Liquid Worship at Ely with Archbishop Sentamu

Have you ever found it hard to sit through a whole service? (Or just one of my sermons?) Have you thought you could do a better job than the Vicar at putting the service together? Then come and try Liquid Worship at Ely Cathedral on Saturday 21st November between 1.30 and 5.00. Jokes about beer and sandwiches and Cafe Church apart, the ‘Liquid’ bit means that all round the Cathedral there will be opportunities to engage in the different elements of worship – prayer, praise, study, silence – and you can flow between them in your own way and at your own speed. One section, for instance, will have a selection of Bible passages with comments by those who chose them, figures past and present, as to why they are special to them. (I’m just choosing mine now.) And the Archbishop is bringing his drums …

Filed under: Church of England, Worship, mission

Mediaeval Mass

When I was a parish priest we once had a lot of fun, and learnt a thing or two too, sharing together in a series of Communion services in the styles of various eras before ours, from the catacombs to the world of the Prayer Book.

Now I read that PhD student Eleanor McCullough has pieced together the Mass used in York churches in the 14th Century from manuscripts held by York Minster and the Bodleian Library. It was used in a special ceremony last month at All Saints Church North Street, in York, to celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of North Street. She said:

Recreating the Mass was a complex task as in this period there were different elements for special feast days, and instructions for use were not always written down since priests were expected to know them. In addition, each diocese had its own special hymns and prayers for the feast days and sometimes only the opening lines were given so other sources had to be consulted to find the prayers in full. This may well be the first time that a York Lady Mass has been reconstructed and performed from the medieval manuscripts here in York since the Reformation.

Filed under: Christianity, History, Worship

Clergy in retreat

Those to be ordained in Ely Cathedral on Saturday are now in full retreat. Please keep them in your prayers:

To be ordained priest:

Stephen Anderson – St Mary the Virgin, Great Shelford
Kathleen Rachel Bishop – The Raddesley Group of Parishes
Gita Bond – The Ramseys St Thomas À Beckett and St Mary and Upwood, St Peter
Alasdair John Coles – Chesterton, St Andrew
Mary Patricia Jepp – Godmanchester, St Mary
Christopher Alan Lowe – Cambridge, St Andrew the Less
Philip Michael Sharkey – The Shingay Group of Parishes
Timothy Sang Yau – Farcet Hampton, St Mary

To be ordained deacon

Margaret Christine Barrow – Girton, St Andrew
Jennifer (Jenny) Anne Gage – The Three Rivers Group
Sarah Catherine Gower – St Neots, St Mary
Timothy David Mark Hayward – Buckden with The Offords
Anthony James Lees-Smith – Chesterton, The Good Shepherd
Jeremy Douglas Adam Parsons – Cambridge, St Martin
Barbara Elizabeth Anne Pearman – The East Marshland Benefice
Brenda Alice Stewart – Abbots Ripton, St Andrew with King’s Ripton, St Peter and Houghton with Wyton, St Mary

Almighty God, the giver of all good gifts,
by your Holy Spirit you have appointed various orders of ministry in the Church:
look with mercy on your servants now called to be deacons and priests;
maintain them in truth and renew them in holiness,
that by word and good example they may faithfully serve you
to the glory of your name and the benefit of your Church;
through the merits of our Saviour Jesus Christ,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Filed under: Church of England, Worship , Diocese of Ely, ordination

Saints of Ely: a new hymn

Professor David Yeandle (words) and Canon David Pritchard (music) have collaborated to produce this fine new hymn for Ely 900. The copyright is theirs but they have kindly agreed to allow it to be reproduced for non-commercial use in the diocese as part of our celebrations. Congratulations and thanks to them!

1. Saints of Ely, raise your voices
High in heaven, God’s praise to sing!
Join the Church, which here rejoices
In the name of Christ, Her King!
You bore witness through the ages
In this venerable place,
Stamped your mark on history’s pages,
Preached salvation to our race.

2. Etheldreda, Virgin glorious,
Earthly might you did foreswear,
Leaving wealth and things vainglorious,
You raised up a house of prayer.
For the love of Christ your Saviour
You renounced the role of wife,
And by meek and chaste behaviour
You espoused the Way of Life.

3. Following this devout example,
Men and women, rich and poor,
Young and old, with faith so ample,
Through the years have striven secure,
Guided by the Holy Spirit,
They have fought the faithful fight,
And by Christ’s eternal merit
Now have gained a crown of light.

4. Many pilgrims came to Ely,
Seeking out the sacred isle,
Thus they journeyed ever freely
O’er the water, mile by mile,
Through the mists and murky places,
Through the realm of fish and fowl,
To the shrine whose healing graces
Brought them solace for the soul.

5. Dearest Lord, as we remember
Those who here have gone before,
Make this hallowed ground love’s ember,
Steer this ship t’wards Heaven’s shore.
Let it be a radiant beacon,
Shining out o’er land and sea,
Let not faith nor hope e’er weaken;
Bless our ancient, treasured See.

Tune: Precentor

Filed under: Music, Resources, Worship , Diocese of Ely, Ely 900

New tune for “Open to God!”

