Liturgical Changes in Debt to the Liturgical Renewal Movement

The issue of Liturgy entitled “Future Renewals: Looking Toward the Next Fifty Years of Worship Scholarship and Practice,” was co-edited by Andrew Wymer, vice-president of the Liturgical Conference board and professor of worship at Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois, and me.

We solicited essays from a range of members of the North American Academy of Liturgy (NAAL) looking at what has changed in liturgical scholarship and liturgical practice in the years since NAAL was founded in response to the Second Vatican Council.

Here is an excerpt from HyeRan Kim-Cragg’s essay looking at the changes in worship ushered in by the Second Vatican Council. In the second part of Kim-Cragg’s writing (to be posted on September 22) she outlines the changes still needed but which face obstacles that stand in the way. –– Melinda Quivik

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The Second Vatican Council awakened worshiping assemblies with the three adjectives “full, conscious, and active participation.” These adjectives clearly point to the lack of participation in worship. As a way to articulate and underline these emphases, I coined three words to capture the contributions of the Liturgical Renewal Movement (LRM): Laity, Lectionary, and Laughter.

The recovery of an active role for the laity in worship has rekindled the etymological meaning of liturgy, leiturgia, as “the work of the whole people” not just the work of the clergy or preacher. Those who participated in the mainline churches prior to the last fifty years have watched the solo minister do everything, preaching, leading prayer, presiding over sacraments, and making announcements. People in the pew were observers, sitting still, and barely moving their bodies. The LRM underscored the active role of laity affirmed by the Protestant Reformed theology of the “priesthood of all believers,” empowering those who are baptized to consider themselves equally, though differently, called by God, not to be entertained in worship but to enliven worship by their presence and participation.

Lectionary . . . can be traced as far back as the fourth century of the Church. Christians owe the idea of the lectionary to their Jewish siblings as it was heavily influenced by Jewish traditions in which selective scripture reading is central to Jewish worship. Through the lectionary, LRM underscored both the appreciation of the early churches worship practices and the centrality of scripture in worship. The use of the lectionary helped mend the division between the Roman Catholic church where the altar is dominant and the Protestant, particularly Reformed church where the pulpit is dominant. The use of the lectionary is directly related to the recovery of the active role of laity because what is to be read in Sunday service is not determined by the single and local clergy but is decided multilaterally with multiple churches across the globe based in the liturgical calendar which follows Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, and then the life of the Church. . . The lectionary enables laity to access the Bible. While we should not idolize the lectionary as if that were the only option to use in worship, it has enhanced the quality of worship when all worshiping members read scripture together intergenerationally and internationally. The lectionary has helped liturgy give a scriptural focus to the work of the church.

The term “laughter” is suggested here to capture an experience that is “active and full,” a goal for worship within the LRM. Laughter points to a sensory engagement and encourages joyful participation in worship. Many Christians influenced by puritan and piety traditions believed that worship should be solemn, decent, and orderly (1 Cor. 14:40). The solemn, scripted, and orderly worship often results in the absence of playfulness discouraging spontaneity and depriving sensory experiences. There may be a danger of downplaying celebratory aspects of worship and excluding the joyful (noisy) involvement of diverse people including children. . . LRM has reminded the assembly that a primary purpose of worship is “thanksgiving” to God. As LRM made thanksgiving a central piece, the more frequent weekly celebration of Holy Communion enhances the active bodily and sensory participation of the whole people of God.

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The full essay including references is available now in the digital and print editions of Liturgy. All of the essays in Liturgy 38, no. 1 are available by personal subscription and through many libraries.

HyeRan Kim-Cragg, Principal and Timothy Eaton Memorial Church Professor of Preaching at Emmanuel College of Victoria University in The University of Toronto. Her fifty articles have appeared in Homiletic and Liturgy, among other publications. Among her twelve books is Postcolonial Preaching: Creating a Ripple Effect (Lexington Books, 2021).

HyeRan Kim-Cragg, “Contributions of the Liturgical Renewal Movement and Concerns for the Future Renewal of Liturgy,” Liturgy 38, no. 1 (2023): 33–39.