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| Though every form of Corporate Christian worship has the same essential structure and movement, any family that understands itself in Christ and engages in corporate worship develops its own detailed variation on the Christian service of worship out of its own unique history. This corporate office is the family worship of the Christian FaithandLife Community as it is scattered now across the world. Lot all who use it remember this family in its prayer of intercession. |
SOMETHING MISSING HERE
| Let there be silence as the Community gathers for the Office. At the appointed hour, the ministers shall enter and kneel In prayer. As the ministers rise, let the Community stand and face the Table. The minister shall then begin the Office by saying,
In the name of the Father and the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
Community: Amen.
What has gone before is preliminary to the office proper. Beginning there is the first of the three major parts of Christian worship: The Service of .Confession, The Service of the Word, The Service of Dedication. In the Service of Confession, the People of God selfconsciously choose to become the sinful people they are and to appropriate the word of God's forgiveness in Christ.
Then the Community shall face one another as the minister reads the penitential sentences for the day after which he shall say,
Beloved in Christ, let us confess our sins unto Almighty God.
The Community shall then kneel or bow and the minister shall say,
Lord have mercy upon us!
Community: Christ have mercy upon us.
Minister: Lord have mercy upon us!
Then shall the Community repeat the prayer of confession appointed for the day. Following a moment of silent meditation the minister shall say, Beloved in Christ, we are free to live, for our God hath had mercy upon us, as Our fathers in the faith and the Holy Scriptures bear witness that we are a forgiven people. Hear these words: | The Community having hearkened unto the call to gather to rehearse who they are as the People of God, begin the office in silent prayer. ASCRIPTION
The appointed minister greets the Community by reminding them of which God they have gathered to worship, The Community responds corporately indicating their decision to enact the drama of their salvation before this God. The minister on behalf of our Fathers in the
Faith and in the words of the Holy Scriptures calls upon the Community to confess their disloyalty, alienation and rebellion against God and his creation. GENERAL CONFESSION In response to the summons to repent, the Community collectively assumes responsibility before the Creator for their being the people who hide from their creatureliness and utter dependence upon God. In confessing their sin, they are acknowledging their failure in their mission to be the People of God in history. They are electing to die to their illusions about themselves and to their pretensions before the world. |
The People of God who
have assembled themselves to declare unto one another the word
of God in Christ through
enacting this drama of their salvation by which they are enabled
to live before God in
every lifesituation as forgiven, free, and responsible persons,
are now to go forth and live this Word and drama: This is to honor
and glorify God, this is to Worship Christianly.
THE SHORTENED
FORM OF THE DAILY OFFICE
THE AscR'PTron-Let the worsbipper begin this office on behalf of tht Church by saying: "In thc name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Chost. Amcn." . ~
The Offico of Confasslon
I~IIE CONFESSION-Then let the worshipper read the appointed prayer of confession for the day, acknowledging before God the sins of His people, after which he shall observe a moment of silence.
THE LORD'S PRAYER-The worshipper shall then repeat on beha]f ol the Church the Lord s Prayer, in the awareness that the Church is the people who by God's forriveness Is enabled commonly to address God as 'ath~r
T:ho Office of tho Word
THE PRAISE-I3et the worshipper then offer the praise of the Church to Cod by the reading of a psalm appointed for the day concluding with the Gloria Patri.
THE LESSON-The worshi'pper shall then read the daily lesson from the scriptures of the Christian Community after which he shall engage in a season of reRerriYP m~odit~t;^n
TIIE CREED-Then shall the worshipper repeat, as a representative of all who name the name of Christ, either the Apostle's Creed or the Gloria Patri.
The Offico of Dodication
THE OFFERING-Here the worshipper shall oR'er unto the Lord the Church with all her needs relating to her mission in the world, through reading a collect appointed for the appropriate sacred season.
THE INTERCESSION-Then shall the worshipper in 'communion with the saints of all ages, read the appointed intercessory prayers and offer his own prayers of intercession for the world, giving particular attention to those who suffer outside of the orders of life, followed by a moment of quiet.
TI!E CRACK-The worshipper shall then say, on behalf of the Church, "The grace of our lord Jesus Christ and the love of Cod and the fellowship of the Holy Chost, 15e.with us all evermore. Amen."
