COMMON WORSHIP - Some Notes

  1. Common Worship officially came into use in November 2000. It replaced the Alternative Services Book which is no longer valid for use unless the diocesan bishop has granted an extension of its use (for up to two years). The Book of Common Prayer is still, of course, legal. The most commonly used bits of the BCP are included in Common Worship. Almost all the services we use at St Ursula's are from the A S B and must soon be replaced by Common Worship. Churchgoers have not yet shortened Common Worship to CW but I expect it will soon be common usage!

  2. We are, of course, already using the CW lectionary and collects. I have also started using the `Seasonal Provisions'

  3. I have not enquired whether we have an extension here, as we have no diocesan bishop at present. In my previous diocese, Hereford, the Bishop had granted a blanket two years to all parishes. I think he was partly motivated by the late and chaotic way CW was introduced [we still have no form for `shorter morning or evening prayer' which clergy are intended to say daily].

  4. I presume the church council has discussed the introduction of CW before my appointment - hence the purchase of various copies of the standard services book and of the (expensive but necessary for its larger print) altar services book.

  5. We have not yet had time to discuss this at Council since I arrived. However, on several occasions (including, as I remember it, at my interview) I have been what ideas I had for the introduction of CW. My assumption is that we will have a time of experimenting with the large variety of options contained in CW before holding a wide-ranging consultation of all concerned. Then the worship sub-committee will bring policy proposals to the Council.

  6. I do not think we are likely to produce a new `blue worship book' or to use the full CW books as the layout of CW is far too complicated. What many churches are doing is to use `separates' of their own design, which is permitted under the rules for CW. [However, that is not yet decided & I would value opinions on this.]

  7. I used the option of producing `separates' to set up two different services for Easter Day. These are described in the April News Letter. They are labelled with the eucharistic prayer letter (`A' & `H') so that you can find them in CW. So far I have had no feedback about the use of CW on Easter Day, though I have had several comments the choice of hymns (not all of which were chosen by me). As we have just had two communion Sundays one after the other, I thought it worth repeating both services so that as many members of the congregation as possible should now have had the opportunity to try out both forms.

  8. I await with interest your comments on the two services that we have tried so far. I would also like suggestions of other variations in the service and in the eucharistic prayer for future use. We have still to try the variety of options provided by `Morning Prayer on Sunday' and the even wider range of choices presented by `A Service of the Word' (which can also be combined with communion). Some of you have experienced `An Order for Night Prayer (Compline)', which we used during Holy Week.

  9. One of the first tasks (but not the only one) of the new (post elections) Worship Sub-Committee will be to look at options for introducing CW. In the mean time, I hope as many people as possible will try to look at a copy of CW and make their preferences known.
Richard Pamplin, May 2001