Wednesday morning worship

[Richard Johnson]

The worship this morning was the least satisfying to date, IMO. First, the musicians were just a tad off at several points. Added a rather bizarre series of harmonies to a Taize chant (hard to tell if it was purposely bizarre, or somebody was just playing in some different key or some different universe). Lots of Spanish music, which is OK, but it was never quite clear if we were singing in English or Spanish or either or both, and in any event, what verse are we on now anyway?

The gospel reading was the long story of the Samaritan woman at the well. The printed instructions told the congregation to remain seated (presumably because of the length, though after sitting through nearly three hours of plenary session, standing up wasn't really onerous for most). But about half of the congregation stood anyway, either out of respect for the gospel, respect for liturgical sensitivity, or rote reaction. So that's fine, but then in one section one of the volunteer ushers took it upon herself to start insisting that everyone in her section sit down. Most did, but then, after she was gone, and noticing that people in some other sections were still standing, some stood up again--whether out of confusion or defiance I don't know. This little side entertainment made it difficult to focus on the gospel reading.

Which may be just as well. They read it with three voices: narrator, Jesus, and woman. Only thing is, Jesus was read by a woman and the woman by a man. Now I don't have any theoretical objection to that, or at least not much of one, but of course in this case it leads to the man's voice saying "I have no husband" and the woman responding "You've had five husbands." Which, in an ELCA assembly, forces one to assume that this wasn't an accidental assigning of parts. Sigh.

There were some other odd things about this liturgy, but that's enough for now. I need to try to figure out what the heck is happening with the LIFT resolutions, which seem totally confused at the moment.

[Erma S. Wolf]

There were some other odd things about this liturgy, but that's enough for now. I need to try to figure out what the heck is happening with the LIFT resolutions, which seem totally confused at the moment.

Good luck!   

[pastorg1@aol.com]

One of my mottos is: 'You can never be too paranoid."

And when I attend situations like this, I am always looking for the hidden agenda in the worship setting, music, lyrics, liturgics, decorations, table placements, thermostat settings and the random barking of dogs.

Thing is: being so paranoid, I am sometimes correct in my suspicions.

Peter (Why wouldn't they be after me?) Garrison

[PTMcCain]

It could be worse, at least these guys did not show up.

[Richard Johnson]

It could be worse, at least these guys did not show up.

Yet.

[dkeener]

"The perfect church service would be one we were almost unaware of; our attention would have been on God. But every novelty prevents this. It fixes our attention on the service itself; and thinking about worship is a different thing from worshipping"...Tis mad idolatry that makes the service greater than the god."    C.S. Lewis (with a little help from Shakespeare)

from Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer