Above:  Selected Works from My Liturgy Library, July 27, 2013

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U.S. LUTHERAN LITURGY, PART XX

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Dost thou renounce the devil, and all his works, and all his ways?

—Common Service Book of the Lutheran Church (1917), page 234

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I.  INTRODUCTION

Among the issues I encountered while comparing U.S. Lutheran service books was baptismal vows–especially renunciations.  Christians–not all of them, to be sure–have been renouncing the devil during baptismal rituals since at least the 200s.  There have been permutations of this in the U.S. Lutheran liturgies since 1917.

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II.  THE COMMON SERVICE BOOK OF THE LUTHERAN CHURCH (1917)

The Common Service Book (1917) (https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2013/07/17/truly-meet-right-and-salutary-the-common-service-in-the-united-lutheran-church-in-america-and-the-american-lutheran-church-1918-1930/), being fairly traditional in its baptismal rites, is a good place to begin.

The Minister asks the sponsors of an infant to

renounce the devil, and all his works, and all his ways,

to affirm the Apostles’ Creed, to instruct the child

in the Word of God,

and to bring the child

up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

If the baptism is of an adult, however, the baptismal candidate renounces

the devil, and all his works, and all his ways,

affirms the Apostles’ Creed, and promises to

abide in

the Christian Faith and to

remain faithful to

the teachings of the Evangelical Lutheran Church and

to be diligent in the use of the Means of Grace.

If one is being confirmed, one does the same things then is permitted to receive the Holy Communion.

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III.  THE SERVICE BOOK AND HYMNAL (1958)

Traditionally U.S. Lutheran baptismal rites have included the renunciation of the devil, all his works, and all his ways in one question or in three.  The Service Book and Hymnal (1958) (https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2013/07/25/holy-art-thou-the-service-book-and-hymnal-1958/) retains that language in the baptism of infants but merges the baptism of adults with Confirmation, something to which Martin Luther might have objected.  The 1958 book also makes that question optional in both the Order for the Baptism of Infants and the Order for Confirmation, for the rubric for each instance indicates that the Minister

may then

say:

Do you renounce the devil, and all his works, and all his ways?

In the ritual for infant baptism this renunciation follows instructions to teach the child

the Ten Commandments, the Creed, and the Lord’s Prayer,

to place

the Holy Scriptures

in the child’s hands as he or she matures, to bring the child

to the services of God’s House,

and to provide for the child’s

instruction in the Christian Faith.

After the renunciation the Minister asks the sponsors to affirm the Apostles’ Creed.

But one being baptized/confirmed as an adult might

renounce the devil, and all his works, and all his ways

if the Minister asks the question.  Such a candidate does, however, affirm the Apostles’ Creed, promise to

abide in this Faith and in the covenant

of his or her baptism, and,

as a member of the Church to be diligent in the use of the Means of Grace and in prayer.

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IV.  THE LUTHERAN BOOK OF WORSHIP (1978)

Liturgical renewal affected baptismal rites, as in the Lutheran Book of Worship (1978) (https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2013/07/25/lord-of-heaven-and-earth-the-lutheran-book-of-worship-1978/).  The language, although different, remains close to tradition.

Sponsors of young children promise to bring them

faithully…to the services of God’s house, and to teach them the Lord’s Prayer, the Creed, and the Ten Commandments,

and,

as they grow in years,

to

place in their hands the Holy Scriptures and provide for their instruction in the Christian faith….

That material is familiar, is it not?

The baptismal vows entail renouncing

all the forces of evil, the devil, and all his empty promises

and affirming the Apostles’ Creed.  The traditional renunciation is gone, replaced by a stronger statement.

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V.  LUTHERAN WORSHIP (1982)

Lutheran Worship (1982) (https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2013/07/26/gathered-in-the-name-and-remembrance-of-jesus-lutheran-worship-1982/) takes a more traditional approach to the baptismal vows than does the Lutheran Book of Worship (1978).  Sponsors of young children make the traditional promises retained in the previously discussed volume.  Then the candidate or sponsor renounces

the devil and all his works and all his ways

before affirming the Apostle’s Creed.

Lutheran Worship, unlike the Lutheran Book of Worship, on which it is based, contains a separate rite of Confirmation.  The confirmand renounces

the devil and all his works and all his ways,

affirms the Apostles’ Creed, promises to

continue steadfast in this confession and Church and to suffer all, rather than fall away from it,

affirms that

all the prophetic and apostolic Scriptures

are

the inspired Word of God

and confesses

the doctrine of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, drawn from them,

as learned from

the Small Catechism, to be faithful and true.

The confirmand also vows

faithfully to conform

all his or her

life to the divine Word, to be faithful in the use of God’s Word and Sacraments, which are his means of grace, and in faith, word, and action to remain true to God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, even to death.

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VI.  EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN WORSHIP (2006)

Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006) (https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2013/07/27/you-are-indeed-holy-o-god-the-fountain-of-all-holiness-with-one-voice-1995-and-evangelical-lutheran-worship-2006/), successor to the Lutheran Book of Worship (1978), remains grounded in liturgical tradition while modifying the baptismal vows to make them stronger.

Sponsors of children presented for baptism receive the following instruction:

As you bring your children to receive the gift of baptism, you are entrusted with responsibilities:

to live with them among God’s faithful people,

bring them to the word of God and the holy supper,

teach them the Lord’s  Prayer, the Creed, and the Ten Commandments,

place in their hands the holy scriptures,

and nurture them in faith and prayer,

so that your children may learn to trust God,

proclaim Christ through word and deed,

care for others and the world God made,

and work for justice and peace.

I notice the added emphasis on social justice and environmental justice approvingly.

The sponsors also promise

to nurture these persons in the Christian faith as you are empowered by God’s Spirit, and to help them live in the covenant of baptism and in communion with the church.

The baptismal vows entail renouncing

the devil and all the forces that defy God

then renouncing

the powers of this world that rebel against God

then renouncing

the ways of sin that draw you from God

before affirming the Apostles’ Creed.

There is a rite for the Affirmation of Baptism, which includes the three renunciations and the affirmation of the Apostles’ Creed.

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VII.  THE LUTHERAN SERVICE BOOK (2006)

The Lutheran Service Book (2006) (https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2013/07/26/blessed-are-you-o-lord-our-god-king-of-all-creation-hymnal-supplement-98-1998-and-the-lutheran-service-book-2006/), successor to Lutheran Worship (1982), is more traditional than Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006).

The sponsors receive instructions to pray for the children,

support them in their ongoing instruction and nurture in the Christian faith, and encourage them toward the faithful reception of the Lord’s Supper,

as well as

at all times to be examples to them of the holy life of faith in Christ and love for the neighbor.

The baptismal vows entail renouncing

the devil

then renouncing

all his works

then renouncing

all his ways

before affirming the Apostles’ Creed.

There is also a Confirmation rite, which includes the three renunciations and the affirmation of the Apostles’ Creed.  Confirmands also

hold all the prophetic and apostolic Scriptures to be the inspired Word of God,

…

confess the doctrine of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, drawn from the Scriptures, as you have learned to know it from the Small Catechism, to be faithful and true…intend to hear the Word of God and receive the Lord’s Supper faithfully,

… and

intend to live according to the Word of God, and in faith, word, and deed to remain true to God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, even to death.

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VIII.  OTHER SERVICE BOOKS

To be concise, my survey of other U.S. Lutheran service books past and present reveals that, without exception, conservative synods retain the traditional baptismal vows and renunciations, with varying degrees of formality and some linguistic variations and degrees of formality, including modernizing personal pronouns if the book postdates the 1950s.

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IX.  CONCLUSION

The more often mainline Lutherans revise their baptismal rites the more those renunciations resemble questions from The Book of Common Prayer (1979), in which one renounces

Satan and all the spiritual forces of wickedness that rebel against God

then

the evil powers of this world which corrupt and destroy the creatures of God

then

all sinful desires that draw you from the love of God.

