Worship ‘n spirituality ‘n authenticity ‘n mission

Bosco Peters dropped in from what looks like a very comprehensive liturgy website in New Zealand. He’s interested in my more-than-slightly unfocused exploring of the links between worship and spirituality. I think it goes like this.

In a secular age, the church talks only to itself. If the church tries to do more than that, it is condemned for being irrelevant or for making vane attempts to be relevant or meddling in politics or .. But the secular age is not godless. It is full of people searching for meaning and exploring spirituality. Those people may recognise authentic spirituality/holiness when they meet it but the church is the last place where they would expect to find it. The church thinks that liturgy is about ‘getting the words right’. And the words have to be right. But actually liturgy is about communicating spirituality – which is why I am increasingly interested in how we ‘do’ liturgy or how we ‘are’ in liturgy more than in the words themselves. Which is where Benedictines come in. Because they just come into church and are. And it’s hard to miss the spirituality. So the challenge is to live and worship with an authenticity such that it communicates itself. Simple.

3 comments

  1. Thanks Bishop David for these thoughts;
    I often highlight Jesus said “DO this in memory of me” & we so easily turn that into “say these words” in memory of Jesus!

    Thanks for adding me to your links. I’ll add your blog to my blog links next update.

    & yes Chris I quite like poking around from one blog to another (or one site to another) via the links to get an idea where people are at – especially around worship and spirituality.

    Blessings

    Bosco
    http://www.liturgy.co.nz

  2. Isn’t it the difference between ‘being’ and ‘doing’? I have been at services where the liturgy has been ‘done’ meticulously, but there has been no sense of the spiritual. Whereas there have been other times when the ‘doing’ has been minimal, but imbued with a profound spirituality.

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