Language & Liturgy – Exploring Possibilities for Prayer:
Wednesdays at 6:00pm
This Lent, join us for an hour-long class on Wednesday evenings exploring language and liturgy. We will meet in-person at 6 p.m. in the Connector, and our first class will be Wednesday March 9th.
As Episcopalians, the language for our liturgy typically comes from the Book of Common Prayer – a text that has both its gifts and its challenges. Emerging from ongoing conversations around liturgy, the prayer book, and other prayer resources, Raising the Questions (a discussion group dedicated to theological conversation and inquiry) has compiled a booklet of alternative prayers that showcase varied approaches to liturgical language. This booklet will be available for the whole congregation’s personal use throughout the Lenten season and will also serve as our guide for the class. Copies will be available in the back of the church by Ash Wednesday.
Tom and Megan will lead the class through different types of prayers featured in the booklet, such as creeds, confessions, and versions of the Lord’s Prayer. As a group, we will explore how the language of different prayers impacts and forms us – discussing which images for God, the church, and humanity resonate with us, stretch us, stifle us, surprise us, and more. The class will include both time for conversation around different examples of liturgical language and for prayer itself, drawing on these resources.