And the environmental stewardship and social justice components of the rites from Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006) echo themes from the Baptismal Covenant from the 1979 Prayer Book, including the promise to

strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being.

These are positive developments, ones rooted in tradition and Christian ethics.

As to the rites themselves from 1917 to 2006, I recognize much consistency–usually a good thing in this case–yet with shining examples of innovation which makes the language more potent.

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KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JULY 27, 2013 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF CHRISTIAN HENRY BATEMAN, ANGLICAN PRIEST AND HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF WILLIAM REED HUNTINGTON, EPISCOPAL PRIEST

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Ambassador Hymnal for Lutheran Worship.  Minneapolis, MN:  Association of Free Lutheran Congregations, 1994.

Book of Common Prayer, The.  New York:  Oxford University Press, 1979.  Reprint, 2007.

Christian Worship:  A Lutheran Hymnal.  Milwaukee, WI:  Northwestern Publishing House, 1993.

Commission on the Liturgy and Hymnal, The.  Service Book and Hymnal.  Music Edition.  Philadelphia, PA:  United Lutheran Publication House, 1958.

Common Service Book of the Lutheran Church.  Philadelphia, PA:  The Board of Publication of The United Lutheran Church in America, 1917, 1918.

Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary.  St. Louis, MO:  MorningStar Music Publishers, Inc., 1996.

Evangelical Lutheran Worship.  Minneapolis, MN:  Augsburg Fortress, 2006.

Hymnal and Order of Service, The.  Lectionary Edition.  Rock Island, IL:  Augustana Book Concern, 1925.

Inter-Lutheran Commission on Worship.  Lutheran Book of Worship.  Ministers Desk Edition.  Philadelphia, PA:  Board of Publication, Lutheran Church in America, 1978.

__________.  Lutheran Book of Worship.  Pew Edition.  Philadelphia, PA:  Board of Publication, Lutheran Church in America, 1978.

Inter-Lutheran Commission on Worship for Provisional Use.  Contemporary Worship 2:  Services–The Holy Communion.  Philadelphia, PA:  Board of Education, Lutheran Church in America, 1970.

Jones, Cheslyn, et al, eds.  The Study of Liturgy.  Revised Edition.  New York:  Oxford University Press, 1992.

Lutheran Service Book.  St. Louis, MO:  Concordia Publishing House, 2006.

Lutheran Worship.  St. Louis, MO:  Concordia Publishing House, 1982.

Pfatteicher, Philip H.  Commentary on the Lutheran Book of Worship:  Lutheran Liturgy in Its Ecumenical Context.  Minneapolis, MN:  Augsburg Fortress, 1990.

Pfatteicher, Philip H., and Carlos R. Messerli.  Manual on the Liturgy:  Lutheran Book of Worship.  Minneapolis, MN:  Augsburg Publishing House, 1979.

Reed, Luther D.  The Lutheran Liturgy:  A Study in the Common Service of the Lutheran Church in America.  Philadelphia, PA:  Muhlenberg Press, 1947.

__________.  The Lutheran Liturgy:  A Study in the Common Liturgy of the Lutheran Church in America.  2d. Ed.  Philadelphia, PA:  Fortress Press, 1959.

Stulken, Marilyn Kay.  Hymnal Companion to the Lutheran Book of Worship.  Philadelphia, PA:  Fortress Press, 1981.

Wentz, Abdel Ross.  The Lutheran Church in American History.  2d. Ed.  Philadelphia, PA:  The United Lutheran Publication House, 1933.

I also found some PDFs helpful:

Schalk, Carl.  ”A Brief History of LCMS Hymnals (before LSB).”  Based on a 1997 document; updated to 2006.  Copyrighted by The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod.

Stuckwisch, D. Richard.  ”The Missouri Synod and the Inter-Lutheran Commission on Worship.”  Lutheran Forum, Volume 37, Number 3 (Fall 2003), pages 43-51.

KRT

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Advertisement

Above:  My Copies of the Service Book and Hymnal (1958) and The Lutheran Liturgy (1959), July 22, 2013

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U.S. LUTHERAN LITURGY, PART XI

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Holy art thou, almighty and Merciful God, Holy art thou, and great is the majesty of thy glory.

Thou didst so love the world as to give thine only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him might not perish, but have everlasting life; Who, having come into the world to fulfill for us thy holy will and to accomplish all things for our salvation, IN THE NIGHT IN WHICH HE WAS BETRAYED, TOOK BREAD; AND WHEN HE HAD GIVEN THANKS, HE BRAKE IT AND GAVE IT TO HIS DISCIPLES, SAYING TAKE, EAT; THIS IS MY BODY, WHICH IS GIVEN FOR YOU; THIS DO IN REMEMBRANCE OF ME.

AFTER THE SAME MANNER ALSO, HE TOOK THE CUP, WHEN HE HAD SUPPED, AND, WHEN HE HAD GIVEN THANKS, HE GAVE IT TO THEM, SAYING, DRINK YE ALL OF IT; THIS CUP IS THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MY BLOOD, WHICH IS SHED FOR YOU, AND FOR MANY, FOR THE REMISSION OF SINS; THIS DO, AS OFT AS YE DRINK IT, IN REMEMBRANCE OF ME.

Remembering, therefore, his salutary precept, his life-giving Passion and Death, his glorious Resurrection and Ascension and the promise of his coming again, we give thanks to thee, O Lord God Almighty, not as we ought, but as we are able; and we beseech thee mercifully to accept our praise and thanksgiving, and with thy Word and Holy Spirit to bless us, thy servants, and these thine gifts of bread and wine, so that we and all who partake thereof may be filled with heavenly benediction and grace, and, receiving the remission of sins, be sanctified in soul and body, and have our portion with thy saints.

And unto thee, O God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, be all honor and glory in thy holy Church, world without end.  Amen.

–The Prayer of Thanksiving, as printed on page 11 of the Service Book and Hymnal (1958)

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I.  TECHNICAL NOTE

This post, being Part XI of an ongoing series, flows from previous entries, links to which I have provided here:  https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2013/07/12/guide-to-posts-about-lutheran-worship/.

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II.  INTRODUCTION

The Service Book and Hymnal (1958), prepared and authorized by eight denominations, superceded five official hymnals-service books:

1. The Common Service Book (1917), of The United Lutheran Church in America (ULCA);
2. The Hymnal and Order of Service (1925), of the Augustana Evangelical Lutheran Church; used also by the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church in America since 1930;
3. The Hymnal for Church and Home (1927, 1938, and 1949), of the two Danish-American synods, The United Evangelical Lutheran Church and the American Evangelical Lutheran Church;
4. The American Lutheran Hymnal (1930), of The American Lutheran Church (1930-1960); and
5. The Lutheran Hymnary (1935), of The Evangelical Lutheran Church.

The Service Book and Hymnal also superceded (for the hymnody, at least), The Concordia Hymnal (1932), which The Lutheran Free Church did not authorize but did encourage the use of as its unofficial hymnal.

One of the functions of multi-synodical U.S. Lutheran hymnals and service books has been to foster unity.  Thus new hymnals-service books across denominational lines have preceded mergers.  Examples include:

• The Lutheran Hymnary (1913), four years before the merger;
• the Common Service Book (1917), one year before the merger;
• the Service Book and Hymnal (1958), before mergers in 1960, 1962, and 1963; and
• the Lutheran Book of Worship (1978), nine years before the merger.

The second American Lutheran Church formed by union in 1960; The Lutheran Free Church joined it three years later.  And the Lutheran Church in America came into existence via merger in 1962.  Thus the Service Book and Hymnal (hereafter abbreviated as SBH), became the hymnal of two denominations.

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III.  BACKGROUND

In 1944 the ULCA, pondering the revision of its Common Service Book (1917), resolved to cooperate with as many Lutheran bodies as possible in creating the next hymnal-service book.  The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod, having published its Lutheran Hymnal in 1941 (https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2013/07/25/o-come-let-us-sing-unto-the-lord-the-lutheran-hymnal-1941/), declined to participate.  The Joint Commission on the Hymnal, organized in 1945, got down to work with Dr. Luther D. Reed as the chairman.

