wfn.org | New British Methodist worship book captures headlines

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

Feb. 22, 1999        Contact: Linda Bloom*(212)870-3803*New York
10-21-71B{097}

By Kathleen LaCamera*

LONDON (UMNS) - The BBC Radio news covered it, most national British papers
carried stories about it, and even an Oprah Winfrey-style chat show had the
audience discussing it.

Was the subject peace in Kosovo or even the aftermath of Clinton's
impeachment hearing? No, the topic that had them all talking was the launch
of the British Methodist Church's new worship book.

The 600-page Methodist Worship Book, which took eight years to create, will
give British Methodists a host of new resources for worship. Those include
new services for weddings, funerals, baptisms and communion. The wording of
some passages has caused a stir, at least in the press.

In a new, all-age communion service -- one of eight new communion liturgies
-- the congregation prays to "God our Father and God our Mother," a first
for any mainstream Christian denomination in the United Kingdom. In the
wedding service, brides will no longer be "given away" but "presented" by
the person of their choosing. Grooms may also opt to be "presented." 

"We are overwhelmed; we didn't expect this (reaction) at all," confessed the
Rev. Neil Dixon, secretary of the church-wide Faith and Order Committee,
which oversaw the development of the book. "The remarkable take up by radio
and television has given us a higher profile than we've had nationally for
some time."

The day after the worship book's launch, another member of the Faith and
Order Committee, the Rev. Norman Wallwork, found himself debating the editor
of Brides Magazine on the BBC's "Vanessa" chat show.

When challenged by a member of the studio audience as to why Methodists did
not use the gender-neutral word "parent" instead of "mother" or "father,"
Wallwork had the chance to actually "do" theology on network daytime
television. He replied that the best language Christians have to describe
God is the language of relationship. 

"Few people say things like 'Dear Parent' -- it's a concept," he explained.
"The use of the terms 'mother' and 'father' describe a relationship. The
heart of our faith is about relationship."

In a country where only 10 percent of its population go to church every
Sunday, national coverage that gets the mainstream media talking about
liturgy and faith may come as a surprise.

Journalist Paul Vallely of the national Independent newspaper sees the
tremendous interest in this story as proof of the gap between the church and
the rest of the world. From his perspective, the media seizing upon one
reference in 600 pages to God as "Mother" shows how issues that have been
debated in the church for years are considered completely new outside it.
 
In Britain, the level of interest in religion has reached the point where
only quirky stories make the headlines, said Roger Hutchings, a Methodist
minister and veteran BBC broadcaster.
	
"Taking religion seriously is considered rather 'dotty,' " admitted
Hutchings. "However, I'm inclined to the view that anything that makes
people reflect on whether they believe or not and what they should do about
it isn't a bad thing."

Geraldine Ranson, press officer for the British Methodist Church, has a
different take on the outpouring of media coverage.  

"I think there is a genuine interest in God and theology from the media,"
she said. "They don't want social comment from us; they want solid
Christian, spiritual response. The press want us to tell them about God, and
I think they are responding to a deep, felt need."

Some in the church are just glad the book is finally becoming available.

"For the past quarter of a century, we have lived with just one order of
service for communion," said the Rev. Julie Hulme, pastor of the Methodist
Church in the village of Hilton in Cambridgeshire. "The new book contains a
rich fund of resources that, if used with care and imagination and pastoral
sensitivity, will provide nourishment for the Methodist people for years to
come.

"People will need time to adjust, time to learn to love it. The previous
Book of Worship had immense meaning but, on its own, was a very thin diet."

Hulme and members of her congregation are among the one-third of all British
Methodists who have placed some 163,000 advance orders for the book, which
retails for £15 ($25). Individual services can also be bought in booklet
form.  

The British Methodist Church has 380,269 actual members and represents a
community of 1.2 million people, according to World Methodist Council
figures.

In the long pre-publication process, extensive consultations and trial use
of possible liturgies were undertaken throughout the British Methodist
Church. Materials from around the world, including the United States, were
explored and adapted for inclusion in the final version.

The Methodist Worship Book is greatly expanded from its 1975 predecessor.
Its new offerings include nine services of holy communion, four baptism
services and specially adapted funeral rites for both a child and a
stillborn child.

Critics charge that cost and size alone make the book potentially unusable
for many churches.  Others, like the Rev. Paul Wilson, pastor of the
400-member Knutsford Methodist Church near Manchester, say they like the
variety of the new book but wonder if the services are "too wordy for the
emerging non-word culture" of the 21st century.

Wilson said he wishes more from liturgical communities like Iona in Scotland
and Taize in France had been included. He also said he is looking forward to
the CD-ROM version of the book, due out before 2001.    

Hutchings is quick to note that Methodist ministers and lay preachers will
still be entirely free to do what they want. 

"The fact is that what this book is trying to do is to give people more
tools for the job and ideas for what is possible," he said. "It offers ways
of reflecting on what Christians believe in, and I do actually think, in
terms of well-written liturgy, it is as good as anything around."

Why should a religious book, rich and weighty though it may be, provoke such
mass attention? 

"We, in Britain, are a people whose hymns and prayers are the very chords on
which we play our faith," said Martin Palmer of the Manchester-based
International Consultancy on Religion, Education and Culture. "To touch that
is to touch the very heart of our beliefs.
  
"My guess is that within five to 10 years, because of this Methodist
precedent, the liturgical life of Britain will change dramatically. ... What
the Methodists do has implications well beyond their size."  

# # # 

*LaCamera is a United Methodist News Service correspondent based in England.

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