blog.sinden.org

UPDATE 16 April 2018: this article has been altered to remove names of specific congregations, links to their websites, and screenshots of those websites. I have done this for several reasons and I will explain my why in a separate forthcoming article.

Forgive me for being confused. Here in Missouri, there's snow in the forecast for much of the state.

But there's a different kind of confusion about Easter that I want to address: that of Easter service times on church websites.

There's probably no other day of the year when churches work so hard (Christmas being a close second). Rectors, altar guilds, sextons, choirs, organists (ahem!), flower guilds, volunteers who spruce up the grounds and the interior, the list goes on.

And there's no other day that people are looking for church service times more desperately than they are on the night before Easter.

There has been much advice and conversation about this online lately. And I thought it was high time that I weigh in as well.

So, here's what I'm really talking about here: having the Easter service times immediately visible on the homepage of the website on the night before Easter without clicking a single link.

I'm not talking about having the service times available somewhere else on the website (under a "Worship" page or, even worse, a "Calendar" page). Easter is too big a deal for that. It needs to be listed on the front page.

I'm not talking about a "worship every Sunday" at such and such a time. Even if the services on Easter Sunday are at the same time they were last week, the front page of your website needs to make this explicit.

Any seed of doubt in a website visitor's mind on Easter Eve is too much. Bottom line: the front page of your church's website needs to be absolutely crystal clear about Easter service times.

Let's use the Episcopal Diocese of Missouri as a case study. I visited every church website in the diocese (list) between 4:30 and 5:00 p.m. on Holy Saturday (the day before Easter).

Of the 42 churches in the diocese:

• Only 13 churches had their service times listed clearly on the front page of their website.
• 23 churches had an "Every Sunday" service times listed on the front page of their website, but no mention of Easter (or Holy Week for that matter)
• 6 churches had no mention of service times whatsoever on their homepage.

A few observations:

One of these churches listed "Sunday, April 1" and the worship time, but made no mention of Easter.

Another church (it happens to be rather familiar to me), had obviously incomplete listings of Easter Day services on the homepage.

One church had Easter service times on a slide in a homepage slideshow, but not the first slide. I had already scrolled past it before the service times came up. I found it later.

Some churches just left me with questions. For example, is [redacted] really doing Morning Prayer on Easter?

[Redacted] did actually meet the criteria of having the info immediately visible on the front page, but I have to say at first glance I looked right past it. It is in a very small font on the upper left-hand corner of the site.

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One of the most distressing things I saw was [redacted] where there were conflicting service times. First, I saw a "regular" Sunday service time listing, and then, farther down the page, I saw a special Easter service time listing. The Easter Day service times are not visible without scrolling down (in most cases). I think one of the worst experiences a visitor could have would be seeing Sunday service time information on your website, but still arriving at the wrong time for Easter. This must be avoided at all costs.

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One website helpfully had a monthly calendar on display, but today is March 31, and Easter is next month. So they didn't make the cut either.

But by far the worst example I saw was [redacted]. I remain unclear if this is an Episcopal congregation or a winery.

What conclusions can we draw from this? In this diocese, fewer than a third of churches are following what I and many others consider to be a best practice for church websites in the time leading up to Easter.

We can and must do better.

In a lot of cases the problem could be solved by creating an article or event with a headline such as "Easter services: 8:00 and 10:30 a.m.", and then filling out whatever details are needed within the article itself. I think this is so much more preferable to "Easter Services" and then a "details" button, or the dreaded "click here".

You might think I'm overblowing this (though probably not if you've read to the end of this article), but consider for a moment how carefully we prepare Holy Week service bulletins and other materials. Can church staffs really not take the five minutes required to get this right?

Labels: Easter, Episcopal, web

The Center for Liturgy and Music at Virginia Theological Seminary and Ellen Johnston should be commended for their recent guide to designing service leaflets for the service of the Holy Eucharist in the Episcopal Church ("A Resource on Designing Service Leaflets" PDF)

This kind of attention to detail is sorely needed, and I hope it sparks close examination of printed service leaflets in many parishes.

