In Defense of Liturgy
There are more than a few (southern baptists
mostly) chaplains here that do not understand the concept of liturgy. I myself
am not a pro or anything, but I understand and appreciate it. In the field, it
would seem that the liturgical system seems to work better than the
free-spirited "grace service" (for lack of a better word) Its fascinating that
the old truism still works - "Everything old will be new again..."
Many of the chaplains that are new to liturgy
have stated that they appreciate it very much. This caused me to ask why, since
many of them would decry such formality in church. I came to two thoughts on
it:
1. No matter how old something is,
its brand new to someone. People love new things and for many this is new.
Really it just makes me laugh - what goes around comes around.
2. The field service is done outside
and mostly a cappella. Thus, the more structure the better. Even this genre of
music needs structure. Unless you have a strong voice, you need the music to
drive itself. Most modern songs needs instruments to carry it. They lack strong
melodies, with out the accompaniment, they more or less sound the same. Liturgy
helps the non-musical have something to do in the service and make it long
enough. And, as one of our SGLs pointed out, there mare many people that do not
feel like they have been to church unless they have a responsive reading or
something like that!
Posted: Tue - March 1, 2005 at 04:50 PM