{"id":33474,"date":"2016-07-18T20:33:35","date_gmt":"2016-07-19T01:33:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/?p=33474"},"modified":"2016-07-18T21:55:49","modified_gmt":"2016-07-19T02:55:49","slug":"protestants-worshiping-at-hymn-society","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2016\/07\/18\/protestants-worshiping-at-hymn-society\/","title":{"rendered":"Protestants Worshiping at Hymn Society"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m at the Hymn Society conference<\/a> in Redlands, California, this week. I\u2019m on the editorial board of The Hymn<\/em> which met yesterday before it all began.<\/p>\n

Hymn Society is ecumenical and there is a good representation of Catholics, but we are a small minority compared to all the Protestants put together. It is always a pleasure and an inspiration to experience Hymn Society daily worship which is, broadly speaking, Protestant. (Well, one year they had me do a rather monastic-style Morning Prayer each day, and this year Sister Judith Kubicki is doing daily Night Prayer, so Catholic influences are certainly there, but I gather that the daily worship otherwise tends to reflect Protestant practices broadly speaking.)<\/p>\n

Two observations I’ve made over the years.<\/p>\n

1. Protestants talk louder.<\/strong> Have you ever noticed this? When there is responsive reading, or any spoken alternation between leader and all, the people really speak their parts loudly and with spirit. Catholic corporate speaking is still rather rapid and quiet, driven I think by Rosary practice. We can rattle off\u00a010 Hail Mary’s quicker than they can do one Psalm 23. I like the Protestant way. They say it like they mean it! A visitor from planet Mars would wonder at Catholic Mass whether the people really believe what they\u2019re saying. They do, I\u2019m sure, but not in the same way and with the same intentionality as our Protestant brothers and sisters. Which is to say, I\u2019m not sure we Catholic have yet an ethos of corporate worship, or a spirituality in which the manner of expressing corporate texts reflects what they mean to the participants. (Maybe turning the priest ad orientem <\/em>will help all that? Haha.)<\/p>\n

2. Protestants talk too much.<\/strong> I hope I have enough ecumenical cred that I can let loose with this one from my perhaps overly monastic and thoroughly Catholic liturgical background. Thank heavens our liturgy is pretty much set, and thank heavens commentators, popular immediately after Vatican II, have gone away. And chattiness in priests is mostly going away, thank heavens. When it comes to worship, I\u2019d really rather just worship<\/em> and not have someone talk me through worship.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what I\u2019m trying to say: worship leaders should relentlessly check every word of explanation before saying it, and, if it\u2019s not necessary, don\u2019t say it! This, for example: \u201cNow please join in singing the hymn as found in the booklet.”\u00a0Really? My booklet\u00a0had a hymn in it and \u2013 guess what! \u2013 I already had reason to think\u00a0we were now going to sing it. I didn\u2019t think we were going to hum it or imagine it or discuss it or tear it out of our booklet. Such explanatory words from the leader clarify\u00a0nothing.<\/em><\/p>\n

Or this: \u201cAnd now we\u2019ll recite the psalm responsively, in alternation between leader and all, as indicated in the booklet.\u201d Well, those of us who can read can figure that out and hence gain nothing from the explanation. Those of us who can\u2019t read the directions probably can\u2019t read the responsive reading either and won\u2019t be needing\u00a0the\u00a0explanation.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>I suppose it doesn\u2019t matter that much and I\u2019m being nit-picky. Fine. It\u2019s an aesthetic concern (no one reads the stage directions at a play, which would be aesthetically appalling), but also a spiritual one. It is nice to move graciously from word to silence to song, in and out, back and forth, without the distraction of needless\u00a0words.<\/p>\n

OK, I said it. Dear Protestants, I really like you all! I love worshiping with you!\u00a0I feel like I need to say that before signing off.<\/p>\n

awr<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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