Worship Today Understanding, Practice, Ecumenical Implications

by Best, Thomas F.

• ISBN13: 9782825414057
• ISBN10: 2825414050
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-04-01
• Publisher: World Council of Churches

Summary

Worship is central to the church and to the churches; and issues of common worship are central to the ecumenical movement. Yet many discussions of worship reveal a lack of detailed knowledge about what unites -- and divides -- the churches in their worship today. This book offers a wide-ranging and fascinating survey of the contemporary state of Christian worship. Some thirty liturgists, theologians, church leaders and pastors present their church's current understanding and practice of worship. The impact of the liturgical renewal and ecumenical movements on worship is considered. Two ecumenical communities, Iona and Grandchamp, explain how their distinctive worship life is rooted in Christian tradition, and two essays reflect on the significance of worship in ecumenical contexts. In a concluding section, five prominent liturgists reflect on the current state of Christian worship and on opportunities and challenges facing the churches, both individually and ecumenically, in their worship today.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Accounts from churches and Christian contexts
Worship in the Armenian Orthodox Church	p. 3
Worship in the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch	p. 11
The liturgy in the Coptic Orthodox Church	p. 18
Worship, rituals and liturgy in Orthodox tradition : insights from practice and theology	p. 22
The Roman Catholic understanding of the nature and purpose of worship	p. 30
Worship in the Mar Thoma Syrian Church of Malabar	p. 39
Worship in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Germany	p. 45
Worship in the Church of Scotland	p. 52
Anglican worship : an evolution from imperialism to ecumenism	p. 61
Worship in the Mennonite tradition in Germany	p. 69
Baptist worship in ecumenical perspective	p. 72
Worship in the religious society of friends (Quakers)	p. 84
The nature and purpose of worship : a church of the Brethren perspective	p. 92
Worship from the United Methodist [USA] perspective	p. 101
"Under our own vine and fig tree" : Sunday morning worship in the African Methodist Episcopal Church	p. 109
Worship as understood and practised by the Christian church (disciples of Christ)	p. 124
Liturgical renewal in the old Catholic church : its basis, progress and purpose	p. 129
Variations on themes in worship : Pentecostal rites and improvisations	p. 139
Worship and unity in the Church of South India	p. 158
A Seventh-Day Adventist perspective on worship	p. 166
Worship within the Salvation Army	p. 171
Worship and the state church : a Norwegian perspective	p. 177
The nature and purpose of worship : a local South African Anglican perspective	p. 186
The mosaic of Mennonite worship in North America	p. 193
The Jamaican Baptist worship tradition	p. 199
The nature and purpose of the worship service at Yoido Full Gospel Church	p. 203
Christian worship from a feminist perspective	p. 208
The worship life of the community of Grandchamp	p. 214
The worship of the Iona community	p. 222
Reflections on worship in ecumenical contexts
Ecumenical worship - experiences, problems, possibilities : some basic considerations	p. 231
Ecumenical prayer : an Orthodox perspective	p. 247
Overviews and analyses
Seeds of hope : a reflection on accounts of worship from varied traditions	p. 255
Worship and the search for Christian unity : a response	p. 268
Christian perspectives on worship	p. 282
Leitourgia - the "work" of the people and the unity of God's people	p. 298
Worship and ecumenism	p. 311
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