This is an article in the New York Times about contemporary worship music, praise-rock style, in churches. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/07/arts/music/07prais.html
It’s all about the heart of worship. God can enjoy a distorted guitar as well as a clean guitar. Especially when you’re playing it for him.
Nod to Catalyst for the link.
This past Tuesday at home church it was my turn to present the Phos Hilaron. Sunam TAs on Tuesday, so she walked to hX from school. I was to bring Nolan and dessert. It didn’t go well. We got there late; there was a cooking disaster resulting in a store-bought chocolate cake having to substitute for Sunam’s homemade peach cobbler; our pastor’s wife was in the ER for kidney stones; Nolan was tired and cranky; I was tired and cranky; and I forgot my notes. So my presentation of the Phos Hilaron was hardly splendiferous, but here is what I would have said, had my mood been better and my notes been present.
The solitary flame has been a symbol of our faith since the time of the old covenant. In the wilderness out of Egypt, the glory of God would appear over the tabernacle as a flame at night. The book of Exodus (Exodus 27:20-21) commands that a lamp always burn in the Tabernacle of the Testimony; in contemporary Judaism the Ner Tamid (Hebrew for the eternal light) hangs above the Torah Ark, and the Catholic church prescribes that an altar lamp burn continually before the tabernacle.
During the time of Christ, the Festival of Tabernacles (or Feast of Booths) had symbolic components involving water and light. It was during the celebration of the Festival of Tabernacles that Christ boldly claimed: "If you are thirsty, come to me and drink! Have faith in me, and you will have life-giving water flowing from deep inside you (John 7:37).”
Through a fortuitous and circuitous chain of events, I have learned that the Church of England has Common Worship: Services and Prayers for the Church of England available for download, free of charge, in PDF format. And for those who aren’t all up-ons with their Anglican lectionaries, Common Worship is an update of the Alternate Service Book of 1980, and is a companion of the CoE’s 1662 Book of Common Prayer.
Our home church (hX) has started using the Phos Hilaron (AKA O Respledent Light or Hail Gladdening Light) to start out our time of worship. Each week the light-bearer bringing in a lantern, offers reflection on a passage of scripture, and then we recite the Phos Hilaron in unison. (Reflection, get it? Bwah hah hah.) Anyway, next week it is Sunam’s and my turn to be the bearers of light, so I have been researching the Phos for the last few days.
