Grassroots Liturgist

I am going to tell you three little stories, all true. At my University Chaplaincy, there was a library that doubled as a dining room, particularly on formal occasions.   There was a lovely old Victorian dining table with brass castors on the legs.   One evening, as several of us were gathered for dinner, one of those casters gave way.   Some of us desperately held up the heavy table as our chaplain told the other students to get something to prop up the leg.   They ran back with a book – a copy of the Holy Bible!! “NOT THE BIBLE!” exclaimed the incredulous chaplain. Compare that to an interview with Salman Rushdie that I saw many years ago.   He described how in his family, all books – not just Scripture – were so revered that if one fell to the floor, they were taught to pick it up, kiss it, and put it back in its place. One final anecdote: some months ago, my father died.   As I trawled through his stuff, I came across the last bus pass of his mo...

I have been on the road for much of the last couple of months, which gives me an opportunity to see how other parishes "do" liturgy - I'm always keen to pick up ideas.  My own parish does not have a Book of the Gospels - the Gospel being read from the Lectionary, as with the other readings.  However, two of the parishes that I visited do and I noticed one key difference been the two. Both parishes had a deacon who held the Book aloft during the Entrance Procession and who proclaimed the Gospel.  Both parishes had a simple but dignified procession of the Book of the Gospels to the Ambo (the correct term for what is commonly referred to as the lectern).  But it was after the Gospel had been proclaimed where they differed: In one parish, the Book of the Gospels was processed to a stand/lectern where it was placed, open, facing the congregation; whereas in the other it was simply closed and placed, unceremoniously, on a table adjacent to the Ambo, on top of other books...