Glory be to the Father

Have you ever wondered why we say, "world without end" in the Gloria Patri? Me neither. I guess I've said or sung it so often I'd never thought that it meant the world would go on forever and never stop. But someone did ask (on radio), so here's what I heard. It's a very awkward idiom that comes from Hebrew, then Greek, then Latin, then squeezed into English. In other words, a bad translation for "will be for ever." In none of the other languages does the word world appear.

Found a longer explanation. https://nathanlemahieu.weebly.com/gloria-patri.html

Opening the book—sermon series, audio and visual

We’re starting a new sermon series at UALC, called Open Book, an initiative to read and teach through the Bible.  So this Sunday will be Genesis 2.

  However, last Sunday, September 8, a few in-house details needed to be addressed as there are changes in scheduling taking place and worship services are being condensed or merged.  You can not change worship styles even in the same Lutheran congregation without causing some conflicts or hurt feelings.  Last night at dinner in a restaurant  for our church’s art ministry one of the spouses of a member declared how much he dislikes organ music and only enjoys what I call the “clangy bangy service.” (loud guitars, many amplification speakers, quartet leading—X-Alt)  Bill honors God in a different way than the Bruces who like liturgy, hymns, scripture and written prayers.  So Senior Pastor Steve Turnbull at the Lytham Road services (9 a.m. and 10:30 a.m.) preached on this. http://www.ualc.org/clientimages/38787/ministry_guide-handout_pdfs/09-08-19_lrsermonnotes.pdf  I’m listening again to the audio, and can tell it wasn’t the 9 a.m., but essentially the same words for the 10:30.  http://tech.ualc.org/mp3/audio/190908STLR.mp3

To prepare for tomorrow’s service (Sunday September 15) I looked at (on-line) the Biblical story of the creation of the earth and Adam and Eve. What is so annoying about listening to it on-line while reading is the advertisements.  First, there was a woman’s blouse flashing on the left in teal and black.  I paused to close it, and it was quiet for a minute, then brought up a stationary ad of a dress, so I closed it.  Then a few seconds later it posted a car advertisement (we were looking at new cars yesterday), so I closed it.  Three interruptions in one Chapter! Cookies left along the way on my computer have told advertisers that a female who is car shopping is now reading Genesis 2.

Also, a professional actor is reading (in the NIV audio by Gateway), and although he has a wonderful voice, after a few sentences they all start to run together, so I find the audio of the reading done by our own layperson more pleasant.  Unfortunately, it isn’t available until the sermon is recorded.  To get around this, I can click on what was being read last week at Mill Run which will be the selection for this week at Lytham. http://tech.ualc.org/mp3/audio/190908ATMR.mp3

These on-line interruptions in my vision are similar to what I experience auditorily in some worship services—loud noises, odd music, abrupt changes, difficulty hearing what is being said due to fluctuations in voices (dropping voice at end of sentence) or people whispering behind me. Aural comprehension has always been a problem for me from the time I was told in school or at home I wasn’t paying attention or I was lazy, to this day when someone asks about a point in a sermon and I don’t recall a word.

Free college tools and courses 2018-2019

There are many free courses on the internet, and I’ve taken 2 from Coursera, one of which I completed (Medical Statistics) and one I didn’t (Gut microbiota).  Today I came across a listing of free courses at Ivy League colleges https://qz.com/1263050/here-are-300-free-ivy-league-university-courses-you-can-take-online-right-now/   at Awareness Watch http://awarenesswatch.virtualprivatelibrary.net/V16N8.pdf and looked through the Harvard listing for the Book in medieval liturgies.

“When we think of liturgy today, we imagine short, formal, congregational events happening periodically within the confines of churches. Medieval liturgy, however, took up many hours of every day, filled the city's largest meeting halls, and even spilled onto the streets. At the center of the medieval liturgy were the books we will study in this course.

In this module of The Book: Histories Across Time and Space, we’ll explore and explain the beautiful service books of the medieval church. No prior knowledge of liturgy or Latin is required, but there will be a lot of both, along with music.”

This course is part of a group of courses called The Book. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=9&v=LwHbfJAYqJw

Sounds very interesting—the big question, do I want to work that hard.  You can go at your own pace in a free course, but when I enroll I want to do well.  Sometimes stretching the mind is painful!