Aside:  Reed’s account of the preparation process in The Lutheran Liturgy (1959 edition) is thorough without being tedious.  I, seeing no need to paraphrase all of that account here, refer my readers to that fine volume.

Among the issues the representatives of the eight denominations needed to resolve was the plethora of minute differences in their respective variations of the Common Service.  Muhlenberg’s dream of “one church, one book” lived in the minds of many who labored to make the SBH.  When all was accomplished, the Joint Commission had prepared a revolutionary yet traditional resource–a milestone of U.S. Lutheran liturgy.

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IV.  LITURGY

The SBH (1958) contains 314 pages of liturgy and 602 hymns.  This volume, the new book of worship for about two-thirds of U.S. Lutherans, deserves much analysis, a short version of which follows.  The complete, book-length analysis comes courtesy of Luther D. Reed, in the 1959 edition of The Lutheran Liturgy.

The SBH Music Edition contains only part of the ritual.  Other material, such as the occasional services, comes bound separately and in the Text Edition.  I am writing based on the Music Edition, which refers one to the Text Edition for

the whole body of liturgical services.

–page x

The Calendar looks familiar from the Common Service Book (1917), with two additions which attract my attention.  All Saints’ Day (November 1) and the Feast of the Holy Innocents (1958) are new.

The Common Service is present, excluding all other rituals for the Holy Communion.  There are, however, two major differences between this variation on it and the 1888 original version:

1. Although the Church is still “Christian” in the Creeds, there is a footnote which mentions that the use of “catholic” is “the traditional and generally accepted text.”  Reed’s disapproval of the continued substitution of “Christian” for “catholic” notwithstanding, at least he got an asterisk and a footnote to make an accurate point.  It was a partial victory.
2. There is now a Lutheran Canon/Prayer of Thanksgiving.  Reed had proposed one in the 1947 edition of The Lutheran Liturgy (pages 336-337) after arguing for the existence of such a Eucharistic Prayer (on pages 331-336).  His 1947 proposed Prayer of Thanksgiving resembles the 1958 Prayer closely, for he and Paul Zeller Strodach collaborated on the final version, which I reproduced at the beginning of this post.  Variation of the 1958 Prayer of Thanksgiving appears in the Missouri Synod’s Worship Supplement (1969) and Lutheran Service Book (2006), the ecumenical Lutheran Book of Worship (1978), and Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).

There are also the usual prayers and services one expects in such a Lutheran book:  Matins, Vespers, Collects, Introits, Baptism, Confession, Burial of the Dead, and Marriage.  The lectionary, which supports the services Eucharistic and otherwise, is a one-year cycle with three readings per day.

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V.  CONCLUSION

As I ponder the SBH in historical context, I recognize it as an intermediate step.  The Nicene Creed is still in the first-person singular and the Church is still “Christian,” for example, but that began to change by the late 1960s and early 1970s.  Most importantly from a liturgical point of view, the restoration of the Canon was a great step forward, one which the Missouri Synod accepted within eleven years, and which other more conservative synods have continued to reject.  Nevertheless, the ultra-conservative Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS) added the canon to a service in its Christian Worship:  Supplement (2008).

The SBH was a great advance, one on which that which followed during the next twenty years built and expanded.

Next:  Lord of Heaven and Earth:  The Lutheran Book of Worship (1978).

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KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JULY 25, 2013 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINT JAMES BAR-ZEBEDEE, APOSTLE AND MARTYR

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Ambassador Hymnal for Lutheran Worship.  Minneapolis, MN:  Association of Free Lutheran Congregations, 1994.

Christian Worship:  A Lutheran Hymnal.  Milwaukee, WI:  Northwestern Publishing House, 1993.

Commission on the Liturgy and Hymnal, The.  Service Book and Hymnal.  Music Edition.  Philadelphia, PA:  United Lutheran Publication House, 1958.

Common Service Book of the Lutheran Church.  Philadelphia, PA:  The Board of Publication of The United Lutheran Church in America, 1917, 1918.

Concordia Hymnal, The:  A Hymnal for Church, School and Home.  Minneapolis, MN:  Augsburg Publishing House, 1932.

Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary.  St. Louis, MO:  MorningStar Music Publishers, Inc., 1996.

Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference of North America, The.  The Lutheran Hymnal.  St. Louis, MO:  Concordia Publishing House, 1941.

Evangelical Lutheran Worship.  Minneapolis, MN:  Augsburg Fortress, 2006.

Fevold, Eugene L.  The Lutheran Free Church:  A Fellowship of American Lutheran Congregations, 1897-1963.  Minneapolis, MN:  Augsburg Publishing House, 1969.

Hymnal and Order of Service, The.  Lectionary Edition.  Rock Island, IL:  Augustana Book Concern, 1925.

Hymnal for Church and Home.  3d. Ed.  Blair, NE:  Danish Lutheran Publishing House, 1938.

Inter-Lutheran Commission on Worship.  Lutheran Book of Worship.  Ministers Desk Edition.  Philadelphia, PA:  Board of Publication, Lutheran Church in America, 1978.

__________.  Lutheran Book of Worship.  Pew Edition.  Philadelphia, PA:  Board of Publication, Lutheran Church in America, 1978.

Inter-Lutheran Commission on Worship for Provisional Use.  Contemporary Worship 2:  Services–The Holy Communion.  Philadelphia, PA:  Board of Education, Lutheran Church in America, 1970.

Lutheran Hymnary Including the Symbols of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, The.  Minneapolis, MN:  Augsburg Publishing House, 1935.

Lutheran Intersynodical Hymnal Committee.  American Lutheran Hymnal.  Music Edition.  Columbus, OH:  The Lutheran Book Concern, 1930.

Lutheran Service Book.  St. Louis, MO:  Concordia Publishing House, 2006.

Melton, J. Gordon.  Encyclopedia of American Religions.  4h. Ed.  Washington, DC:  Gale Research, Inc., 1993.

Pfatteicher, Phiip H.  Commentary on the Lutheran Book of Worship:  Lutheran Liturgy in Its Ecumenical Context.  Minneapolis, MN:  Augsburg Fortress, 1990.

Pfatteicher, Philip H., and Carlos R. Messerli.  Manual on the Liturgy:  Lutheran Book of Worship.  Minneapolis, MN:  Augsburg Publishing House, 1979.

Reed, Luther D.  The Lutheran Liturgy:  A Study in the Common Service of the Lutheran Church in America.  Philadelphia, PA:  Muhlenberg Press, 1947.

__________.  The Lutheran Liturgy:  A Study in the Common Liturgy of the Lutheran Church in America.  2d. Ed.  Philadelphia, PA:  Fortress Press, 1959.

Stulken, Marilyn Kay.  Hymnal Companion to the Lutheran Book of Worship.  Philadelphia, PA:  Fortress Press, 1981.

Wentz, Abdel Ross.  The Lutheran Church in American History.  2d. Ed.  Philadelphia, PA:  The United Lutheran Publication House, 1933.

With One Voice:  A Lutheran Resource for Worship.  Minneapolis, MN:  Augsburg Fortress, 1995.

Worship Supplement.  St. Louis, MO:  Concordia Publishing House, 1969.

I also found some PDFs helpful:

Christian Worship:  Supplement Introductory Resources.  Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, 2008.

DeGarmeaux, Bruce.  “O Come, Let Us Worship!  A Study of Lutheran Liturgy and Hymnody.”  1995.

Schalk, Carl.  ”A Brief History of LCMS Hymnals (before LSB).”  Based on a 1997 document; updated to 2006.  Copyrighted by The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod.

Zabell, Jon F.  “The Formation of Function of WELS Hymnals:  Further Conversation.”  For the National Conference of Worship, Music, and the Arts, July 2008.

