Sarx

The Yearly Liturgical Cycle The yearly reading series forms the Calendar — a cycle of feasts and seasons surrounding the Easter commemoration of Jesus’ death and resurrection. The Revised Common Lectionary, an ecumenical project, sets forth three readings each Sunday: one from the Gospels, with two choices for an Old Testament reading related to it, and a third reading from other New Testament documents — called the Epistle, as it usually comes from a New Testament letter. We now follow the RCL under a national Episcopal Church plan for trial use.

Recent scholarship shows the passion events govern even the Christmas cycle and other solar-calendar phases of the Christian year. (*) Apart from the passion, the Christian calendar does not commemorate dates when scriptural events occured — those are not known — but rather sets times for reading various scriptural selections. Liturgical “seasons” like Advent, Lent, Eastertide have no intrinsic reality, as summer and winter have, but are created by the way we choose to read the New Testament. Put simply, the Church Year is a lectionary. For example, the new Prayer Book lectionary changes our readings far beyond the old seasonal pattern extending Advent readings from four weeks to seven, for example — following the Eastern tradition, as well as the older Western style - and our liturgical “seasons” must now change to match.

At St Gregory’s we give Easter the primary place in our Calendar, remembering Jesus’ resurrection every Sunday, and holding our biggest and most joyful festival on the Saturday night following Good Friday, when we begin fifty days’ extended celebration. Like Passover, Easter is classically a nighttime feast. Our celebration begins Saturday at dusk and continues with a feast lasting well into Sunday morning: this is our one Easter service. (At midday that Sunday we offer a church picnic.) Moreover, we use resurrection material each Sunday throughout the year, suppressing nothing in Lent, and shifting into high gear for Eastertide with the Easter Troparion and other texts salted through the service. As one member puts it, “There are two seasons at St Gregory’s: ‘Easter,’ and ‘Easter’s Coming.’” Other feasts we celebrate with equal joy but less intensity; as another member puts it, “this is an Easter church; most churches are Christmas churches.”

Readings The deacon oversees the scriptural readings, setting up books, recruiting readers, and anouncing texts. The first text, invariable outside Eastertide, is a verse from Deuteronomy 6 that has begun the readings in synagogues since Jesus’ time, when rabbis agreed it epitomized Old Testament teaching: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord.” The deacon sings this verse in Hebrew (it is called the Shema after its first word), and all repeat it twice in English, adding harmony the third time. We normally sing the melody most popular in synagogues today: this was written by a Jewish friend of Brahms, and sounds like Brahms’ famous lullaby for good reason. (In Eastertide, the Easter Troparion replaces the Shema.)

Two readings normally follow the Shema: first from the Hebrew Old Testament, or a New Testament letter; then from one of the four Gospels that recall the life, death and teaching of Jesus. As noted above, these readings follow an ecumenical three-year cycle which Roman Catholics, Episcopalians, Lutherans, Methodists and a growing number of other Christians keep together. Because the Gospels originated as sermons commenting on the two older readings, and were written down later, the Gospel reading traditionally comes last. Today many churches read all three lections, often running them together to save time. But according to Massey Shepherd, who helped plan the first Roman Catholic and Episcopal versions, the lectionary framers intended churches to use two readings, chosing either the Old Testament or the Epistle to accompany the Gospel. At St Gregory’s the Old Testament is usually read at our main service, and the Epistle at other services. A preacher may alter the scheme, however. The lectionary also appoints psalm passages, which we use for the Entry Procession [see above] and the Alleluias following the Sermon [see below].

While all sing the Shema, the deacon invites a lay volunteer out of the congregation, leads this reader to the lectern, and stands by pointing the text.

Silence A two-minute silence concludes each reading. This silence begins with the sound of Japanese, Tibetan and Siamese temple gongs, whose reverberations help everyone to fall into deep quiet; and it ends with a small Tibetan bell. (Visitors often ask where they can get such bells for their own churches. Oriental antique shops sell them at exotic prices, usually for looks rather than musical tone, so test them before buying. Good bells make the Silence work so well it has become the most popular single element of our service.)

Canticle After the first reading and silence, a chosen canticle or hymn follows. Our service booklets contain several scriptural canticles in both antique and modern language, chiefly drawn from the Prayer Book and related publications, and set to congregational chants from many traditions, including mixed or alternatim chants. We welcome new settings in chant style, and for that purpose we re-issue our service booklets every few years.

Laypeople read all readings at St Gregory’s, including the Gospel, which may be sung to a chant or choral setting — old, new or improvised. The work of reading or singing the Gospel belongs to Members of St Gregory’s, who rehearse it under the cantor’s direction. The deacon assists all readers by announcing the text, pointing the place throughout the reading, and advising the pronunciation of foreign words. [For the roles of laypeople and deacon, see the section on Ministers of Worship above.]

Gospel Acclamations The Gospel reading opens with a popular acclamation, and afterward one deacon shoulders the gospel book and carries it to the preacher, while another leads the procession crying “The Gospel of the Lord!” and the people acclaim the Gospel again.

Roman emperors were military commanders, and were not throned or crowned or anointed. Instead, army officers elected them and hoisted them on their shoulders or their shields, carrying them out to the troops, who acknowledged their new commander by crying “Hail Caesar!” Both Jews and Christians adopted this royal ceremony from Roman imperial ritual, to symbolize the reign of God’s Word, who speaks to us in all the scriptures. The deacon shoulders the gospel book, proclaims “The Gospel of the Lord!” and walks among the people who cry “Praise to you, Lord Christ!” Greek and Russian churches still carry out these gestures in imperial style. Jews carry the scrolls surmounted by royal crowns and vestments; but instead of crying out, the synagogue congregation sing and even dance around the scrolls, and all reach forward to touch them reverently and affectionately — a custom we employ after the Sermon. Ethiopian Christians use a similar ceremony. [See below.]

Role of Deacon Some modern champions for the diaconate claim Gospel reading as the deacon’s prerogative, and the current Prayer Book directs a deacon should read it. Historically, however, this duty was the last assigned to deacons, when elderly bishops in huge post-Constantinian church buildings grew tired of declaiming the Gospel as part of their preaching. The deacon was an obvious substitute, because his job required a powerful singing voice: this indeed became the chief criterion for recruiting deacons in eastern churches. (After the Russian Revolution it was said that the priests went into the labor camps, and the deacons into the opera!) But if the preacher does not wish to read the Gospel at the eucharist, there is no reason laypeople should not do so - as indeed they already do at other worship services — and a growing number of congregations in every denomination now expect it. At St Gregory’s the deacon has a prominent enough role throughout the liturgy, and does not need this vestigial perquisite.