From the Archives: "Worship in the American Heartland"
Each month, our blog features articles from the archives of Liturgy. Our goal is to share the wisdom from decades past so that we might celebrate the work and insights of these excellent ministers and scholars.
Fr. Anthony Ugolnik
In 1986, Litrurgy published an article by Anthony Ugolnik entitled, “Worship in the American Heartland.” Ugolnik had been invited by the Lutheran bishop of the American Lutheran Church (the Norwegian-Americans of that iteration of Lutheranism) to speak to the people of southwestern Minnesota in their annual meetings for church business. As an Orthodox Church member, it was his opportunity to see Lutheran liturgical practice among farmers and other rural people and compare their worship with that of his own church. He found a faithfulness that he had not expected, and even more, he found a deeply “liturgical” people and worship pattern. Describing the sites and smells of the land, the hardships of prairie people in the 1980s when drought forced farm foreclosures, the church served as an unmistakable source of stability. His conclusions serve to locate the heart of worship in the locality, in the land and the people, everywhere genuine and everywhere faith-filled.
Selected Quotes from
“Worship in the American Heartland”
“For believers, liturgy expresses and defines the rhythm of our lives.”
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“The Orthodox. . . tend to envision understanding –– at least religious understanding –– as seated in the heart rather than the mind.”
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“In Garrison Keillor’s world, the Roman Catholic and Lutheran churches stand as two poles on the religious landscape. The distinction in worship extends well into daily life: ‘In Lake Wobegon, car ownership is a matter of faith. Lutherans drive Fords, bought from Bunsen Motors, the Lutheran car dealer, and Catholics drive Chevies from Main Garage, owned by the Kruegers, except for Hjalmar Ingqvist, who has a Lincoln.’ In Marshall, Minnesota, at least, those polarities are breaking down. Here I was, an Orthodox, being driven (in a Ford) to Holy Redeemer Catholic Church in order to attend and address a Lutheran worship service. And in Holy Redeemer Church, feeling as alien at first as the unmistakably Catholic statues that adorned the sanctuary, I witnessed my first full Lutheran liturgy.”
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“The Lutheran liturgy of the American Lutheran Church, followed with full custom and faithfulness to its own hymnal, shares this dialogic quality with all standard Christian worship. In dialogue between the presider and the congregation, in verse and response between the two, worship occurs. Worship is what linguists call an ‘illocutionary act’; it cannot be without being said. It is the people who beget it.”
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“Our call in the United States is not to soften our liturgical emphasis, but to raise its call ever more clearly, and through it strive to reach the people of whom we are not yet a part. The ‘instantaneous’ models of Christianity and sudden, ecstatic conversions that flash upon the media are too shallow and too individualistic for people like these Minnesota Lutherans, people rooted deep in an independent and interdependent community. The liturgy I witnessed was the product of their spirit, a witness to process, long and slow and abiding, in the divine life. This was the bone of their flesh as a church, the bedrock of their foundation.”
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Anthony Ugolnik was, at this writing, a member of the board of directors of The Liturgical Conference, is an Eastern [Russian] Orthodox, American, Christian, teaching English at Franklin & Marshall College, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
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