KRT

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Above:  Trinity Lutheran Church, Altenburg, Missouri

Image Created by the Historic American Buildings Survey

Image Source = Library of Congress

(http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/mo0834.photos.097577p/)

Reproduction Number = HABS MO,79-ALBU,3–2

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U.S. LUTHERAN LITURGY, PART X

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We would gladly behold the day when the One, Holy, Catholic, Christian Church shall use one Order of Service, and unite in one Confession of Faith.

–From the Preface to the Common Service (1888); Quoted in Common Service Book of the Lutheran Church (1917), page 308

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O come, let us sing unto the Lord:

let us make a joyful noise to the Rock of our salvation.

–The Venite from Matins, The Common Service (1888), as contained in The Lutheran Hymnal (1941), page 33

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I.  PREFACE

In the first post in this series (https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2013/07/14/muhlenbergs-dream-the-road-to-the-common-service-1748-1888/) I covered the material from 1748 (the founding of the Ministerium of Pennsylvania) to 1788 (the approval of the Common Service).  Then, in Part II (https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2013/07/17/the-missing-canon-the-common-service-1888/), I wrote about the Common Service itself.  Parts III-X cover the span of 1888-1941, culminating with The Lutheran Hymnal.  The Common Service had, with the adoption of The Lutheran Hymnal (1941), become nearly universal among U.S. Lutherans.  By 1941 the liturgy was either THE Sunday ritual or a ritual in most current and official U.S. Lutheran service books.  The process of becoming universal was not, however, without some controversy.

One might want to read a previous post about Missouri Synod liturgies (https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2013/07/18/my-soul-doth-magnify-the-lord-missouri-synod-liturgies-1847-1940/) before proceeding with the rest of this one.  I refer also to Norwegian-American Lutheran bodies, which I discussed in another previous post (https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2013/07/20/that-by-thy-grace-we-may-come-to-everlasting-life-norwegian-american-lutherans-1853-1963/).

I have been studying this material closely, trying to record information accurately as I have reviewed primary and secondary sources.  This has required a commitment of much time, for there are so many synods about which to read.  And, since I grew up United Methodist in southern Georgia, U.S.A., in the Baptist Belt, Lutherans were scarce, if present at all, when I was quite young.  My spiritual journey has taken me into The Episcopal Church.  Anglicanism and Lutheranism have many theological and liturgical similarities and considerable theological overlap, but my adopted vantage point is still one outside of Lutheranism.  If I have misstated anything, I can correct it.

The material is, by its nature, complicated.  I have tried to organize and format it for maximum ease of reading and learning, however.  So, without further ado, I invite you, O reader, to follow the proverbial bouncing balls with me.

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II.  INTRODUCTION

The Lutheran Hymnal (1941), hereafter abbreviated as TLH (1941), stands alongside a few other books of its sort as milestones in twentieth-century U.S. Lutheran history.   Those volumes include:

• The Lutheran Hymnary (1913), by Norwegian-Americans;
• the Common Service Book (1917), by predecessor bodies of The United Lutheran Church in America;
• The Concordia Hymnal (1932), by Norwegian-Americans;
• the Service Book and Hymnal (1958), by predecessor bodies of The American Lutheran Church and the Lutheran Church in America;
• the Lutheran Book of Worship (1978), by predecessor bodies of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; and
• Lutheran Worship (1982), by The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS).

TLH (1941), still in use in some Confessional Lutheran congregations of various denominations, is a classic product of the late Synodical Conference (1872-1966/1967).  At least three current Lutheran successor hymnals of TLH (1941) echo it.  They are, in chronological order:

• Christian Worship:  A Lutheran Hymnal (1993), by the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS);
• the Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary (1996), by The Evangelical Lutheran Synod (ELS); and
• the Lutheran Service Book (2006), by The LCMS.

TLH (1941) succeeded three hymnals-service books:

• the Evangelical Lutheran Hymn-Book (1912) (http://www.projectwittenberg.org/etext/hymnals/ELHB1912/index.htm), by the Missouri Synod;
• The Lutheran Hymnary (1913) (http://archive.org/details/lutheranhymnary00amergoog), by Norwegian-Americans and used by The Evangelical Lutheran Synod (1918-), a successor of one of the denominations which produced it; and
• the Book of Hymns (1917), by the WELS.

TLH (1941) expanded on parts of all three books and contracted others.  Absent were former services and many Scandinavian hymns, replaced by more German hymns and the Common Service.  These facts caused consternation among many members of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod (ELS) and the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS).  So there was an adjustment period required.  And many ELS congregations continued to use The Lutheran Hymnary (1913) instead and some WELS Lutherans complained that the services in TLH (1941) were too formal.  Yet TLH (1941) became to many Confessional Lutherans what The Book of Common Prayer (1928) and The Hymnal 1940 became to many traditionalist Episcopalians and Anglicans:  the gold standard.

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III.  LITURGIES IN THE LUTHERAN HYMNAL (1941)

The Calendar, found on page 3, provides the usual well-developed Missouri Synod church year plus two notable additions:  the Feasts of Saint Mary Magdalene (July 22) and the Holy Innocents (December 22).  Alas, there is no Feast of Saint Thomas the Apostle yet.  But at least the next hardcover book in the series, Lutheran Worship (1982), has that.

The services come from the Common Service of 1888.  There are four rituals:

• The Order of Morning Service without Communion;
• The Order of Holy Communion;
• The Order of Matins; and
• The Order of Vespers.

And the Church is still “Christian,” not “Catholic,” in the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds.  It becomes “catholic” in later LCMS resources, Worship Supplement (1969) and Contemporary Worship 2:  Services–The Holy Communion (1970) yet reverts to being “Christian” in subsequent Missouri Synod books, Lutheran Worship (1982), Hymnal Supplement 98 (1998), and the Lutheran Service Book (2006).  And the Church remains “Christian” in the present worship materials of The ELS and the WELS.

This seems like an excellent time to consult the writings of Luther D. Reed and Philip H. Pfatteicher, two great scholars of Lutheran liturgy.

Reed, in his magisterial studies, The Lutheran Liturgy (1947 and 1959), writes that German Roman Catholics referred to the Church as “Christian,” not “Catholic,” liturgically even before the Protestant Reformation started and that Martin Luther retained the practice.  Yet Lutheran liturgies from Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and France referred to the Church as “Catholic.  Nevertheless, my studies of pre-1958 Scandinavian-American English-language liturgies have revealed the use of “Christian,” not “Catholic” or “catholic.”  So I suggest that anti-Roman Catholicism was a prominent reason for that practice.  Reed considers the use “Christian” in the Creeds something

to be regretted.

(1947, page 285; 1959, page 302)

I agree.

The Nicene Creed, as printed in TLH (1941) and, for that matter, the Service Book and Hymnal (1958), begins:

I believe in one God….

That translation follows the Latin text, as Pfatteicher writes in Commentary on the Lutheran Book of Worship (1990), but the Greek translation uses the first-person plural form instead.  So, if one follows the Greek form of the Nicene Creed,

We believe in one God….

TLH (1941) also offers the following:

• The Athanasian Creed;
• Introits, Collects, and Graduals;
• Invitatories, Antiphons, Responsories, and Versicles;
• Prayer;
• Canticles;
• Psalms;
• a one-year lectionary, which assigns an Epistle and a Gospel reading per Sunday and major feast; and
• a two-year lectionary, which assigns three readings per Sunday and major feast.

A three-reading variant on the one-year lectionary appears in Lutheran Worship (1982), the Lutheran Service Book (2006), Christian Worship:  A Lutheran Hymnal (1993), and the Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary (1996), always with an inter-Lutheran three-year lectionary.  The Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary (1996) adds to that variation on the one-year lectionary two  more series (years, really), each with two readings per Sunday and major feast.  The old one-year lectionary retains its hold on many people, despite the fact that the three-year lectionary covers much more material.  Who, claiming the standard of Sola Scriptura, could object to that?

