Mt. Carmel Liturgy
This liturgy for ordinary time was created for Mt. Carmel Lutheran Church in Portland, Oregon. I've provided PDFs of a booklet (8.5 x 11 folded in half), full size (8.5 x 11) pew editions and a musicians edition.
About this Liturgy:
Hymns, Songs, Psalms, Ritual, Scripture and Prayer:
That is liturgy, or literally the “work of the people” of God. As Martin Luther said to a congregation which asked him how they should worship, he could and would give them something, but that it would be best if they would develop their own order of divine service. He held that the worst thing services could become was to make of them “laws, work and merit; and so depress the faith.” In fact, regarding his own German Mass and Order of Divine Service, he said, “on no account to make of it a compulsory law.” Also, in his preface to the German Mass Luther emphasized that the liturgy should be alive, vibrant with the Spirit and “above all” useful in the promotion of Scripture and education of its participants. “For the sake of [those participants] we must read, sing, preach, write and compose; and if it could in any wise help or promote their interests, I would have all the bells pealing, and all the organs playing, and everything making noise that could.”
With this work we have attempted to reach back into Scripture and connect with the people of the early church through their liturgy and at the same time make this an expression of this community’s relationship with God. Modern translation theory suggests that some of what has been traditionally translated as prose in the New Testament is actually poetry or hymns and creedal statements of the first Christians. After identifying such possible passages, we have translated several of them from the original Greek. Then, using only a small selection of texts from our many choices, we formulated them into a ritual that hopefully has meaning to us now. Finally, adding depth and enhanced meaning, we set it to music, thus creating our work or liturgy for this people of God.
Our special thanks go to The Rev. Ronald E. Nitz for his insightful and practical help, Mychal Aguilar for his compositional skills, and Heidi Owsley for her expertise with grammar, punctuation and proof-reading.
Annal Frenz & Lisa Frenz