In putting together some liturgy for St Bride’s Liverpool to
use in our livestreamed services that I’m doing from home for Holy Week and
Easter, I’ve written some material with a particular focus on the unusual
circumstances in which we are gathering online. I offer them here in case they
are of any use to anyone else. Feel free to use/adapt as you see fit.
They are all my own compositions apart from the Closing Affirmation,
which was written by Steven Shakespeare originally for when our children and
young people go out to their groups during our services, but which we then
realised works perfectly for this situation too.
I’ve ended up live streaming a morning prayer service daily,
and communion on Sunday, from my home. I’ve been very struck by how present
those who join me on line feel, and how present I feel to them. Seeing their
faces and names appear on my tablet throughout the service, with their
comments, input, and little ‘likes’ or ‘loves’ or ‘sad’ faces floating up the
screen like bubbles, makes the whole thing feel not at all like a broadcast but
rather a genuine expression of community.
This isn’t ‘virtual’ church as opposed to ‘in real life’
church – it is totally real, just with different physical space being involved.
I think it helps being live, as it makes the service genuinely interactive. People
contribute thoughts on the readings – this is our usual practice at St Bride’s –
and also contribute prayer requests, by typing them in as a comment. Everyone
who is following can see and respond not just to me but to others.
Several people have asked what we are doing about communion.
I’m presiding fairly normally at home, and my family are communicants (though
in this extremis I’d have no qualms about presiding if I were at home alone –
it passes the ‘desert island’ hypothetical question test for me!). I personally
have a fairly high sacramental view of
communion, though the trappings are unimportant to me, and I’m in a church that
broadly speaking has a fairly low one, so this seems to work for all of us!
I am encouraging people to have something to eat or drink at
home – not to get bread and wine necessarily, I’m in no way purporting to
consecrate over the ether – but to eat and drink together while I do so, as an
expression of our unity and community. It’s very clear from Paul’s letters that
in the early church communion was a common meal as much as a ritual and
sacrament, and consciously eating and drinking together is a good expression of
that.
Up til now I’ve been using the Lent liturgy we already had,
but at this point it seemed right to compose some new material that reflects
the particular and peculiar dynamic of this livestreamed expression of church.
I hope they are of use.
The Gathering
We
come into this time and space and offer ourselves,
Our
time, these moments of stillness to God.
we
leave aside, for this while,
our
cares and concerns
our
fears and frustrations.
Or,
if we cannot lay them aside,
we
bring them with us into this space
And
offer them to God.
Silence
God, who in Jesus
could hold stillness at the centre of
the crowd’s adulation,
calm
in the face of a friend’s betrayal
and
silence before the questioning of power,
Be with us in our involuntary stillness
this holy week.
Help us, we pray, to embrace it,
to allow ourselves to be challenged by
it,
And to encounter you afresh in it.
Amen.
An alternative gathering:
We
gather today as one body
from the
many places where God gives us shelter for this season.
In
the light of Christ’s resurrection
We
commit ourselves afresh to one another and to God.
We
humble ourselves to serving the world through our stillness.
We
content ourselves with the inner freedom of the Spirit.
The Peace
The risen Christ came and stood among his disciples,
in a locked
room,
where they
sheltered from the crowds that they feared.
Meeting them
there, where they were,
He said, ‘peace
be with you’.
The peace of the risen Christ be always with you.
And also with you.
Preparation of
the Table
We gather as
God’s people, in our different places,
around this table
of our communion.
We bring
bread, knowing our need to be fed,
And aware
that many are hungry.
We bring
wine, knowing our need for joy,
And aware
that many are lonely.
We bring
ourselves, trusting that you will take and share
Our time,
our talents, and our treasures,
And make
them enough.
Amen
Post communion
prayer
May we who have shared in the reality of our
communion
Without being physically present to one another
Know the reality of your presence with us always.
May we who are living in this time of brokenness and separation
Know your wholeness in our hearts and in our communities.
May we who hunger for a time when we may be together again
Feed a world hungry for love and justice.
Amen.
Closing Affirmation (by Steven
Shakespeare)
In the circle of God’s love, we are
one:
The circle is never broken.
In the light of God’s welcome, we are
one:
the light never goes out.
Let the child teach us the wisdom of
play.
Let the adult teach us the gentleness
of care.
May the circle surround us when we
are apart.
May the light draw us together again.
Amen.
