Together, the "Landeskirchlichen Gemeinschaften" forms the largest free reform move-ment within the Evangelical Church in Germany. In recent decades a change in worship gatherings has taken place in many of these communities. Independent worship services developed from the complementary gatherings, which at first were meant to be extensions of the Church's Sunday worship services. These services, held in free form and without orders of worship, now have become a substitute for the 'normal' church service. The 'creative freedom' also brings disadvantages, as unreflective processes tend to foster rigid orders of service. Because of a conscious separation from the church services of the mainstream church, important liturgical actions as well as elements of the Church Year could be omitted. This dissertation aims to study from various perspectives the possibilities for enriching worship in the "Landeskirchliche Gemeinschaften". From literature in liturgical studies, in the first place from the sphere of the Evangelical Church in Germany, but also from the free churches in Germany, the fundamental Reformatory insights for worship and the litur-gy are discussed and evaluated. On the basis of these findings, well-founded suggestions for the design of services in Landeskirchlichen communities are made. Possibilities for enrichment through careful planning are identified for those responsible for the respective services. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology

Together, the "Landeskirchlichen Gemeinschaften" forms the largest free reform move-ment within the Evangelical Church in Germany. In recent decades a change in worship gatherings has taken place in many of these communities. Independent worship services developed from the complementary gatherings, which at first were meant to be extensions of the Church's Sunday worship services. These services, held in free form and without orders of worship, now have become a substitute for the 'normal' church service. The 'creative freedom' also brings disadvantages, as unreflective processes tend to foster rigid orders of service. Because of a conscious separation from the church services of the mainstream church, important liturgical actions as well as elements of the Church Year could be omitted. This dissertation aims to study from various perspectives the possibilities for enriching worship in the "Landeskirchliche Gemeinschaften". From literature in liturgical studies, in the first place from the sphere of the Evangelical Church in Germany, but also from the free churches in Germany, the fundamental Reformatory insights for worship and the litur-gy are discussed and evaluated. On the basis of these findings, well-founded suggestions for the design of services in Landeskirchlichen communities are made. Possibilities for enrichment through careful planning are identified for those responsible for the respective services. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology

Beginning with the creation of a Methodist denomination in the United States in 1784, Methodists have had prescribed liturgical texts starting with John Wesley's prayer book entitled The Sunday Service of the Methodists in North America, and later its authorized revisions. However, Methodist leaders were never required to use the approved forms, and so were at liberty to employ, modify or abandon those texts. This polarity of ritual form and freedom of practice has created an ever-present tension within Methodist liturgical praxis. Methodism has also often found itself seeking to distinguish its liturgy from the cultural trends of the day, while at other times striving to contextualize its worship practices. This tension exhibits another polarity within Methodist worship practice, that of distinction and inculturation. These two polarities have often made it difficult for Methodists to evaluate the faithfulness of their own liturgical praxis. Similarly, because of these areas of tension the answer to the question "what makes Methodist worship, Methodist?" has remained elusive. This project considers the life, work, and significant contributions of three persons-- Thomas O. Summers, Nolan B. Harmon, and James F. White--who sought to answer that question within their own contexts. This study employs liturgical biography as a means of discerning shared "liturgical convictions" of these three mediators in order to move toward the construction of a paradigm for evaluating emerging liturgical practices from an American Methodist perspective. A key feature of this work is that it seeks to hold in tension the dialectic between liturgical text and liturgical praxis. Each of the mediators in consideration utilized the foundational liturgical texts within the Methodist tradition--John Wesley's Sunday Service and the Wesleyan hymns--yet each also demonstrated concern for how these texts might be employed within their particular contexts. Careful attention is given to how each of the mediators understood this interplay between text and praxis. A central conclusion of this study is that American Methodists have unique characteristics seminal to their liturgical identity. Not only do these include particular elements within a liturgical ordo, but also several distinguishing features of a liturgical piety. / 2022-08-30

