Introduction
Sally Ann McKinsey
Sally Ann McKinsey is editor of Call to Worship.
It has been a joy to see this issue come into form and focus. Many of the articles included respond to a central feature article by Jennifer Lord, “Liturgy: The World Being Done.” While engaging the question about what it means to participate in the liturgy for both worship leaders and those “in the pews,” Lord offers theological and historical analysis about the often-used definition of liturgy as “the work of the people.” She interrogates and reframes this definition with theological and historical analysis, recognizing the better translation of the Greek word leitourgia as “a work done for or on behalf of the people.”
Alongside each contributor to this issue, Jennifer Lord offers other ways to think about what is done in liturgy and sparks a foundational conversation. The question mark in the title of this issue was born from this conversation, inviting you, our readers, to expand the definition yourself in the context of your work. Even as you may be using the Lectionary Companion for this year, vol. 59.1, this thematic issue raises questions about the function of practical liturgical resources, engaging issues of context and recognizing all the factors that become part of liturgy beyond words on a page or on our lips.
For Lord, fuller definitions of liturgy include “life in ritual form,” “at full stretch before God,” and “the work of the people for the life of the world.” Ruth Meyers expands the idea that liturgy is work for the life of the world in a discussion about what it means to worship in cultural partnership. With historical and theological sensitivity, she considers the ways liturgy forms us to be repairers of the breach and teaches us to dismantle unjust structures. Injustice does not only exist in structures and in relationships between persons but also in relationships among different kinds of persons in the environment. With this in mind, abby mohaupt considers the meaning of “the people” in the often-used definition of liturgy, inviting us to expand our understanding of the term to include all living things and even “non-living” materials.
The Work of Our Hands by Katie Owen Aumann shares the story of a tree planting at Morningside Presbyterian Church in Atlanta. The article calls us to expand our understanding of liturgical space, liturgical labor, and liturgical art, further encouraging the idea of liturgy as the work of the people for the life of the world.
In his response to Jennifer Lord, Cláudio Carvalhaes applies wisdom from performance theories to liturgical theology, considering theater director Augusto Boal’s use of “spect-actors” instead of “spectators” to refer to an audience. Carvalhaes recognizes the agency, responsibility, and ethical demands worshipers have in an event of worship when they consider themselves full participants.
Many other contributors bring a conviction that worshipers are primary enactors of liturgy and ask questions about what constitutes leadership in worship and music. Maren Haynes Marchesini and music columnist Patrick Evans both consider ways to engage congregants in music to increase their sense of agency in liturgy. Both authors recognize the impact that the cultural phenomenon of “leaving it to the pros” has had on congregational singing and offer ways to dismantle this power dynamic.
Still another approach to the theme for this issue is to consider what it means for a congregation to build trust and work together across difference, a foundation for meaningful participation in worship. Lori Archer Raible, Dareion Malone, and Fred P. Spano offer together a reflection on what it was like for their two congregations to merge, recognizing the gifts of each in creating one meaningful community. Their experience is valuable in developing liturgical theology that accompanies communities through change and transition.
Christopher James approaches the conversation with a Reformed lens, noting the ways Reformed liturgy is catechetical, forming and teaching. He identifies the relationship between form and freedom in Reformed liturgy and recognizes the role of sensory experience in this theological framework, especially in sacrament. James uses the verb to happen when he offers the idea that worship is participation in God, noting that “liturgy is . . . what actually happens in the sanctuary.” This idea also resonates in a contribution from author and artist André Daughtry, who references the idea of the “happening,” a term coined by artist Allan Kaprow in 1959 while staging art events in which an action or series of actions were performed in a controlled environment. Daughtry writes about the history of Judson Memorial Church in New York City as a center for avant garde art, offering a model for a worshiping community to support the artists in their neighborhood.
Allan Kaprow’s happenings created a ripe space between planning and chance, implicating viewers and the body of the artist in new ways and raising questions about the art object and the role of participation in visual art. As André Daughtry recognizes, this idea has much to offer in the conversation about the role of work and people in worship. In whatever capacity you lead, I invite you into this conversation as well. What happens in your context? What happens when specific voices come together in a particular time, when bread happens to break in just such a way and the light moves slowly across the sanctuary over the course of an hour or so?
When we come to worship together, we witness (as participants) a happening that would not be the same without each one present. The visual, audible, and somatic elements of this happening are all specific and important. If we were to recognize that it cannot happen the same way twice, how might we enact together liturgy as “humanity at full stretch before God”?