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IV.  LOOKING AHEAD

The Missouri Synod, having published TLH (1941) just a handful of years before the development of the Service Book and Hymnal (1958) began, declined to participate in that multi-synodical volume, the subject of the next post, U.S. Lutheran Liturgy, Part XI.  Yet the LCMS did begin the process which led to the next multi-synodical service book and hymnal, the Lutheran Book of Worship (1978), a volume which the Missouri Synod helped to create then rejected.  So the denomination cloned and altered the rejected book, calling its version Lutheran Worship (1982), the pew edition of which I plan to review.

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KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JULY 25, 2013 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINT JAMES BAR-ZEBEDEE, APOSTLE AND MARTYR

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Christian Worship:  A Lutheran Hymnal.  Milwaukee, WI:  Northwestern Publishing House, 1993.

Commission on the Liturgy and Hymnal, The.  Service Book and Hymnal.  Music Edition.  Philadelphia, PA:  United Lutheran Publication House, 1958.

Common Service Book of the Lutheran Church.  Philadelphia, PA:  The Board of Publication of The United Lutheran Church in America, 1917, 1918.

Concordia:  A Collection of Hymns and Spiritual Songs.  Minneapolis, MN:  Augsburg Publishing House, 1917.

Concordia Hymnal, The:  A Hymnal for Church, School and Home.  Minneapolis, MN:  Augsburg Publishing House, 1932.

Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary.  St. Louis, MO:  MorningStar Music Publishers, Inc., 1996.

Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference of North America, The.  The Lutheran Hymnal.  St. Louis, MO:  Concordia Publishing House, 1941.

Evangelical Lutheran Worship.  Minneapolis, MN:  Augsburg Fortress, 2006.

Hymnal and Order of Service, The.  Lectionary Edition.  Rock Island, IL:  Augustana Book Concern, 1925.

Hymnal Supplement 98.  St. Louis, MO:  Concordia Publishing House, 1998.

Inter-Lutheran Commission on Worship for Provisional Use.  Contemporary Worship 2:  Services–The Holy Communion.  Philadelphia, PA:  Board of Education, Lutheran Church in America, 1970.

Lutheran Hymnary Including the Symbols of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, The.  Minneapolis, MN:  Augsburg Publishing House, 1935.

Lutheran Service Book.  St. Louis, MO:  Concordia Publishing House, 2006.

Lutheran Worship.  St. Louis, MO:  Concordia Publishing House, 1982.

Pfatteicher, Philip H.  Commentary on the Lutheran Book of Worship:  Lutheran Liturgy in Its Ecumenical Context.  Minneapolis, MN:  Augsburg Fortress, 1990.

Pfatteicher, Philip H., and Carlos R. Messerli.  Manual on the Liturgy:  Lutheran Book of Worship.  Minneapolis, MN:  Augsburg Publishing House, 1979.

Reed, Luther D.  The Lutheran Liturgy:  A Study in the Common Service of the Lutheran Church in America.  Philadelphia, PA:  Muhlenberg Press, 1947.

__________.  The Lutheran Liturgy:  A Study in the Common Liturgy of the Lutheran Church in America.  2d. Ed.  Philadelphia, PA:  Fortress Press, 1959.

Stulken, Marilyn Kay.  Hymnal Companion to the Lutheran Book of Worship.  Philadelphia, PA:  Fortress Press, 1981.

Wentz, Abdel Ross.  The Lutheran Church in American History.  2d. Ed.  Philadelphia, PA:  The United Lutheran Publication House, 1933.

Worship Supplement.  St. Louis, MO:  Concordia Publishing House, 1969.

I also found some PDFs helpful:

Christian Worship:  Supplement Introductory Resources.  Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, 2008.

DeGarmeaux, Bruce.  “O Come, Let Us Worship!  A Study of Lutheran Liturgy and Hymnody.”  1995.

Faugstad, Peter.  “Centennial of The Lutheran Hymnary.”  In Lutheran Sentinel, May-June 2013, page 14.

Marggraf, Bruce.  ”A History of Hymnal Changeovers in the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod.”  May 28, 1982.

Schalk, Carl.  ”A Brief History of LCMS Hymnals (before LSB).”  Based on a 1997 document; updated to 2006.  Copyrighted by The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod.

KRT

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Above:  Saint John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Image Source = Wrokic

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:St._John%27s_Evangelical_Lutheran_Church,_Milwaukee,_Wisconsin,_Exterior.jpg)

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U.S. LUTHERAN LITURGY, PART IX

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We would gladly behold the day when the One, Holy, Catholic, Christian Church shall use one Order of Service, and unite in one Confession of Faith.

–From the Preface to the Common Service (1888); Quoted in Common Service Book of the Lutheran Church (1917), page 308

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We believe the average churchgoer will thank us for not putting in more than one Scripture lesson.

–The Editors of the Book of Hymns (1917), in Northwestern Lutheran, May 1918

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I.  PREFACE

In U.S. Lutheran Liturgy, Part I (https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2013/07/14/muhlenbergs-dream-the-road-to-the-common-service-1748-1888/), I wrote about the process which culminated in the unveiling of the Common Service in 1888.  I chose not to write about that liturgy because I had already entered twenty-four pages of writing from a composition book.  In U.S. Liturgy, Part II (https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2013/07/17/the-missing-canon-the-common-service-1888/), I focused on the Common Service.  In U.S. Liturgy, Part III (https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2013/07/17/truly-meet-right-and-salutary-the-common-service-in-the-united-lutheran-church-in-america-and-the-american-lutheran-church-1918-1930/), I wrote about it in The United Lutheran Church in America (1918-1962) and The American Lutheran Church (1930-1060).   In U.S. Lutheran Liturgy, Part IV (https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2013/07/17/the-lord-is-in-his-holy-temple-liturgy-in-the-augustana-evangelical-lutheran-church-1860-1928/), I focused on The Augustana Evangelical Lutheran Church (1860-1962).  In U.S. Lutheran Liturgy, Part V (https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2013/07/17/all-glory-be-to-thee-most-high-finnish-american-lutherans-1872-1963/), I wrote about Finnish-Americans.  In U.S. Lutheran Liturgy, Part VI (https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2013/07/18/my-soul-doth-magnify-the-lord-missouri-synod-liturgies-1847-1940/), I turned my attention to the Missouri Synod.  In U.S. Lutheran Liturgy, Part VII (https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2013/07/20/that-by-thy-grace-we-may-come-to-everlasting-life-norwegian-american-lutherans-1853-1963/), I wrote about Norwegian-Americans.  In U.S. Lutheran Liturgy, Part VIII (https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2013/07/22/assembled-in-this-thy-house-danish-american-lutherans-1870-1962/), I focused on Danish-American synods.  Now this leg of my journey through the history of the topic nears its completion with Part IX, in which I write about the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod.

I have been studying this material closely, trying to record information accurately as I have reviewed primary and secondary sources.  This has required a commitment of much time, for there are so many synods about which to read.  And, since I grew up United Methodist in southern Georgia, U.S.A., in the Baptist Belt, Lutherans were scarce, if present at all, when I was quite young.  My spiritual journey has taken me into The Episcopal Church.  Anglicanism and Lutheranism have many theological and liturgical similarities and considerable theological overlap, but my adopted vantage point is still one outside of Lutheranism.  If I have misstated anything, I can correct it.

The material is, by its nature, complicated.  I have tried to organize and format it for maximum ease of reading and learning, however.  So, without further ado, I invite you, O reader, to follow the proverbial bouncing balls with me.

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II.  BACKGROUND

The First German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Wisconsin (FGELSW) organized in 1850.  Its real founder was the Reverend John Muehlhauser, whom the United Rhine Mission had sent to the United States in 1837.  The Synod, which dropped “First” from its name in 1853, benefited greatly from missionaries whom the Basel Missionary Society sent, as did the Minnesota and Michigan Synods.

The Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Michigan and Other States (ELSMIOS) formed in 1860.  Its real founder was the Reverend Friedrich Schmidt, whom the Basel Missionary Society had sent.

The Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Minnesota and Other States (ELSMNOS) came in existence in 1860, midwifed by the the Wisconsin Synod.  The Minnesota Synod’s real founder was the Reverend Johann Christian Friedrich “Father” Hayer, a missionary to the U.S. frontier and to India prior to 1860.