Hymns are handed down from generation to generation, from country to country, and from church to church. In every time in history, hymns and songs are needed that are new for that time and generation – hymns through which the timeless message can be voiced in a new and unique way. The historical binding, as well as the ecumenical tie, are thus indispensable features for the church, her liturgy and her music. In the processes of creating new hymns and liturgical forms, the una sancta ecclesia always needs to be in focus. In this study the ecumenical and liturgical movements of the twentieth century, their goals, and the influence they exerted on liturgical renewal and hymn singing, are investigated. The ecumenical meaning of new hymns and liturgical forms is evaluated in terms of these goals. To determine the functionality of new hymns, a theoretical grounding for the various functions of hymns is given. Renewal in the form of contemporary material, new styles and ecumenical-liturgical forms is reflected in the Liedboek van die Kerk (2001), the new hymnal for the Afrikaans-speaking churches. The hymnal is discussed with regard to the content, and the processes of compilation. The versification of the psalms, fundamentalist views, and the resistance to transformation in the processes of canonization, also comes under scrutiny. Documentation, motivation and report of about sixty new hymns and liturgical forms in the Liedboek van die Kerk (2001) are given. Hymns, songs and liturgical forms are researched from hymnological perspectives, by relevant musical and textual analysis, and by exploring their origin, history, working history, and liturgical function. The functionality of the hymns is assessed, and their hymnological, liturgical, contextual and ecumenical significance determined, with regard to the theoretical grounding in the preceding chapters. The conclusion is that ecumenicity is a sine qua non for the hymns and songs of a new generation. History and tradition, but also the contemporary church as a whole, should co-determine processes. The future of liturgical singing depends on the way in which theological, liturgical, hymnological, ecumenical and anthropological fields of tension could be kept in balance. Balance thus needs to be found between functionality, ethics, and aesthetics; between tradition and creativity; historical fidelity and contemporary embodiment; individualism and community; between the individual church and ecumenism; quality and popularity; between Christian/confessional identity, and general religiosity; between orthodox expressions of faith, and the poetical-symbolical shifting of boundaries. Boundaries are exceeded through the singing of hymns – boundaries of language, of confession, of time and space, and boundaries between individuals and groups. Liturgical singing can be the singing of believers of all times and all places only by preserving the traditional ecumenical heritage on the one hand, and on the other hand, through ecumenical cooperation when creating new hymns and forms – thus the one faith in many languages, the audible sign of the una sancta ecclesia. / Thesis (DMus)--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Music / DMus / Unrestricted

In this essay I have studied wedding services in the Church of Sweden, as they are actually performed. I do this from a liturgical-theological perspective, a performance- perspective and from the perspective of ritual studies. According to the performance- perspective the wedding service can be seen as consisting of different scripts, for example, the normative script of the handbook, the script of the wedding-couple and the script of the minister. The main question is: What is constructed when these three scripts meet in a wedding service? I first study each script. I give an account for the script of the handbook and analyse it by placing it in a historical, liturgical and theological context. The script of the wedding couple and the minister I uncover by participant observations of three wedding services and interviews with the couples and ministers acting in these services. Thereafter I analyse the scripts of the couples and the minsters looking at themes that appear to be important in these scripts and in the handbook. Such themes are the wedding service as a service of blessing, the legal aspect of the service, the construction of family through marriage, love, the service as a ritual, the setting of the wedding, the role of the minister, the importance of participation and the role of the music. I conclude that the three scripts are indeed three very different scripts, but when they are juxtaposed a new meaning is constructed. This can occur even if the script are not correlating or even to some extent collides. One important factor for meaning to be constructed is the ritualization, acts that make the service a ritual. This seems to be more important than the fact that the scripts correlate. Another important factor for meaning to be constructed is that the scripts actually meet, that they actually are juxtaposed together. For this to happen the minister has to clarify his/her own script and be responsive to the couple’s script. Then the minister can relate their script to blessing, prayer and scripture. Normatively, I conclude that the wedding service becomes a meaningful wedding service when the couple’s scripts are related to the greater, transcendent Script