Areas Of Challenge In Liturgical Worship

Renewal needs in liturgical churches include increased attention to planning and integrating all parts of the worship service, an understanding of the importance of music ministry, and greater participation by the congregation.

If worship in the liturgical church is to be a living encounter with God that changes the hearts and lives of the congregation, it will require more prayerful, creative planning than is usually assigned to it. Specifically, the three areas which need strengthening in most liturgical worship services merit our attention. More Effective Preaching Preaching should facilitate people's prayer as a group. The use of the imagination, stories, and images are ways of bringing this about. The whole liturgy should preach or proclaim. After the environment, the music, and the other gestures of the liturgy have been planned, then the homily can be prepared. In that way it can fill in where the rest of the liturgy may fail. But how often is liturgical planning made equivalent to preparing the sermon? Greater Integration of Word and Music We must continue to look for styles of congregational singing that move the congregation away from books. The music of Taizé from France, highly repetitious but still very beautiful, is becoming increasingly popular because it can be employed with one's hands free. Fuller use of responsorial singing should grow. The integration of liturgy and music, where the parts of the liturgy are not only sung but where the liturgy becomes a musical experience, will not succeed without music being accepted as an important ministry in the church. The restoration of the minister called cantor is, I believe, the single most necessary item for achieving a musical liturgy. A cantor is more than a song leader, a choir director, or the head of the folk group. The cantor performs a diaconal role, singing parts of the liturgy as well as leading the congregation. The cantor should be trained, commissioned, and vested. He or she should function publicly and be paid. Enlargement of Sacramental Experience The general principle that the priest should not do anything that others can do is a good working principle if it is properly understood. The priest should see himself or herself primarily as the one who motivates the others in ministry, not someone who has a special power others do not have. In bringing about a more comprehensive sacramental life in the church, it is important to find out who is actually praying in the parish and then enlist them in forming communities. God saves people as individuals outside the church. In the church our salvation comes through community, a community which proclaims, however weakly, the value of the gospel.