Many of you expressed appreciation for the last newsletter's "Page 3" article on keeping a reverent silence before our services and during the administration of communion. Thank you for your kind words as well as for your attentiveness—I've noticed the difference over the past weeks. However, right after I sent that article to the printer I realized that I neglected to say that this does not signal any change in our welcoming of infants and younger children in the service. Their presence is a vibrant part of the life of a congregation as a healthy church family (and, personally, I like to see and hear our young ones). Parents should feel free to have their children with them and then simply decide when a considerate exit is called for, if need be.
The attention to silence as part of our worship led me to think about other parts of the service that might be neglected or not fully understood, especially for those among
us who were not raised in the Episcopal Church (and that's two-thirds of this congregation!). I thought particularly about "passing the Peace," something that even those who were raised Episcopalian may not fully appreciate.
To begin with, the Peace is actually part of the liturgy. It is one of the most ancient aspects of Christian worship, and may very well have been instituted by the Apostles themselves. There are no fewer than thirteen references to the Peace in the New Testament commending it to the practice of Christian community. We see that it is not a "social" action, but a liturgical and therefore theological action. This gets to the heart of the matter. The Peace is not a time simply to greet or speak to others. It must not be reduced to idle talk, jokes, and football scores! Consider that the Peace is nothing less than the pivotal moment in our worship when we recognize and venerate in each other the presence of Jesus Christ. I once heard Archbishop Desmond Tutu talk about the Peace and he said (I'll never forget it!) "We should not be shaking hands or even hugging each other. We should GENUFLECT to one another." Archbishop Tutu was making a strong point in a graphic way. I'd always genuflected [touch one knee to the floor] to the reserved Sacrament in a tabernacle as a sign of devotion of the Real Presence of Christ in the consecrated bread and wine. But to a person? Yes, of only in the heart, because ultimately the Peace is about the Christian community being the Body of Christ in the world and the fact that we are that Body for one another as well.
This is why I do the announcements prior to the beginning of the service. I suppose that most places do announcements before passing the Peace but, to me, that masks the theological and liturgical character of the Peace itself. When the Peace was restored to the liturgy back in the 1970's many people resisted it as being an "interruption" of the service. Indeed, it can be just that! It can become a sort of town-meeting concluded by greeting each other. I think that placing announcements at the Peace lends to that perception and inhibits people from being able to enact and experience the Peace liturgically. Far from being an "interruption" of the service, the Peace is the bridge between the two parts that compose the Eucharistic service, the Liturgy of the Word and The Holy Communion. We respond to what we have just heard in the Word, said in the
Creed, and offered in our prayers, and we anticipate what is about to be enacted in the
Communion.
I hope this perspective will help you to bring a more intentional action to what-you-do and what-you-mean when you take part in passing the Peace. In short, the Peace is about our relationship with Jesus Christ as the Lord of life, just like everything else in our worship. Let's meet one another there.
Blessings,
Shannon+