The Wisconsin Synod became a center of gravity within U.S. Confessional Lutheranism, as we will see.  We will also see that some Confessional Lutherans were more Confessional than others.  There were (and are) Lutherans then there were (and are) Lutherans.

The Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota Synods helped to form the General Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in North America (1867-1918).  The General Council broke away from the General Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the United States of America (1820-1918), which the founders of the General Council perceived had become too liberal and permissive.  But the basic problem of with an obsession for doctrinal purity is that some of the “pure” are purer than others, so more schisms ensue.  Thus the Wisconsin Synod left the General Council in 1869, followed by the Minnesota Synod and the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Illinois (1847-1880) in 1871, then by the Michigan Synod in 1888.

The General Council, more conservative than the General Synod, faced several controversies, starting in 1868:

1. Some clergymen were alleged to have preached Premillennial doctrine regarding the Second Coming of Christ.
2. Certain members belonged to secret societies.
3. Some ministers had preached in non-Lutheran churches and certain non-Lutheran clergymen had preached in Lutheran churches.
4. And some non-Lutherans were taking the Holy Communion in Lutheran Churches.

The General Council dealt with the first point immediately, condemning Premillennialism an an error and affirming the Augsburg Confession (1530), Article XVII:

Our churches teach that at the end of the world Christ will appear for judgment and will raise all the dead [1 Thessalonians 4:13-5:2].  He will give the godly and elect eternal life and everlasting joys, but He will condemn ungodly people and the devil to be tormented without end [Matthew 25:31-46].

Our churches condemn the Anabaptists, who think that there will be an end to the punishment of condemned men and devils.

Our churches also condemn those who are spreading certain Jewish opinions, that before the resurrection of the dead the godly shall take possession of the kingdom of the world, the ungodly being everywhere suppressed.

—Concordia:  The Lutheran Confessions–A Reader’s Edition of the Book of Concord, 2d. Ed. (St. Louis, MO:  Concordia Publishing House, 2006), page 40

The General Council refrained from punishing its members who belonged to secret societies, preferring instead to educate them as to the error of their ways.  This decision did not satisfy hardliners.

And, in 1875, the General Council resolved that pulpit and altar fellowship should cease and desist.  Yet, by that point, several synods had defected and others had chosen not to affiliate, citing these controversies.

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III.  THE EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN SYNODICAL CONFERENCE

The Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference of North America, or the Synodical Conference for short, came into existence in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1872.  The charter members of the federation (not denomination) were:

• the Missouri Synod (1847);
• the Illinois Synod (1846), which merged into the Missouri Synod in 1880;
• the Wisconsin Synod (1850);
• the Minnesota Synod (1860);
• the Joint Synod of Ohio and Other States (1818), which left after a decade, during a controversy regarding Predestination; and
• the Norwegian Synod (1853), which left in 1883, also during the controversy regarding Predestination.

Later Synodical Conference developments included the following:

• The Joint Synod of Ohio and Other States, having left the Synodical Conference, divided in 1882.  The breakaway Concordia Synod of Pennsylvania and Other States (1882-1886) joined the Synodical Conference before merging into the Missouri Synod.
• The English Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri and Other States (the English Synod of Missouri) (1888) joined in 1890.  It merged into the Missouri Synod in 1911.
• The Michigan Synod left the General Council in 1888 and joined the Synodical Conference four years later.
• The Slovak Evangelical Lutheran Synod (later the Synod of Evangelical Lutheran Churches), formed in 1902, joined the Synodicial Conference in 1910.  The denomination merged into the Missouri Synod in 1971.
• The German Evangelical Lutheran District Synod of Nebraska and Other States, formed by Wisconsin Synod pastors in 1904, joined six years later.
• The Norwegian Synod, which left the Synodical Conference in 1883, found its unity with other Norwegian-American Lutherans.  Its remnant, The Evangelical Lutheran Synod (1918), joined the Synodical Conference in 1920.

The Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota Synods federated in 1892 as The Evangelical Lutheran Joint Synod of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, and Other States in 1892.  These three plus the Nebraska District (1904) merged to form a new denomination in 1917.  That body retained the federation’s name for two years, becoming the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Wisconsin and Other States in 1919 then the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS) in 1959.

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IV.  EARLY ENGLISH-LANGUAGE WORSHIP RESOURCES

The Wisconsin Synod and those Confessional Lutheran bodies similar to it worshiped primarily in their ancestral languages into the first few decades of the twentieth century.  The Missouri and Wisconsin Synods, for example, worked and worshiped primarily in German until the anti-German hysteria during World War I forced many members to hasten the transition to English.

The Wisconsin Synod published its first English-language hymnal-service book in 1911.  This was The Church Hymnal for Lutheran Service, with 115 hymns and four pages of liturgy.  The volume, out of print by 1923, was not impressive, but it was a start.

More lasting was the Book of Hymns (1917), with 320 hymns and sixteen pages of liturgy.  The Sunday service, simpler than those in other English-language Lutheran service books of the time, required only one reading from the Bible (as opposed to the customary two lessons).  Within a few years the process of creating the Synodical Conference’s classic Lutheran Hymnal (1941) was underway, and the WELS was on board.  However, when The Lutheran Hymnal (1941) debuted, it caused some opposition among certain WELS congregations, unaccustomed to such a formal service.

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V.  CONCLUSION

I have had to write about some complicated material, for that is the nature of portions of the U.S. Lutheran past.  All of these synods can become confusing quite quickly, can they not?  At least many of them converged and merged over time.  My strategy in presenting this material has been to do so in as clear a way as possible.  I hope that I have succeeded.

WELS service books in English were primitive before The Lutheran Hymnal (1941).  I wish I could write honestly that post-Lutheran Hymnal WELS worship resources were impressive, but I, having drafted that post long-hand already, know better.

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KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JULY 25, 2013 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINT JAMES BAR-ZEBEDEE, APOSTLE AND MARTYR

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Book of Hymns.  Milwaukee, WI:  Northwestern Publishing House, 1917.  Reprint, 1932.

Common Service Book of the Lutheran Church.  Philadelphia, PA:  The Board of Publication of The United Lutheran Church in America, 1917, 1918.

Concordia:  The Lutheran Confessions–A Reader’s Edition of the Book of Concord.  2d. Ed.  Paul Timothy McCain, General Editor.  St. Louis, MO:  Concordia Publishing House, 2006.

Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference of North America, The.  The Lutheran Hymnal.  St. Louis, MO:  Concordia Publishing House, 1941.

Melton, J. Gordon.  Encyclopedia of American Religions.  4h. Ed.  Washington, DC:  Gale Research, Inc., 1993.

Pfatteicher, Philip H., and Carlos R. Messerli.  Manual on the Liturgy:  Lutheran Book of Worship.  Minneapolis, MN:  Augsburg Publishing House, 1979.

Stulken, Marilyn Kay.  Hymnal Companion to the Lutheran Book of Worship.  Philadelphia, PA:  Fortress Press, 1981.

Wentz, Abdel Ross.  The Lutheran Church in American History.  2d. Ed.  Philadelphia, PA:  The United Lutheran Publication House, 1933.

I also found some PDFs helpful:

Erickson, Anne.  “God Wants to Help Parents Help Their Kids.”  Pages 8-9 in The Lutheran Ambassador (April 10, 2001).

Marggraf, Bruce.  ”A History of Hymnal Changeovers in the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod.”  May 28, 1982.

Schalk, Carl.  ”A Brief History of LCMS Hymnals (before LSB).”  Based on a 1997 document; updated to 2006.  Copyrighted by The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod.

Zabell, Jon F.  “The Formation of Function of WELS Hymnals:  Further Conversation.”  For the National Conference of Worship, Music, and the Arts, July 2008.

