Sacred Roots Workshop

Session 6 His Life in Us

Gathering Together for Vital Worship and Spiritual Nurture in the Great Tradition

Different Cultural Expressions, the Same Paschal Mystery!

The permanent tension in the poetics of liturgy is between the necessity of local cultural modes of perception (expression and interpretation) and the common culture of Christian faith and life. Only by maintaining this tension can we also assert specifically Christian faith and life over against the assumptions of much post- modern and technological culture. Though each subculture has its own integrity, there is a manner of celebration which is Christian, stemming from the particular claims of the paschal mystery. There is a way of enacting the rites which is ultimately the human recep- tion of what God has done in creation and in Jesus Christ. This has been referred to by Gelineau and others as the “paschal human in Christ” – a manner enacted in particular cultural languages that evidences “both reserve and openness, respect and simplicity, confident joy . . . and true spontaneity . . .”

~ Robert Webber. Music and the Arts in Christian Worship . 1st ed. Nashville: Star Song Pub. Group, 1994. p. 504.

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I. Cosmic Daytimer: The Calendar Year in Jewish Faith

Between the years AD 100 and AD 500 the Christian church changed almost beyond recognition. In AD 100 the church was a small minority, spasmodically persecuted. While the Gospels and epistles were in circulation, they had not yet been gathered together to form a “New Testament.” While there were brief affirmations of faith like Jesus is Lord,” there was no formal creed to be recited. The organization of the church was still fluid and varied from region to region, as in the New Testament times. Finally, there were no set forms of worship, although particular prayers, like the Lord’s Prayer, might be used.

~ Tony Lane. Harper’s Concise Book of Christian Faith . New York: Harper and Row, 1984. p. 10.

One of the earliest accounts of the church from an outsider happens to mention hymn-singing. It is from Pliny, the Roman governor of the province of Pontus and Bythnia in Asia Minor (modern Turkey) from A.D. 111 to 112. Describing to the emperor Trajan what he has

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