Today's New Word--Leonine Sacramentary

"The oldest of the Latin sacramentaries or liturgical books. It was erroneously attributed to Pope Leo I and was in use from the fourth to the seventh centuries. It contains neither canons nor the Ordinary of the Mass, but many propers, collects, prefaces, secrets, postcommunions, and orations, together with ordination forms. Many of these prayers are still in use today." https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/dictionary/index.cfm?id=34561

"The popular, though incorrect name for the earliest surviving collection of Roman Mass formularies and ordination prayers that scholars have called the Sacramentary of Verona (Sacramentarium Veronense ). The name "Leonine Sacramentary" is misleading, since it is neither a sacramentary, nor was it composed by Pope Leo I. More accurately, it is a compilation of individual libelli missarum in a single manuscript. It is a unicum, i.e., it exists in a single MS, Codex LXXXV (80) of the Chapter Library at Verona. E. A. Lowe dates it, on palaeographical grounds, as written in the first quarter of the 7th century. J. Bianchini published it in 1735, in v.4 of his Anastasius Bibliothecarius, under the title Sacramentarium Leonianum. In 1748 L. A. Muratori reedited it under the same title, but in 1754 J. A. Assemani, who gave it the title Sacramentarium Veronense, vulgo Leonianum, edited it again. In 1896 C. L. Feltoe published a handy, but inaccurate, edition, with the old title. The most recent edition is that of K. Mohlberg, who has rightly again called it Sacramentarium Veronense (Rome 1956). …" http://www.encyclopedia.com/article-1G2-3407706637/leonine-sacramentary.html

I came across this term in reading something from the Prayer Book Society, which "exists to promote Anglican belief and worship as expressed in the Common Prayer tradition and Anglican formularies since the first Book of Common Prayer of 1549 in the Church of England, on through the 1928 Prayer Book down to the present day." http://www.pbsusa.org/

Liturgical dance?

I first saw liturgical dance when I was 18 at Manchester College.  It didn't impress me then, and still doesn't.  But at least it was school girls then and they didn't dress in their underwear.  I've seen a number of suggestions for what this might be trying to say, but I wish I could see the expressions on these older men's faces (Metro New York ELCA [Lutheran]  Synod) in the audience.  Perhaps I've misinterpreted this and someone can clarify.

Liturgical abuses in Latin America

“In Latin America, beside the beautifully and carefully celebrated Masses associated with the major popular devotions, liturgical abuses are still alive and constitute a massive problem in the region.

It is not a situation of omitting or changing the rubrics here and there. The liturgical problems are much more serious. They consist of events like priests “concelebrating” the Mass with the youth at the rhythm of tropical songs in Colombia; “consecrating” cakes with Guayaba marmalade in Venezuela; a “reggae” Mass in Panama; or a priest celebrating with vestments portraying Batman and Robin while squirting holy water with a green-and-red water pistol in Mexico.”

Read more: http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/pope-francis-and-the-liturgy/#ixzz2SzPmeBDx

Welcome to happy clappy Protestantism.

Almost 50 years ago

"On January 25, 1959, at the Roman Basilica of Saint Paul outside the Walls, Pope John XXIII announced his intention of convoking a council of the church to open its windows, as he put it, to let in fresh air. The ultimate goal of the council was to be Christian unity. After nearly four years of extensive preparation, the council met in four sessions from October 11, 1962 to December 8, 1965 and was a momentous event not only for the Roman Church but for all of Western Christianity. . .

. . .the Second Vatican Council . . showed the Church of Rome to be not the monolithic monarchy many thought it to be but rather a living body capable of remarkable change, renewal, and renovation--a model for the rest of Christianity. Moreover, the churches of the Reformation, and Lutherans especially, saw in the working and the documents of the council an acceptance of basic principles of the sixteenth-century Reformation:

• the primacy of grace,
• the centrality of Scripture,
• the understanding of the church as the people of God,
• the use of the vernacular language.

It was as if the Lutheran Reformation had made its point at long last. Indeed, some Lutherans observed that the place in the modern world where the principles of the Reformers were most clearly at work was the Roman Church. . ."
Commentary on the Lutheran Book of Worship; Lutheran liturgy in its ecumenical context, by Philip H. Pfatteicher, (Augsburg Fortress, 1990) p. 1

Yes, it certainly was an optimistic time, since even today 50 years later many Lutherans will not worship together or share in Holy Communion with another synod. And there are some of us old time transfers (1976) from other denominations (Church of the Brethren and Presbyterian in our case) who wish someone would close the windows or maybe lower them for a year or two--at least in terms of tinkering with our Sunday service. We were just getting the hang of the LBW (or as we non-liturgical types call it, the green book, which replaced the red book, Service book and hymnal) when the mid-week informal/contemporary service at UALC migrated to a spot on Sunday morning back in the 80s, and now has pretty much taken over. Only a few stubborn old timers who enjoy complex theology in their hymns, a real choir, confession of sins, and creeds show up for the two traditional services (out of 9). However, if you read Pfatteicher's book, LBW really isn't so traditional after all but reflects constant change over two thousand years, beginning with a bunch of rag-tag, frightened Jewish Christians gathering after Jesus' resurrection to follow his instructions, "Take and eat; this is my body given for you. Do this for the remembrance of me."