KRT

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Above:  Interior of St. John’s Danish Lutheran Church, Seattle, Washington, 1920s and 1930s

Image Source = Special Collections, University of Washington Libraries

(http://content.lib.washington.edu/u?/social,1225)

and (http://content.lib.washington.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/social&CISOPTR=1225&CISOBOX=1&REC=8)

My copy of the 1938 Hymnal bears the stamp of this congregation.

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U.S. LUTHERAN LITURGY, PART VIII

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We would gladly behold the day when the One, Holy, Catholic, Christian Church shall use one Order of Service, and unite in one Confession of Faith.

–From the Preface to the Common Service (1888); Quoted in Common Service Book of the Lutheran Church (1917), page 308

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O Lord, we are assembled in this Thy house to hear what Thou our Father, Thou Jesus Christ our Savior, and Thou Holy Spirit our Comforter in life and death, wilt speak unto us.  We pray Thee so to open our hearts by Thy Holy Spirit that, through Thy Word, we may be taught to repent of our sins, to believe on Jesus in life and in death, and to grow day by day in grace and holiness.  Hear us for Christ’s sake.  Amen.

—Hymnal for Church and Home, 3d. Ed., (1938), page 7

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I.  PREFACE

In U.S. Lutheran Liturgy, Part I (https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2013/07/14/muhlenbergs-dream-the-road-to-the-common-service-1748-1888/), I wrote about the process which culminated in the unveiling of the Common Service in 1888.  I chose not to write about that liturgy because I had already entered twenty-four pages of writing from a composition book.  In U.S. Liturgy, Part II (https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2013/07/17/the-missing-canon-the-common-service-1888/), I focused on the Common Service.  In U.S. Liturgy, Part III (https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2013/07/17/truly-meet-right-and-salutary-the-common-service-in-the-united-lutheran-church-in-america-and-the-american-lutheran-church-1918-1930/), I wrote about it in The United Lutheran Church in America (1918-1962) and The American Lutheran Church (1930-1060).   In U.S. Lutheran Liturgy, Part IV (https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2013/07/17/the-lord-is-in-his-holy-temple-liturgy-in-the-augustana-evangelical-lutheran-church-1860-1928/), I focused on The Augustana Evangelical Lutheran Church (1860-1962).  In U.S. Lutheran Liturgy, Part V (https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2013/07/17/all-glory-be-to-thee-most-high-finnish-american-lutherans-1872-1963/), I wrote about Finnish-Americans.  In U.S. Lutheran Liturgy, Part VI (https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2013/07/18/my-soul-doth-magnify-the-lord-missouri-synod-liturgies-1847-1940/), I turned my attention to the Missouri Synod.  In U.S. Lutheran Liturgy, Part VII (https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2013/07/20/that-by-thy-grace-we-may-come-to-everlasting-life-norwegian-american-lutherans-1853-1963/), I wrote about Norwegian-Americans.  Now, in Part VIII, I focus on Danish-American synods.

I have been studying this material closely, trying to record information accurately as I have reviewed primary and secondary sources.  This has required a commitment of much time, for there are so many synods about which to read.  And, since I grew up United Methodist in southern Georgia, U.S.A., in the Baptist Belt, Lutherans were scarce, if present at all, when I was quite young.  My spiritual journey has taken me into The Episcopal Church.  Anglicanism and Lutheranism have many theological and liturgical similarities and considerable theological overlap, but my adopted vantage point is still one outside of Lutheranism.  If I have misstated anything, I can correct it.

The material is, by its nature, complicated.  I have tried to organize and format it for maximum ease of reading and learning, however.  So, without further ado, I invite you, O reader, to follow the proverbial bouncing balls with me.

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II.  BACKGROUND

The Norwegian-Danish Conference broke away from the Augustana Evangelical Lutheran Church in 1870.  The Conference merged into the United Norwegian Lutheran Church of America (UNLCA) in 1890.  That denomination helped to form a new body in 1917.  That merged organization, which took the name “The Evangelical Lutheran Church” in 1946, helped to form The American Lutheran Church (TALC) in 1960.  TALC, in turn, merged into the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) in 1987.

Now that I have “placed cannons,” so to speak, I get down to the Danish-American Lutheran Synods in earnest.  The Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church Association (DELCA) broke away from the Norwegian-Danish Conference in 1884.  Meanwhile, The American Evangelical Lutheran Church (AELC), originally the Church Mission Society then the Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church (DELC), had formed in 1872.  The Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church in North America (DELCNA) split from it in 1893.  Three years later, DELCNA (1893) merged with DELCA (1884) to form The United Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church (later just The United Evangelical Lutheran Church—UELC).

Thus, starting in 1896, there were two Danish-American Lutheran synods:

1. The United Evangelical Lutheran Church (UELC) (1896), formed by the merger of two splinter groups; and
2. The American Evangelical Lutheran Church (AELC), parent of part of the other synod.  The AELC merged into the Lutheran Church in America (LCA) in 1962.  The LCA, in turn, helped to form the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) in 1987.

So both Danish-American synods became antecedents of ELCA by different routes.

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III.  LITURGY

The two Danish-American Lutheran denominations published their Hymnal for Church and Home in 1927.    They added about 150 hymns for the third edition in 1938.  The fourth and final edition rolled off the printing presses in 1949.  The Hymnal for Church and Home met a spiritual and cultural need–an English-language hymnal and service book which preserved Danish hymnody:

Many of our congregations introduced hymnals already available by other Lutheran bodies.  As they, however, contained but few translations of Danish hymns, several individual efforts were made to supply translations in booklet form.  These pointed the way and prepared the ground for a larger effort, but could not satisfy the increasing demand.

It was also felt that the unity which the use of a common hymnal had hitherto helped to maintain in the church services of the two Danish Synods would be lost, unless they united in preparing a hymnal in the English language.

—Hymnal for Church and Home, 3d. Ed. (1938), page 3

The Junior Hymnal for Church and Home (1932) helped in that cause also.

The 1938 edition of the Danish-American Hymnal provides a Communion service similar to the Bugenhagen rite from The Lutheran Hymnary (1913) and its near-clone, The Lutheran Hymnary (1935).  This makes sense, for, as I established in the previous post, Norwegian-American Lutheran synods used rituals based on Norwegian and Danish liturgies.  The 1938 edition of the Hymnal also contains the Common Service (Communion, Matins, and Vespers), responsive readings, Collects, Introits, and a two-year lectionary which assigns two readings per Sunday and major feast.  All that content fills 146 pages.

The Service Book and Hymnal became official in 1958, but to write of congregations keeping copies of the Hymnal for Church and Home on hand for certain Danish hymns and the traditional service does not stretch credulity, does it?  My copy of the 1938 edition comes with a booklet containing a slightly modernized version of the first Communion service glued inside the front cover.  There is no date on this booklet, but 1958 or later would be possible.  The Church is “Christian,” not “Catholic,” or “catholic” inside the Hymnal, but it is “catholic” in the booklet.  Yet someone scratched though “catholic” and wrote “Christian.”

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IV.  CONCLUSION

Ethnic hymnody and liturgy added much flavor to U.S. Lutheran worship.  The transition to the Common Service of 1888 and to multi-synodical hymnals and service books reduced this variety yet did not eliminate it.  This was good, for variety is the spice of life.  If we were all alike, the world would be unbearably boring.

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KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JULY 22, 2013 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINT MARY MAGDALENE, EQUAL TO THE APOSTLES

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Commission on the Liturgy and Hymnal, The.  Service Book and Hymnal.  Music Edition.  Philadelphia, PA:  United Lutheran Publication House, 1958.

Common Service Book of the Lutheran Church.  Philadelphia, PA:  The Board of Publication of The United Lutheran Church in America, 1917, 1918.

Hymnal for Church and Home.  3d. Ed.  Blair, NE:  Danish Lutheran Publishing House, 1938.

Lutheran Hymnary Including the Symbols of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, The.  Minneapolis, MN:  Augsburg Publishing House, 1935.

Melton, J. Gordon.  Encyclopedia of American Religions.  4h. Ed.  Washington, DC:  Gale Research, Inc., 1993.