But there is a widespread discrepancy in service leaflets in the Episcopal Church that this guide does not address: the question of when the service begins.

It's quite common to see various locations in the service leaflet for the printed subtitle "The Word of God".

Often the prelude, introit (if there is one), and hymn are all listed prior to the subtitle "The Word of God". This makes it appear as though the Acclamation ("Blessed be God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit") is the beginning of the liturgy.

In other cases the subtitle "The Word of God" appears after the Collect of the Day and before the first Lesson.

I would respectfully suggest that both of these approaches confuse the shape of the service and the place of church music in our worship.

The subtitle of "The Word of God" is the first thing given on p. 355 of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer. After this, the first item is a rubric: A hymn, psalm, or anthem may be sung.

It is apparent from this order that the first hymn of the service (and the introit, if there is one) qualify as the beginning of the service and fall under this heading of "The Word of God". To be clear: the only thing that should appear before "The Word of God" is the Prelude (if there is one).

If a subheading is desired before the lessons themselves, it should simply be "The Lessons" as seen on p. 357. This should not rise to the level of the subtitle that we see on p. 355 of the Prayer Book.

Why is this important?

Because listing the subtitle after the hymn affords this piece of church music second class status. The Prelude music before the service is precisely that: before the service. But church music which reflects the both the historic tradition of the church and careful selection by those persons called to a ministry of church music (propers, hymns, psalms, anthems, motets, etc.) is rightly a genuine part of the community's worship.

And getting this distinction right is the responsibility that we take on with printing the content of the Prayer Book in a service leaflet: faithfulness to the Book of Common Prayer. Reprinting the liturgy in a disposable leaflet is not an excuse to alter the liturgy as we see fit. This is contrary to the Anglican spirit of common prayer.

It is surely for this reason, among others, that the esteemed bloggers of Sed Angli, advocates of "straight up" Anglicanism, advocate for a minimal bulletin.

Reprinting the whole service obviates the need to have the Prayer Book around, and we are well not only to have the Prayer Book, but also to use it. Page numbers will suffice, thank you.

How it’s done, VI, 21 March 2012

Now for those who disagree with my assertion about the liturgy beginning with the first hymn, surely some will quote the puzzling statement by Marion Hatchett in A Manual for Clergy and Church Musicians: "The real beginning of the liturgy is the first lesson." (p. 106)

I would beg to differ.

If your service starts at 11:00 a.m. the "real beginning" of the service is 11:00 a.m. It is surely not a "fake beginning".

In the vast majority of places, this means the music before the service is ended, and the first hymn (or the introit) begins the service proper.

In order make a "real beginning" with the First Lesson, one would simply read it at the start of the service without fanfare. This kind of logic dismisses the historic pattern of the entrance rite of the liturgy–a rite that is designed to honor the Word of God. Not surprisingly, the Prayer Book doesn't allow for it; the Acclamation, Kyrie/Trisagion or Gloria, and Collect of the Day are all required elements.

And though we should cherish this historic pattern of entrance we should not make the mistake of elevating the entrance rite to a capital letter "Entrance Rite" in the service leaflet. The Prayer Book avoids this designation and so should we. Worship in the Episcopal Church can be convoluted enough without superfluous monikers.

We are indeed well to use the Prayer Book, whether in its hardbound format, on our iPad, or reprinted in a parochial service leaflet.

I implore my brothers and sisters in the Episcopal Church to utilize the very clear outline of the Holy Eucharist provided in the 1979 Prayer Book.

• The Holy Eucharist
1. The Word of God
2. The Holy Communion

Labels: BCP, Collect, Episcopal, hymns, liturgy

This copy of the Episcopal Hymnal 1982 was given to me when I was installed as the organist and choirmaster of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Richmond, Virginia in 2010. This book belonged to Raymond F. Glover, who served as general editor of this hymnal beginning in 1980. Immediately prior to this he too served as organist and choirmaster of St. Paul's, Richmond. He was appointed in 1969. 

Labels: church music, Episcopal, Hymnal 1916, Hymnal 1982, Ray Glover