Pisco (Dave) posted it, though you can obtain it from the Big Thick Greenish Book of Legislative Madness, which the vulgar call "The Blue Book" if you wish.
Included are such things as:
1. Principles for Lesser Feasts and Fasts revision, which are a good statement of our hagiology as a church.
2. Proposals for Trial Common for Space Exploration. This is personally meaningful, though it seems rather tuned to manned missions, and I work with people who design unmanned probes, but one can't have everything.
3. Both Oscar Romero and Patriarch Tikhon are to be added to the kalendar for trial use. There are others, but these are the most recognizable names.
4. Blandina to be commemorated as principal martyr of Lyons. There's no question that she was the most notable martyr, and her example was especially spectacular. The commemoration of Perpetua and Felicitas and their Companions really has entered raised consciousness about the martyrdoms under the Empire, so I do hope this change is helpful in this vein.
5. Committee on Multi-Sensory Worship Report. My first experience with multi-sensory worship was Easter Vigil at ILEOS. Apparently, this liturgy has been improved over a period of several years. I do believe there is potential for missiologically and glorificationally fruitful development here, especially in the hands of competent professionals like the priest in charge of liturgy at ILEOS. But I do have reservations about the potential for a loss of continuity between liiturgical tradition and the wonder of the "now." For instance, should liturgical dance be done to instrumental or vocal music? Do I misread the Scriptures to think that the latter was true in the Temple? I also fear that certain texts and their poetry will be lost in the corporatized paradigm of electronic presentation.
6. Rites of Passage Committee: Contains Robert Two Bulls, who is a priest in Laodicea now and a friend of a friend. I, of course, am far more wasicu than Lakota, but I do hope I run into him one of these days to talk about life in Pine Ridge now. The Rites of Passage Report is too dense and too important to be parsed now. I'm going to read and inwardly digest it for a while (oh, I can't just turn the chattering off.)
7. The comments on "Celebrating an Engagement" are quite good.
8. It occurs to me that some of these fuller liturgies (as presently envisioned) might be appropriate for household/small group use. I do not come from a community where it is practicable to celebrate such rites for everyone in the church without it having an assembly line feel. But I really could see Hugo Schwyzer (or one of the priests) doing the teenage one with the Youth Group, their parents, interested members of the community etc. And if I were to become engaged, I can see inviting a mix of work and church friends of both parties to this in anticipation of a shower, conspiratorial doings with bridesmaids, groomsmen, etc. In small communities, these have potential for the fuller community participation envisioned.
9. I envision a priest saying, "There's something in Rites of Passage for this very predicament." "Thank you, Superpriest!"
10. Interesting new liturgy for welcoming a new Rector.
11. I am happy to say that the proposed revision of the Burial Service is fairly close to the present BCP rite. It only seems to consider the need for rites of vigil at the body etc. and has an even greater emphasis on the Resurrection.
12. The chief part of the Kaddish has been translated for use. I still probably could recite the Aramaic in company. It's amazing how much it seems like a prayer Jesus or Paul would have prayed. It is, after all, probably of their era or so.
13. Apparently, something like Yahrzeit is performed in the East. This, too, is incorporated.
14. SCLM also admits the multiplicity of resources has become confusing. I think three books and the Internet should be sufficient, but the Church Pension Fund wouldn't like that.
15. I didn't even know there were catechumenal materials in the Book of Occasional Services
16. Report of the Custodian of the Standard Book of Common Prayer has interesting news about bilingual editions of the Book of Common Prayer.
17. That is all.
3 comments:
It's good to see a deaconess among the commemorated.
Many of these rites have been long needed. I remember helping with a rite for folks who had had children die. Quite powerful.
I think many of these rites would best do in smaller gatherings in a parish at another time than Sunday or at home. Otherwise, we end of clogging up Sunday Eucharist.
What I do note though is again these prayers and rites do not address many of the ritual needs found among lgbt Christians, maybe we can't expect the rest of the Body to do that with us. In most of them dealing with adolescence, vocation and the like, with a few exceptions, I found myself exiting.
There's little here for the ways we pass through these important stages. I guess all the more reason to be composing and providing on-line resources--maybe even self-publish a Primer of Occasional Services, Rites of Passage, and Prayers for lgbt Christians in a broadly catholic vein, and on-line contacts of persons who will officiate for us.
And can I note for the record that the Trinitarian formula seems out of favor in these new rites. Well, I vow not so in anything put forward on site x to be put up this summer.
Also, I like the addition of the reception of the Body. Poor ++Cranmer, he'd be turning over in his grave--he elimated this practice, but I disagree with him as the practice is quite powerful in understanding the Resurrection in which we too are too be raised.
"And can I note for the record that the Trinitarian formula seems out of favor in these new rites."
Yes, I had noticed that. Such a drift in the liturgy underscores the need to disentangle orthodox theology from oppressive structures. You have a voice trained for eloquence to speak liturgically, a language which I still believe is most clearly understood by the liturgically high broadly catholic traditions. I'm sure that anything you come up will be helpful to fellow lgbt Christians. But I also hope that it will be a way to counteract Macguyveresque prejudices against the catholic faith.
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