Charistmatic Worship and the BCP
The issue of Liturgy entitled “Pentecostalism and Historic Churches,” guest-edited by Matthew Sigler, a professor of worship and historical theology at Seattle Pacific University and Seminary, offers a number of essays from scholars dealing with what he calls the “crosspollination between Pentecostal/Charismatic streams and what might be called ‘mainline’ or ‘historic’ denominations.”
Here is an excerpt from an essay by Emilio Alvarez of the Institute for Paleo-Orthodox Christian Studies in Rochester, New York. He describes the marriage of Pentecostal worship exuberance with Orthodox practice using the Book of Common Prayer. A photo from a eucharist led by Archbishop Alvarez is the image on the cover of this issue of Liturgy. –– Melinda Quivik
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Every first Sunday of the month, the service at the Cathedral at the Gathering Place (CGP) a non-denominational, neo-Pentecostal church, opens with a word of prayer followed by an incense-filled procession of the church’s clergy and acolytes fully vested in their proper order, carrying the various items usually included in a Eucharistic processional (candles, cross, Gospel Book, etc.). As they process into the sanctuary, the congregation stands and many, with arms raised, begin to sing along with the worship team which has begun the contemporary worship song designated for this portion of the service. Once at the altar, the bishop censes the altar and the people; afterwards a collect is read followed by the proclamation of Psalm 51:15 (“Lord open my lips”).
The praise and worship segment of the service, including a full band, is structured with the assigned lessons from the 1979 Book of Common Prayer (BCP) interspersed between the praise and worship songs. After the readings, the Gospel book is processed into the middle of the sanctuary and the Gospel for that Sunday is read among the people by a deacon after it has been blessed and incensed by the bishop. Afterwards, the preaching or proclamation of the Word takes place with the kind of homiletical esthetic, zeal, and charisma found in most Pentecostal or Baptist churches. Immediately following the preached word, an altar call invites congregants who desire a word of wisdom, prophesy or prayer to come to the front of sanctuary where both clergy and laity who are trained in matters of pastoral payer welcome them with open arms. The service then comes to what the celebrant proclaims is “the center of all things,” the celebration of the Eucharist. Unlike many Pentecostal or evangelical churches that emphasize the memorial aspect of communion, the Gathering Place believes in the real presence of Christ.
Given Pentecostalism’s continued growth as a global movement, it was only a matter of time before segments of Pentecostalism such as The Gathering Place encountered and developed for itself a liturgical and sacramental spirituality akin to the canonical churches (Anglican, Catholic, Orthodox, etc.). In the last fifty years several evangelical and Charismatic segments have embraced a more liturgical and sacramental spirituality, leading to the development of groups identified as either “Three Stream,” “Convergence,” or “Ancient-Future.” For Pentecostals recovering orthodoxy, these expressions many times lack the essential theological, spiritual, or even cultural tensions, which recovering the Great Tradition from a solely Pentecostal framework could provide. For example, the antecedent expressions, unlike Pentecostalism, historically did not include women or people of color in ministry.
The Gathering Place is but one example of churches within Pentecostalism that are coming together with other like-minded churches to form ecclesial organizations of Pentecostals recovering the Great Tradition. As a renewal expression within the broader Paleo-Orthodox Movement, these Pentecostal ecclesial developments are now known as Pentecostal orthodoxy. On July 31, 2019, after having been together for four prayerful years of reflection and discernment, several like-minded bishops, priests, and deacons from autonomous, non-denominational organizations gathered to discuss developing a religious organization that would reflect the recovery of the Great Tradition and the renewal of the contemporary church within a Pentecostal/Charismatic context.
The rest of this essay is available in the full digital and print editions of Liturgy. All of the essays in Liturgy 37, no. 3 are available by personal subscription and through many libraries.
Emilio Alvarez is the President of the Institute for Paleo-Orthodox Christian Studies and the Archbishop of the Union of Charismatic Orthodox Churches.
Emilio Alvarez, “The Union of Charismatic Orthodox Churches,” Liturgy 37, no. 3 (2022): 28–35.