follows
Hippolytus closely, Prayer C uses modern images and cosmology in a responsorial
prayer shared by priest and people, and Prayer D follows the ethereal and
delicate Eastern liturgy of St. Basil the Great in the 4th
Century. Enriching our Worship’s Prayers 1, 2, and 3 are all modern theology
and gender inclusive language adaptations of Hippolytus. The people begin the prayer standing, since
it is they acting through the priest who consecrate the gifts.
NARRATOR I (from
lectern): In the Eucharistic
Prayer, we remember and make present the ancient story of God’s saving acts of old. Anamnesis is the Greek word that
describes remembering and bringing things to mind to make them real and present
for us. We remember the story of the people of God and make it our own story.
NARRATOR II (from
pulpit): We give thanks and praise in response to our
anamnesis. This thanks leads us to offer
our gifts to God by lifting them up, oblation. We
tell the story of the Last Supper, our Christian Passover, in a narrative
including Christ’s words of institution
calling us to meet and remember him by this means. We also call
upon God in an epiclesis, or invocation, asking for God to pour out
the spirit to make bread and wine we offer holy, the Body and Blood of Christ
present for us, and to make us holy as well. In the Great Prayer of Thanksgiving, we remember, we give thanks, and we offer
gifts in return, calling upon God
to accept the gifts, send the spirit, and make us and the gifts holy.
NARRATOR III (from pulpit): We celebrate this holy meal at what we call the
Holy Table, also called the Altar since on it we offer these gifts
made holy and dedicated to God as a sacrifice. Often the priest will ask
us for special intentions for prayers to accompany our offering. The Eucharist begins with the “Lift up your
heart” opening dialogue– the “Sursum
Corda.” The words follow the format of an ancient Jewish table blessing.
NARRATOR I (from lectern): The Eucharistic prayer’s thanks is
expressed with ancient songs of praise and blessing: the Sanctus, the ancient hymn: “Holy, Holy, Holy,” followed by the Benedictus: “Blessed is the one who
comes in the Name of the Lord...” reminding us that our God does come to us in
the Holy Communion, and is made known to us in “the breaking of the bread.” After the Sanctus and Benedictus, many people
remain standing for the rest of the prayer, since they are celebrating it along
with the priest. Tradition has been also
to kneel after the Sanctus and Benedictus, as a sign of reverence for the real
presence of God in the bread and wine blessed with Christ’s own words, “This is
my body, this my blood.”
NARRATOR II (from pulpit): In the
Eucharistic prayer, we retell the story of the Last Supper. We remember Jesus’
last meal with his friends and the words he spoke over the bread and the wine before
his arrest, torture, and death on the cross.
Once we have remembered the ancient story as our story, we offer up our gifts of bread and wine as well as
ourselves and our lives to God. Our act
of offering prepares us to invoke the presence of the Holy Spirit, asking that
both the bread and wine, and that we ourselves, be made holy.
NARRATOR III (from pulpit): Once the
invocation has taken place, the people of God finish the Prayer together. We say the Great Amen—that final “So say we
all,” “and so it is” that we say together as the priest holds up the bread and
wine. This AMEN, printed in all capital
letters in The Book of Common Prayer, is where we all make this common prayer
our own. It is not some magic in the priest’s hands that make this meal we
share holy; it is our coming together as a family to affirm the thanking,
remembering, offering and invoking with a resounding AMEN that makes our bread
and wine, and us too, something more than before. Our prayer is completed when
we recite together the Lord’s Prayer.
Then the priest breaks the bread, and we sing or recite a short song for
the breaking of the bread, of fraction anthem.
SURSUM CORDA, SANCTUS AND BENEDICTUS
THE PRAYER OF CONSECRATION
THE LORD'S PRAYER
THE FRACTION
THE INVITATION
DEACON (from pulpit): The gifts we gave at the offertory,
the bread and the wine, are now returned to us. Because God has accepted these
gifts, they are changed. They are for us the Body and Blood of Christ: they
become for us love, grace and strength.
NARRATOR I (from lectern): You may have been
receiving Communion your whole life, or this is new to you. So let me remind
you again how to receive the Bread and the Wine of Communion. For the bread,
cup your hands and hold them up chest high so that the priest can easily place
the bread on the palm of your hand. If
you need to have gluten free bread, place your palms down. You may then consume the bread. If you wish to receive the chalice, please
guide it to your lips by holding the bottom of the cup – and not the top. If you wish to dip the bread in the wine,
have the server take it for you, intinct, and them place it in your mouth. If you do not wish to receive the bread, cross
your arms over your chest and the priest will bless you. If you do not want to receive the wine, also
cross your arms and the chalice bearer will say a prayer for you. When you receive the Bread and the Wine, it
is appropriate to say “AMEN.”
Some churches also offer prayers for healing during the time of communion in a
chapel or side transept. Those offering these prayers will make the sign of the
cross on your forehead with oil that has been blessed by our bishop. The oil
for healing is another sign of the communion we share together not only in this
parish, but throughout our diocese and the world.
THE COMMUNION OF THE PEOPLE
ALTAR GUILD (from pulpit): After everyone has
received Communion, the vessels are reverently cleansed, and after the service
any remaining consecrated Bread and Wine are reverently removed to the sacristy
where the chalice and paten cleaned and put away. Unused wine is poured into
the ground outside. In some churches there is a special basin, called a
“piscina,” which allows the consecrated wine to go directly into the ground.
Some of the consecrated Bread and Wine is reserved for the sick and those who
are unable to come to church. It is kept in the Aumbry, or tabernacle, marked
by the ever-burning “presence lamp.”
DEACON (from gradus): We share the
Eucharist also with sick and shut-in members of the Congregation. Since they cannot come to Church, we take
Church to them. And please let us know when circumstances are such that you
would like us to bring communion to you. The deacon organizes this ministry, and
so leads the congregation in sending out the Eucharistic visitors.
SENDING OUT OF EUCHARISTIC VISITORS
NARRATOR I (from pulpit): It is almost time for us to go, but
before we end, we remember to say together a prayer of thanksgiving for our
Great Thanksgiving. After this
post-communion prayer, the priest leads in community announcements,
celebrations, and prayers, and then will give us all God’s blessing. Some congregations do these community events
after the Peace, but at Trinity we keep them for the end to maintain a smooth
flow of the worship without a big break in the middle between the Liturgy of
the Word and the Liturgy of the Table.
THE POST COMMUNION PRAYER.
ANNOUNCEMENTS ETC. & BLESSING
[[MUSICIAN]] (from pulpit): We now prepare leave. The procession leads us
out into the world around us so that we may do the work that God has called us
to do, wherever we may be: in our homes, in our schools, in our work and in our
play. We have been fed with spiritual Food. God has given us the strength to
live our lives as faithful followers of Christ.
THE PROCESSIONAL OUT
DEACON (from Narthex): We conclude the Eucharist where we began, in
the midst of life, in a world where there is suffering and need. But in these liturgies of the Word and of the
Table we have been centered. We come to
the Lord’s Table, as Prayer C says, not for solace only, but for strength, not
for pardon only, but for renewal. This
sharing in the Body and Blood of Christ is also a sharing in the risen life of
Christ, and that sharing must go with us as we go back into the world. The Eucharist is the work of the people of
God together. It is not a service confined to Sunday morning. Rather, it is a
way of life. It is the essence of life itself.
The word “mass” comes from the Latin word for dismissal. We are not allowed to
linger; we are called to get back out into the world and do the work we are
given to do.
CELEBRANT (from Narthex): Finally, the Deacon will send us forth to do
the work that God has called us to do, and we all respond by saying with gusto:
“Thanks be to God.”
THE DISMISSAL
