Planning the Church Year. Leonel L. Mitchell

Planning Baptisms as Sunday Morning Worship

       Guidelines for Baptisms

       Planning the Services

       Music for Baptisms

       If There Are No Baptisms

       The Baptism of Christ

       7. Planning for Lent

       Lent

       Planning This Lent

       A Lenten “Look” for the Church Building

       Selecting the Options

       Ash Wednesday

       Special Lenten Observances

       Preparing for Easter Baptism

       8. Planning for Holy Week

       Holy Week in the Small Church

       Getting Started

       Palm Sunday

       Maundy Thursday

       Good Friday

       Other Services

       9. Planning for Easter and the Great Fifty Days

       The Great Vigil of Easter

       Easter Day

       The Fifty Days

       Rogation Days

       Ascension Day

       Pentecost

       10. The Seasons after Epiphany and Pentecost

       The Season after Epiphany

       The Post-Pentecost Season

       Summer as a Liturgical Opportunity

       Planning for Fall

       Planning for Weekdays

       11. Holy Days and Special Occasions

       Lesser Feasts

       Candlemas

       Michaelmas

       All Saints’ Day

       All Souls’ Day

       Thanksgiving Day

       The Patronal and Dedication Festivals

       The Bishop’s Visitation

       Liturgical Books Mentioned in the Text

       For Further Reading

      1.

      What Do We Mean by Liturgical Planning?

      Many Episcopalians seem to feel that, since we have a Book of Common Prayer, liturgical planning is unnecessary. Once upon a time, it is true, someone had to choose whether we use Rite One or Rite Two for this service. But since that has already been decided once and for all, no further planning is necessary. All you need is to get a calendar to tell you what the proper lessons are, to choose three familiar hymns from the available list of about twenty-five, to ask the choir director the name of the anthem for the program, and we are ready to start.

      I hope this picture is wildly exaggerated, but I have attended many services that leave me wondering whether it is. Some parishes ignore all possible options and always conduct the service in a single inflexible way, as if this had been handed down from heaven on golden tablets. Others approach the options provided in the Prayer Book with the enthusiasm of a teenager at a “build-your-own-sundae” counter. There is no thought of congruity and coherence but boundless enthusiasm for getting some of everything.

      Considering the Options

      What is necessary is to consider the various options available in the services of The Book of Common Prayer as a part of a total program in which the individual elements are seen primarily as parts of an integrated whole, including readings, prayers, hymns, service music, and sermon. This process is called liturgical planning. If we do not plan, we soon fall short of even the minimum requirements of the Prayer Book. We sink into “We always do Rite One,” or a mindless mix-and-match of incomprehensible alternatives. The individual elements may be excellent, but the service itself appears to have been assembled from the menu of a Chinese restaurant, taking two items from column A, one from column B, etc. The liturgical year is neglected, and the Christmas midnight eucharist becomes distinguishable from Ash Wednesday only by the hymns and the color of the vestments. There is no