065 A Revised Ash Wednesday Liturgy
A look at a revised Ash Wednesday liturgy from the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music that is being used in some Episcopal churches this year.
Revised Ash Wednesday Liturgy (PDF) from the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music and approved for use in the Diocese of Missouri
Download this episode (mp3).
Celebrating Liturgical Time by Neil Alexander (Church Publishing)
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Yes, the experimental structure would be imitating certain pre–Vatican II forms. The traditional Anglican rite (before the 20th century) has neither ashes nor Holy Communion. These were reintegrated as part of the liturgical renewal movement, part of the same context in which the restructuring of the rite to what is now familiar took place. (Search for "A Commination" from the BCP 1662, or the Tridentine rite at the Divinum Officium website, to compare the structure.) I wouldn't say that the liturgical renewal movement really went back to ancient forms per se: they are more reimaginings, inspired in part by what we would rightly assume to be a simpler ancient liturgy, as well as adopting some of the flexibility that ancient liturgies may have had before they found their established forms, but they are absolutely constructions of our time, taking these ideas inspired by the past and (generally with theological and ritual care) adopting them to our current context.
ReplyDeleteIf the traditional order seems like an extra little liturgy smushed onto the front, that's exactly right! Pre–Vatican II, the Catholic liturgy was extremely resistant to change, and even old customs such as the blessing and imposition of ashes didn't actually enter the Mass liturgy proper. A little bit similar to Palm Sunday, there is an antiphon and prayers of blessing over the ashes, and other prayers; the regular liturgy then starts with a structure that is very familiar.
This is a key difference between pre- and post-renewal liturgy: the former has a very rigid core with any additions added, but never mixed; the latter are flexibly reconstituted by liturgists into a coherent rite. On the one hand, I'm sympathetic to maintaining older structures and not moving around the parts based on what "feels" better (I'm annoyed, for example, by the moving of the canticle at Compline from its usual place after the reading to after the prayers!). For one thing, I think clarity of structure and meaning is better preserved when component parts remain fairly fixed, rather than moving around from community to community and liturgy to liturgy. However, now that we are a worshipping community used to flexible liturgies, there seems to be no reason to revert to absolute rigidity of separating out such additions to before or after the mass. In fact, I'd say that most Episcopal parishes usually have the "extra stuff" after the sermon/creed—including baptisms, or Maundy Thursday footwashing, or Good Friday veneration of the cross!—so that makes the most sense according to *our* pattern of worship, not those of medieval Europe. I agree with the arguments you make about God's action followed by our response, and about the benefit of coming forward for the imposition of ashes with the cognitive dissonance in mind. I also think part of my experience of the service is the sort of nervous anticipation during the first part of the service before this peculiar component.
Thank you for this episode; as usual it provided lots of food for thought!
ReplyDeleteSome other comments:
Ash Wednesday is actually not a Holy Day of Obligation proper in the Latin Catholic Church. That term applies to Sundays and other major feasts, but not to Ash Wednesday or even the Triduum (at which the faithful formerly attended the tenebrae liturgies rather than the proper liturgies, Eucharist or the Mass of the Presanctified). Like some Episcopalians, though, it is certainly popularly seen as one of the more important times to go to church even for the otherwise less observant.
As to the revisions I would hope for in the Ash Wednesday liturgy: I'm put off by the word "deaf" and also "blindness" in the litany of penitence; perhaps the drafters wanted concrete imagery, but I think in a context where we want to be inclusive of Deaf or disabled worshippers, this is really not helpful. I'd also find an actual priestly absolution to make more sense, although the wording here is a good (if slightly jarring) reminder that absolution really does come from God, without the need to be mediated by the clergy!
Hey David - not seeing anything anywhere else about SCLM promulgating this?
ReplyDeleteMy favorite form of Ash Wednesday liturgy is alas relegated to the bottom paragraph of the Roman Missal which reads: "The blessing and distribution of ashes may also take place outside Mass. In this case, the rite is preceded by a Liturgy of the Word, with the Collect, and the readings with their chants as at Mass. Then there follow the Homily and the blessing and distribution of ashes. The rite is concluded with the Universal Prayer, the Blessing, and the Dismissal of the Faithful." This makes good sense from the notion of Word followed by action and sending us forth to spread the word of the day. The Eucharist is not mandated on this service.
ReplyDeleteThat's interesting, and I suppose it is good to encourage flexibility (as our BCP does with both ashes and Communion being optional). However, for me one of the most beautiful aspect of Ash Wednesday when it is observed with both ashes and Communion is the balanced living into of our mortality and the grace of the kenosis which God gives us.
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