Worship services need to contain structure with variety

A little while ago a friend wrote to me and said, “How do you cope with the lack of variety in Anglican worship?”  To which I replied, “There is a great variety in the structured worship I have experienced at Chelmsford Cathedral, where I have been worshipping since I retired as the Senior Minister of Central Baptist Church, Chelmsford.  I thoroughly appreciate the Sunday morning 9.30 service, so much so that I always look forward to the next Sunday. To my surprise I discovered that no one Sunday morning is ever the same.

Although Anglican and Baptist Sunday services are different from one another, these differences can be overstated. Anglicans and Baptists all come together to praise God for the gift of his Son, Jesus Christ, who died for our sins and rose from the dead that we might have eternal life.

So, let us take a look at the differences and also similarities between the worship I led as a Baptist minister and the worship I now experience as a member of the Cathedral community.

Baptist worship

The services I used to take took the following form:

  • A welcome and a call to worship followed by an opening hymn of praise
  • An opening prayer in which we praised God for all that he had done for us in Jesus; we thanked God for his blessings of the past week, we confessed our sins, and we received the assurance that “if we confess our sins… he will forgive us our sins and purify us from all our wrongdoing” (1 John 1.9 Good News Bible).
  • The Lord’s Prayer (always the modern version where we used words such as ‘yours’ rather than ‘thine’)
  • We read a Psalm and sing three modern songs
  • The offering in response to God’s blessings upon our lives
  • Notices followed by prayers of intercession
  • The sermon preceded by a prayer that God will speak to us followed by a prayer of response
  • A closing hymn followed by a benediction

Like most Baptist churches, the Lord’s Supper was celebrated twice a month.  On those occasions the prayers of intercession no longer followed the notices, instead they followed the Lord’s Supper.  After the singing of the hymn following the sermon, the service took this shape:

  • The exchange of the Peace in which we particularly greeted visitors and others who were new to the church
  • The invitation to the Table followed by the words of institution (1 Corinthians 11.23-25)
  • A prayer of thanksgiving for Jesus who went to the Cross which was led by one of my lay leaders
  • The distribution of Bread taken from a large loaf and the eating of the bread
  • The distribution of non-alcoholic Wine in small cups and then when all were served, drinking the Wine together
  • The pastoral prayer in which we prayed for members of our church family who in one way or another needed our prayer, followed by prayers for the wider church, our town and nation
  • A prayer of rededication to serving God in the coming week
  • The closing hymn was always a hymn of resurrection
  • The communal saying of the Grace (2 Corinthians 13.13) when we all held hands as we blessed one another

Worship in Chelmsford Cathedral at the 9.30 Sunday morning service

Sunday morning worship always culminated in the celebration of the Lord’s Supper, which at the Cathedral was always termed the Eucharist.  It takes the following form:

The Opening Worship:

  • A welcome by one of the church wardens
  • An opening hymn of praise as the ministers process to the ‘altar’, the Anglican term for the Lord’s Table
  • A prayer of penitence in which we confess our sins and receive ‘absolution’
  • A singing of the Gloria in which we praise God for all he has done for us in Jesus
  • The ‘collect’ for the day which is a short prayer acknowledging something God has done

The Liturgy of the Word

  • A reading from the Old or New Testament followed by a reading from the Gospel
  • The sermon preceded by a prayer that God will speak to us
  • The saying together of a Creed: sometimes it is the Nicene Creed, other times the Apostles’ Creed, and yet other times a variety of short creeds
  • Prayers of intercession led one of the members of the congregation

The Liturgy of the Sacrament

  • The Peace in which we greet one another
  • A Eucharistic prayer
  • The singing of the ‘Sanctus’ (“All heaven and earth are full of your glory…”) and the ‘Benedictus’ (“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord”)
  • The Lord’s Prayer
  • The Breaking of the Bread
  • The singing of the ‘Agnus Dei’ (“Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world, have mercy on us…, grant us peace”)
  • The giving of the Bread (which takes the form of small round ‘wafers’) by one of the ministers as we go forward to the front
  • The giving of the Wine (which is always real wine in a large cup) by one of the lay assistants
  • As we go forward to receive Bread and Wine we sing two modern songs for by that stage the children are present, who come with their parents and receive a blessing from one of the ministers
  • A prayer in which “We thank God for feeding us with the body and blood of his Son Jesus Christ”
  • Notices followed by the final hymn
  • A prayer and a blessing by one of the ministers

Final reflections

Much as I have enjoyed Baptist worship, I have come to appreciate the form of worship offered by Chelmsford Cathedral

  • There is far less focus on the ‘who’ is leading worship, but rightfully more on Who we are worshipping
  • The abundance of Scripture readings – in many Baptist churches there can just be one Scripture reading
  • The carefully crafted prayers
  • Thoughtful but not too lengthy sermons
  • The centrality of the Lord’s Supper at which children are always present
  • Great music with superb organists

However, in spite of the differences between Baptist worship and worship I have experienced at the Cathedral, there are great similarities. For example: a warm welcome, the friendship of those who belong to the church, and – most importantly – a common desire to praise God for his love for us all.

2 comments

  1. My experience has been that it doesn’t much matter what the denomination is, but that any service which has been thoughtfully prepared can lift up out hearts. I have found most cathedral services helpful because the speakers are usually thoughtful people – which is not always the case in the smaller, more parochial churches of any denomination- though of course there are some very good speakers in these churches too. .I must admit that I am a little envious of your ability to attend regular cathedral services!

  2. Use of the lectionary gives structure and variety, I’m grateful to have been influenced by a talk to lay preachers years ago by Dr Michael Quick on preaching through the Christian Year.
    Regarding worship songs, a minister from East London had a policy of being inclusive of everyone’s tastes in the worship repertoire, I found this helpful. When selecting songs and hymns I had a policy of choosing 50% old and 50% new or thereabouts, endeavouring to base the choice on the theme of the scripture passage being preached, and not using any hymn/song more than 4 times a year.
    In retirement, I’m happy in a lively, caring church, but struggle at having to sing about twice a month of ‘a thousand generations, falling down in worship…’ Not sure if people realise that the scriptural reference to the 10 commandments. In choice of songs, I think its a bit sad when we reflect more a ‘top of the pops’ ethos, than the continuity of the apostolic church of Jesus Christ.

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