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3.
Getting Started on Planning

Once the parish liturgy committee has dealt with the major issues of environment, style, rite, and seasonal variations, it becomes the task of that committee, or some subcommittee, to plan for individual services. In the following chapters, we shall consider the requirements of the different liturgical seasons, but we shall begin by planning a generic Sunday eucharist, since this is material that we shall need to use for planning almost all services.

Start with the Readings

Begin by asking if there is a specific given “theme” for the day. On Christmas or Palm Sunday the answer is obviously yes, but on many Sundays there is no clear theme, and one should not be manufactured. If there is one, however, it needs to be stated by the planners and consciously used. Then look at the liturgical readings. If there are options among them, decide which will actually be read. Three lessons are normatively used on Sundays and two on weekdays that are not major holy days. They need to be clearly and intelligibly read by lay people. The lectors should be selected as soon as possible, and, if they are not already members of the planning group, it is helpful if they become part of it for the service at which they will read. The Gospel is read (or sung) by the deacon, if there is one. If there is no deacon, an assisting priest or the celebrant reads the Gospel. It may be read from the lectern, the pulpit, or the center aisle. The procession to the place where it is read may include processional torches, and incense may be carried before the Gospel book, which symbolizes the presence of Christ, the living Word.

Options for the Psalm

Consider the options for the psalm and how it will be done. The Prayer Book suggests several traditional methods of psalmody (BCP, 582ff). Any of these methods may be used either to recite or sing the psalms. The psalms are, of course, ancient hymns and were intended to be sung. Congregational psalm singing has a distinguished history in Jewish and Christian worship, and churches of many denominations are rediscovering the joy of singing the psalms. Lutherans, Presbyterians, Methodists, and Roman Catholics, for example, have included music and suggestions for singing the psalms in their new service books or hymnals, all intended to enable the congregation to join in these biblical hymns. Reciting hymns, no matter how beautiful the words, is, after all, not the same as singing them.

Three ways of singing the psalms are readily available to the average congregation. The appendix to the Hymnal contains a number of simplified Anglican chants (S 408-S 416) that can be used to sing the psalm either by the entire congregation in unison or antiphonally between the sides of the congregation, the congregation and choir, or men and women. This method can be effectively used even by quite small congregations. The use of the same simple chant every week with the appointed psalm portions tends to overcome people’s feeling of not knowing the tune, and many small rural congregations without professional musicians are regularly singing the psalm at the Sunday liturgy.

Church Hymnal Corporation publishes Gradual Psalms, containing simple plainsong settings to the eucharistic psalms with refrains. Permission is given to reproduce either the refrain or the entire psalm for congregational use. In this method, the psalm verses are sung either by a cantor or by the choir with the congregation joining in the refrain. It is one of the most ancient and the simplest methods of psalm singing, since the congregation sings only a single repeated refrain.

The third method is to sing metrical psalms. This tradition, which comes from the Reformed Church of Geneva, has a long and honorable history in Anglicanism. There are many metrical psalms, and hymns based on psalms in the Hymnal. A numerical index of these is in the appendix on page 679. There are also many collections of metrical psalms, including A New Metrical Psalter (Church Hymnal Corp.) arranged for singing the psalms appointed in the lectionary to be used between the lessons. Even if the congregation has never sung the psalms, it is worth trying, at least occasionally. Certainly every congregation can sing a metrical psalm to a familiar tune.

Sermon Theme

Next ask the preacher for the theme of the sermon. It should flow out of the readings, and the other choices need to be related to it.

Beginning the Service

Now you are ready to go back to the beginning of the service. A number of decisions will have already been made as a part of your overall planning. Usually the Rite One/Rite Two decision will have been made, but if not, it should be made next. Whether or not to begin with the Penitential Order should also be decided now, not on a service-by-service basis. Some places may wish never so to begin, while others will always wish to do so. At the very least, this decision should be made for a liturgical season. Beginning with the Penitential Order sets a penitential tone for the service. It is hard to move from it to the Gloria or another festal hymn. This might be an option to use during Lent. On the other hand, some people feel that, by using the penitential material at the beginning, it can be treated as a preparation for a festal service without further penitential elements.

The Prayer Book provides for the service to begin with a hymn, psalm, or anthem. The anthem might well be a canticle. Most of the time you will choose to begin with an entrance hymn. Beginning with a chant has a different feeling than beginning with a hymn and one worth using for particular occasions. Another possibility is to enter to organ music or in silence and begin with the acclamation. This works well if you are going to sing Gloria in excelsis or a hymn of praise, and it avoids putting two major vocal pieces so close together at the beginning.

Gloria, Kyrie, or What?

Shall we sing the Gloria in excelsis, Kyrie eleison, Trisagion, or a hymn of praise? The Prayer Book directs that the Gloria, or “some other song of praise,” be used from Christmas through Epiphany and on the Sundays of Eastertide and be omitted during Advent and Lent. But it makes no other recommendations. Again, setting a policy is better than making separate decisions for individual services. Sometimes only Gloria will do (e.g., Christmas and, perhaps, Easter). Kyrie eleison (“Lord, have mercy”) has been the traditional choice for ordinary occasions. Trisagion (“Holy God, Holy and Mighty”) is an ancient hymn of praise used at the beginning of the Byzantine liturgy. It is less obviously festive than Gloria in excelsis and works well both during Lent and for ordinary Sundays. The Supplement to Volume I of the Accompaniment Edition of The Hymnal 1982 (S 355) suggests canticles that might possibly be used at this place. A metrical hymn either here or at the opening can set a particular tone for the service and the possibility should not be overlooked. The hymn “Christ, the Fair Glory of the Holy Angels’ (hymn 282/283), for example, makes an excellent choice as a replacement for Gloria in excelsis on the feast of St. Michael and All Angels.

Sermon Hymns

Any necessary decisions about the readings, or (on a few occasions) choices between alternative collects, will have been already made, and the sermon topic already settled. A hymn between the Gospel and the sermon is not an option envisioned by the Prayer Book, as it interrupts the natural connection between the readings and the exposition of the Word. A hymn after the sermon does not do violence to the structure, but it does obscure the creed as a response to the Word and also tends to put the thought of the sermon out of the congregation’s mind—a mixed blessing.

The creed is an option on weekdays, but most planning will be for Sunday or major holy day services, so it will be either said or sung.