Local composer John Lawson Baker, whose compositions for hymns have won national acclaim, has been kind enough to compose a new tune for my hymn “Open to God!”, and called it St Dunstan after the chapel in the cathedral where it was written. If you’d like to try out the tune as an alternative to Woodlands (which was the one in my mind as I wrote), John would be delighted to give you permission if you email him at john.baker9@ntlworld.com.

You can find more of John’s work at http://www.jubilate.co.uk and http://www.hymnsocietygbi.org.uk

Open to God! Lord, open wide our lives;
Let roots of faith reach deep into Your love.
Ground of our being, Father, Lord of all:
In you we live the new life from above.

Open our lives? Then open wide our hearts;
Let shoots of life spring up on every side.
As Christ in each, so each for other lives,
One vine, together all in him abide.

Open our hearts? Then open wide our doors;
Let fruits of love feed enemies and friends.
The Spirit comes to open up God’s store;
We share its riches to the world’s wide ends.

I was chuffed by the way to hear that the hymn has already been sung at St George’s Chesterton with two more outings planned that I’ve been told of.

Filed under: Hymns, Resources, Worship , Diocese of Ely

The Feast is Ready

All of a sudden the Diocese of Ely seems to be bursting with creativity! I’ve  just had the pleasure of meeting Rachel Nicholls, author, teacher and assistant priest at St Bene’t’s Church in Cambridge.

You can find her earlier books (all assemblies for primary schools) here on the Kevin Mayhew website.

But now hot from the press, also published with Mayhew, comes The Feast is ready to begin – all-age Eucharists for festivals and seasons throughout the year.
It contains sixteen outlines for services, picking up on the resources of Common Worship and suggesting ways to use visual symbols, story-telling and shared actions to make a celebration of the Eucharist genuinely all-age. As it says on the back cover:

If you have ever felt that an all-age Eucharist just isn’t possible because the children will be restless and the adults will be irritated, then this book is for you.

So it is partly meant to be a book on all-age worship for those who feel allergic to it – as well as for those who feel enthusiastic, but would like a few extra resources. I have covered the kinds of festivals and days that people often associate with all-age worship, eg. Christmas, Epiphany, Mothering Sunday – but also Passiontide, Trinity Sunday and All Saints, to try and widen people’s expectations of what is possible.

Rachel is also a considerable scholar writing on New Tetament topics. I loved this bit from the blurb for her book Walking on the Water: Reading Mt. 14:22-33 in the Light of its Wirkungsgeschichte

The concept of Wirkungsgeschichte is gaining ground in New Testament Studies. It involves the gathering of diverse interpretations of a text, but can it offer significant exegetical results or is it merely a form of cultural stamp collecting?

Filed under: Resources, Worship, books

A Hymn to Hum

I’m enjoying a quiet day in our Cathedral at Ely, sitting in St Dunstan’s Chapel, which we reserve for that purpose.
In front of the altar is an interesting metal sculpture which picks up the vine or scrollwork that survives in painted form here and there in the older parts of the building.
Not surprisingly, given my fondness for John 15, I found myself meditating on it, and out of that came the following doggerel, that can be hummed to the tune ‘Woodlands’ (‘Tell out my Soul’):
 
Open to God! Lord, open wide our lives;
Let roots of faith reach deep into Your love.
Ground of our being, Father, Lord of all:
In you we live the new life from above.
 
Open our lives? Then open wide our hearts;
Let shoots of life spring up on every side.
As Christ in each, so each for other lives,
One vine, together all in him abide.
 
Open our hearts? Then open wide our doors;
Let fruits of love feed enemies and friends.
The Spirit comes to open up God’s store;
We share its riches to the world’s wide ends.
 
No prizes for spotting my favourite roots-shoots-fruits mnemonic, nor the that of being open and alive in all three dimensions. If you decide to use it, do let me know how it goes.

Filed under: Worship , Hymns, The Vine

New hymns

Ally Barrett has very kindly added a comment to my post about Corpus Christi giving the text of another great hymn, this time a Communion one, which would go to the tune Picardy (“Let all mortal flesh keep silent”).

I thought I’d carry on the chain because as it happens I wrote a hymn to fit the same tune myself a while ago now, this time based on Psalm 139. Here it is.

You have searched me Lord and you know me,
You know when I sit and I stand.
You perceive my thoughts as I form them,
You know all my words as they’re planned.
You discern my daily goings out and in,
You hold all my ways in your hand.

Where then can I hide from your Spirit?
Where is there to flee from your face?
Though I seek out heaven or the hell-pit
You are there throughout time and space.
Though I rise up on the wings of the dawn,
‘Still your hand gives me tight embrace.

If I say the darkness will hide me
And the light be night dark as may,
Even darkness will not be dark then,
And the night will shine as the day.
For all darkness is as light to you,
Lord who breathed life into my clay.

You have made my innermost being,
In my mother’s womb you wove me;
Watched my unformed body framing,
Wonderfully, fearfully me.
All my days ordained were written in your book
Before one of them came to be.

Search me then O God and know me,
Test my anxious thoughts with your gaze.
Forge me free from all that is evil,
Faithfully to serve all my days.
Lead me Father, Son and Holy Spirit, one,
In your everlasting ways.

Filed under: Christianity, Worship , Hymns, Psalm 139