Some Updates to Our Sunday Liturgy
Dear City of Light,
I want to let you know about some small updates to our Sunday morning liturgy. I was delighted that earlier this year the Anglican Church in North America completed its Spanish translation of the 2019 Book of Common Prayer. We now have copies in English and Spanish available at our Welcome Table or online here.
We had been using Spanish translations found in other places or translated ourselves. Now we can update our bulletin and prayers to align with Spanish speakers throughout the province. There will be a few differences, such as:
We will now say “El Señor esté con ustedes” instead of “El Señor sea con ustedes.”
We will now say “Cristo vendrá de nuevo” instead of “Cristo volverá.”
While we update the Spanish, we’re also going to update a few differences in English between our Sunday bulletin and the 2019 prayer book.
When something changes in the liturgy, it may feel strange or awkward, we may not prefer it at first, and we will make mistakes and say the old words out of habit. This can remind us of several things:
that it’s not first about what we like or prefer, but about our entire church praying together
that worship is not about getting all the words right, it’s about offering our lives to Jesus
that we and our kids have internalized these liturgies more than we realized and that’s good
And that the point is that our liturgies draw us to Jesus who is the living word behind all of our words and who is teaching us how to talk with him.
The several main changes will be:
And with your spirit
Both of the responses “And also with you” and “And with your spirit” have long traditions. The ACNA returned to the “And with your spirit” as the primary one for its emphasis on reminding us that we are both physical and spiritual beings, and when we come together in worship we are engaging all of who we are, body and spirit. This is what we have been saying when we do the response in Spanish, “y con tu espíritu.” Making this change will also bring us more in “common” with the rest of the Diocese and Province.
We lift them up to the Lord.
At the beginning of communion when the celebrant says, “Lift up your hearts” the older liturgy had us saying, “we lift them to the Lord” but the newer liturgy says, “we lift them up to the Lord.”
The Lord’s Prayer (Mt 6:9-13 and Lk 11:2-4)
The BCP2019 has two options for the Lord’s Prayer. If you have been praying the daily offices from the prayerbook then you are familiar with these versions. We had been praying a translation that is a hybrid of the two.
The biggest difference for us in the new version is that it translates “lead us not into temptation” as “save us from the time of trial.” I share more about this change and what we mean when we pray it in the podcast, so take a listen here.
I’m eager to begin praying these prayers with you!
Peace,
Father Trevor
