wfn.org | Worship Then-and-Now Is Topic at Lutheran Seminaries

[NEWS <NEWS@ELCA.ORG>]

ELCA NEWS SERVICE

May 18, 1999

WORSHIP THEN-AND-NOW IS TOPIC AT LUTHERAN SEMINARIES
99-135-MS**

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Dr. Mary Collins, OSB, and the Rev. Gordon W.
Lathrop said the story of Jesus Christ has been retold around the world
for thousands of years through Christian worship.  They explored "the
principles of the cultural adaptation of Christian liturgy" and other
challenges facing modern churches in the 1999 Hein-Fry Lecture Series
that concluded May 5.
     Collins chairs the Department of Religion and Religious Education,
The Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C., and Lathrop is
professor of liturgy and chaplain, Lutheran Theological Seminary at
Philadelphia.  Each made presentations at four of the eight seminaries
of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).
     Lathrop said the classic order of worship found in the Lutheran
church and elsewhere is not tied to a particular tradition or attitude,
but traces its origins to the pattern found in the gospel narratives
relating the story of Jesus Christ.  Much tinkering with the classic
order of worship is therefore out of bounds, he said.
     "The worship order applies the history of the story of Jesus to
the present day lives of worshipers who read the gospel narratives.  Our
worship seeks to relate this history to the modern reader's different
circumstances, purpose and reasons," said Lathrop.  The worship order
has been repeated throughout Christian history by communities fiercely
interested in keeping Jesus' story alive, he said.
     Lathrop cautioned his audience against what he called
"deformations that are popular" in modern society.  Such deformations
tend to leave out preaching or to lose the centrality of the Lord's
Supper in worship, he said.  Lathrop said a misreading of Scriptures has
led some worship leaders to make forgiveness necessary before one can
partake in the Lord's Supper rather than seeing that all belong to the
body of Christ.
     Collins said human beings naturally resist giving up their claim
to universal self-importance, so they demand from God "an extra-terrestrial presence to ease their burdens" and complain about the
experience of God's absence, failing to recognize the presence of God
even when God is "intentionally absent" from the people God loves.
     The practice of symbolically intense worship is the setting where
people sense both the mystery and presence of a God in whom they place
their trust, said Collins.  In such community believers "short-circuit
their acknowledged self-centeredness."
     Through sacraments and by means of God's grace discovered in
liturgy, worshipers continually sense the revelation of Christ in their
lives, calling them out of themselves, Collins said.  Therefore, worship
practices have the potential to establish a growing understanding of
what it means to be in relationship with Christ in the context of the
God-given history of the world.
     The practice of liturgy today demands new approaches in many
quarters, Collins said, if the practice is to achieve its potential for
helping strangers interpret the meaning of the story of Jesus.  She said
that many cultures, including African traditions, use repetition and
dance in liturgy that is all-enveloping.
     "This all-encompassing celebration of mind, body and spirit is an
effective way of engaging in liturgy," Collins said.  "It is a way of
retrieving aspects that have sometimes been dropped from liturgical
practice, a way of ritualizing ideas through the use of every means
possible."  She made a strong case for such celebrations "for the sake
of the next generation."
     Collins began the series Feb. 4 at the Lutheran Theological
Southern Seminary, Columbia, S.C.; Feb. 16 at Luther Seminary, St. Paul,
Minn.; Feb. 25-26 at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary, Berkeley,
Calif.; and March 9 at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at
Philadelphia.
     Lathrop continued the discourse Feb. 11 at the Lutheran
Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, Pa.; April 22 at Wartburg
Theological Seminary, Dubuque, Iowa; April 28 at the Lutheran School of
Theology at Chicago; and May 5 at Trinity Lutheran Seminary, Columbus,
Ohio.
     The Hein-Fry Lecture Series predates the ELCA, which was formed in
1988.  The endowed theological lecture series fosters original
scholarship and enriches theological dialogue throughout the church.  It
combines the Dr. Carl Christian Hein Memorial Seminary Lectures of the
former American Lutheran Church and the Franklin Clark Fry Theological
Lectures of the former Lutheran Church in America.
     The series is coordinated through the ELCA Division for Ministry.

[**Mark A. Staples, coordinator of publications and public information,
Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, provided the content of
this story.]

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