CHAPTER 1

Supplemental LiturgicalMaterials:THEOLOGICAL, BIBLICAL, ANDHISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES

Contributors To Part I

Ellen K. Wondra is Assistant Professor of Theological Studies at Colgate-Rochester Divinity School/Bexley Hall/Crozer Theological Seminary in Rochester,New York.

L. William Countryman is Professor of New Testament at the Church DivinitySchool of the Pacific in Berkeley, California.

Richard Norris is Professor of Church History at Union Theological Seminary inNew York City.

Paula S. Datsko Barker is Assistant Professor of Historical Theology atSeabury-Western Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois.

Jean Campbell, O.S.H., is Vice-Chair of the Standing Liturgical Commission andSister-in-Charge of the Convent of St. Helena in Vails Gate, New York.

"O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing ..."

Ellen K. Wondra

Corporate worship presumes first and foremost that God is self-disclosing,accessible, and involved in human life and history. Because of this, thelanguage of worship focuses on the presence of God, and it uses images thatconvey what human persons know of God and how our lives may be brought intogreater harmony with God's intentions for us. At the same time, it is God thatwe worship; that is, one who is ultimately incomprehensible to us, beyond bothour encompassing and our complete understanding. There is, then, a tensionbetween the knowability of God and the mystery of God; and this tension must bemaintained in worship, in reflection, and in holy living, if our faith is to beboth authentic and effective.

Corporate worship, theological reflection, and contemplative prayer all havetheir own appropriate languages, which inform but are not identical with eachother. In theological reflection and in contemplative prayer, the tensionbetween the knowability and the mystery of God may be maintained by disciplinedattention to the "negative moment" of our naming God, in which we recognize thatGod is hidden from us as well as revealed, in which we recognize that everythingwe say of God is partial and limited and therefore not-true as well as true.Such recognition of God's incomprehensibility is imperative. Without it, wereadily forget the majesty, power, and sheer graciousness of the living God.Such forgetfulness leads to that overreliance on human capacity and knowledgewhich is part of idolatry.

Corporate worship, by contrast, focuses on expressing and evoking what we knowand experience of God's presence. How, then, can liturgical language help usrecognize the incomprehensibility of God? One way is through the multiplicationof names, images, and forms through which we address and contemplate God incorporate worship. The Supplemental Liturgical Texts and Materials (along withthe process of development, use, evaluation, and reception of these materials)provide just such a multiplication when they are seen in conjunction with TheBook of Common Prayer which they explicitly supplement. The rest of this paperwill explain what I mean and why I think it is important that this processcontinue.

The shape, forms, and language (words, images, gestures) of liturgy mattergreatly because our praying shapes our believing and our living. Particularlyfor members of liturgical traditions such as Anglicanism, corporate worship isthe forming ground for Christian belief. It is in corporate worship that we cometo know the God with whom we desire closer union. It is there that we encounterthe ongoing story of our faith through scriptural and liturgical texts, and itis there that we become part of that story through sacramental participation. Itis there that we gain the strength, will, and disposition to live that faith inour daily lives. Our individual prayers and lives are embedded in this corporateworship which spans time and place, joining individuals and congregationstogether as members of one Body.

And yet we can pray, individually or corporately, only in the images andsymbols and gestures—the language—available to us. Much of this language isconveyed through corporate worship and its use of scripture, hymnody, prayer,and so on. But our spiritual formation is accomplished not only in church. Theworld in which we live is also part of the formative context of our faith, andthe language of faith derives its meaning not only from our prayer but also fromour everyday lives. The Reformation liturgical principle of worship in thevernacular recognizes not only that this is true, but that it has positivevalue. The basis of that positive value is the fundamental Christian convictionthat God meets us in the midst of our history, that is, in the midst of ourhistorical particularities and conditions, and in ways that are accommodated toour contexts and limitations. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us; throughthat incarnation in human history is our fullest encountering of God.

So it is of great importance that our corporate worship be shaped to recognizethe presence of both God and the faithful in particular historical contexts. Therevisions leading to the 1979 Book of Common Prayer made great strides in thisdirection, but more are needed. Some of these are undertaken by the SupplementalLiturgical Texts and Materials, for example, in recognizing that human sininvolves violation of self and of all creation, as well as of other humanpersons and relationship with God.

The contextual nature of human life is also reflected in the scriptural andliturgical traditions whose continuous use knits together the Body of Christacross both time and space. The fact that these texts and traditions have ahistorical character may, however, be masked by our conviction that they areimportant revelations of God who is sovereign over all the elements of time andspace. But to say that something is revealed does not mean it cannot behistorically shaped, nor does saying that something is historically shaped meanthat it may not also be revealed. Indeed, because of the Incarnation—the Wordbecome flesh and living in human history—we can both recognize and embrace thefact that, whatever else our sacred texts may be, they are also the work ofhuman persons living in concrete history and responding to the presence of Godin that history.

I have already said that God accommodates divine revelation to our conditionsand limitations. This is to say that God makes Herself known in ways that areaccessible to our recognizing and available to our understanding. God freelylimits what He will make known on the basis of what we are able to glimpse andto grasp. God's accommodation is a manifestation of Her own graciousdetermination that we be able to delight in the one who made us, to know the onewho redeems us, and to love God with the love with which He loves us. Again, itis part and parcel of belief in the...