Pfatteicher, Philip H., and Carlos R. Messerli.  Manual on the Liturgy:  Lutheran Book of Worship.  Minneapolis, MN:  Augsburg Publishing House, 1979.

Reed, Luther D.  The Lutheran Liturgy:  A Study in the Common Service of the Lutheran Church in America.  Philadelphia, PA:  Muhlenberg Press, 1947.

__________.  The Lutheran Liturgy:  A Study in the Common Liturgy of the Lutheran Church in America.  2d. Ed.  Philadelphia, PA:  Fortress Press, 1959.

Stulken, Marilyn Kay.  Hymnal Companion to the Lutheran Book of Worship.  Philadelphia, PA:  Fortress Press, 1981.

Wentz, Abdel Ross.  The Lutheran Church in American History.  2d. Ed.  Philadelphia, PA:  The United Lutheran Publication House, 1933.

I also found some PDFs helpful:

DeGarmeaux, Bruce.  “O Come, Let Us Worship!  A Study of Lutheran Liturgy and Hymnody.”  1995.

Faugstad, Peter.  “Centennial of The Lutheran Hymnary.”  In Lutheran Sentinel, May-June 2013, page 14.

KRT

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Above:  Norwegian Lutheran Memorial Church, Chicago, Illinois, 1980

Photographer = Carol M. Highsmith

Image Source = Library of Congress

(http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2011636313/)

Reproduction Number = LC-DIG-highsm-18119

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U.S. LUTHERAN LITURGY, PART VII

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We would gladly behold the day when the One, Holy, Catholic, Christian Church shall use one Order of Service, and unite in one Confession of Faith.

–From the Preface to the Common Service (1888); Quoted in Common Service Book of the Lutheran Church (1917), page 308

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Let us bow before the Lord and confess our sins.

Almighty God, our Maker and Redeemer, we poor sinners confess unto Thee that we are by nature sinful and unclean, and that we have sinned against Thee in thought, word, and deed.  Wherefore we flee for refuge to Thine infinite mercy and beseech Thee for Christ’s sake, grant us remission of all our sins, and by Thy Holy Spirit increase in us true knowledge of Thee and of Thy will and true obedience to Thy word, to the end that by Thy grace we may come to everlasting life, through Jesus Christ, our Lord.  Amen.

—The Concordia Hymnal:  A Hymnal for Church, School and Home (1932), page 408

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I.  PREFACE

In U.S. Lutheran Liturgy, Part I (https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2013/07/14/muhlenbergs-dream-the-road-to-the-common-service-1748-1888/), I wrote about the process which culminated in the unveiling of the Common Service in 1888.  I chose not to write about that liturgy because I had already entered twenty-four pages of writing from a composition book.  In U.S. Liturgy, Part II (https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2013/07/17/the-missing-canon-the-common-service-1888/), I focused on the Common Service.  In U.S. Liturgy, Part III (https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2013/07/17/truly-meet-right-and-salutary-the-common-service-in-the-united-lutheran-church-in-america-and-the-american-lutheran-church-1918-1930/), I wrote about it in The United Lutheran Church in America (1918-1962) and The American Lutheran Church (1930-1060).   In U.S. Lutheran Liturgy, Part IV (https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2013/07/17/the-lord-is-in-his-holy-temple-liturgy-in-the-augustana-evangelical-lutheran-church-1860-1928/), I focused on The Augustana Evangelical Lutheran Church (1860-1962).  In U.S. Lutheran Liturgy, Part V (https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2013/07/17/all-glory-be-to-thee-most-high-finnish-american-lutherans-1872-1963/), I wrote about Finnish-Americans.  In U.S. Lutheran Liturgy, Part VI (https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2013/07/18/my-soul-doth-magnify-the-lord-missouri-synod-liturgies-1847-1940/), I turned my attention to the Missouri Synod.  Now, in Part VII, I write about Norwegian-Americans.

I have been studying this material closely, trying to record information accurately as I have reviewed primary and secondary sources.  This has required a commitment of much time, for there are so many synods about which to read.  And, since I grew up United Methodist in southern Georgia, U.S.A., in the Baptist Belt, Lutherans were scarce, if present at all, when I was quite young.  My spiritual journey has taken me into The Episcopal Church.  Anglicanism and Lutheranism have many theological and liturgical similarities and considerable theological overlap, but my adopted vantage point is still one outside of Lutheranism.  If I have misstated anything, I can correct it.

The material is, by its nature, complicated.  I have tried to organize and format it for maximum ease of reading and learning, however.  So, without further ado, I invite you, O reader, to follow the proverbial bouncing balls with me.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

II.  THE EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH (1917-1960), THE EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN SYNOD (1918-), AND THEIR PREDECESSORS

The Norwegian Lutherans in the U.S.A.  represent two streams–the Church of Norway liturgical tradition and the Low Church, Hans Nielsen Hauge line.  Today two denominations–the Association of Free Lutheran Congregations (1962) and the Church of the Lutheran Brethren of America (1900) present variations on the latter.  Immediately I address the former tradition, although the two do intertwine.

The Norwegian Lutheran Church of America, formed by a merger in 1917, renamed itself The Evangelical Lutheran Church in 1946.  The 1917 union combined the Synod of the Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (SNELCA) (1853), Hauge’s Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Synod (HNELS) (1876), and the United Norwegian Lutheran Church of America (UNLCA) (1890).  The UNLCA was the product of the merger of the following:

• the Norwegian Augustana Synod (1870) and the Norwegian-Danish Conference (1870), twins which broke away from The Augustana Evangelical Lutheran Church (1860-1962), and
• the Anti-Missourian Brotherhood (1887), which broke away from SNELCA.

For obvious reasons Norwegian Lutherans in the U.S.A. used Norwegian liturgies initially.  Since Denmark had ruled Norway for centuries when, in 1814, Sweden took over in Norway, a 1685 Danish liturgy, called in some sources the Bugenhagen service, became the basis for a popular English-language rite.  The first Norwegian Lutheran hymnal in the U.S.A. appeared in 1874.  The first Norwegian Lutheran English-language hymnal published in the U.S.A. rolled off the printing presses five years later.  This was the Hymn Book for the Use of Evangelical Lutheran Schools and Congregations (http://archive.org/details/hymnbookevangeli00cruluoft) of SNELCA.  The Church and Sunday School Hymnal (UNLCA) (http://archive.org/details/churchsundayscho00unit) appeared in 1898.  Then UNLCA published The Orders of Services and Ministerial Acts of the Norwegian Lutheran Church (1902) (http://archive.org/details/ordersofservicem00unit), based on the revised 1899 liturgy of the Church of Norway.

The Lutheran Hymnary (1913) (http://archive.org/details/lutheranhymnary00synogoog) was the product of the three denominations which joined in 1917 to form the Norwegian Lutheran Church in America (called The Evangelical Lutheran Church, 1946-1960).  This, the first widely-used English-language hymnal and service book for Norwegian-American Lutherans, contained two forms for Holy Communion–the Bugenhagen form and the Common Service rite.  The latter was more interactive than the former.  The 1915 Altar Book (http://archive.org/details/altarbookofnorwe00norw) contained The Lutheran Hymnary (1913) services plus some, per the custom of altar books.

The Lutheran Hymnary (1913) (http://archive.org/details/lutheranhymnary00amergoog) became a favorite of many people.  It remained the official hymnal and service book of the merged NLCA, which issued a very slightly revised edition in 1935.  (I have a copy.)  The Service Book and Hymnal became the next official book in 1958.  Then, two years later, The Evangelical Lutheran Church (formed as NLCA) merged into The American Lutheran Church (TALC) (1960-1987).  TALC, in turn, helped to form the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).

A remnant of SNELCA (1853-1917) formed the Norwegian Synod of the American Evangelical Lutheran Church (NSAELC), which renamed itself The Evangelical Lutheran Synod (ELS) in 1957.  (For the sake of clarity I will refer to this denomination by its current name beginning now.)  ELS retained The Lutheran Hymnary (1913).  Some congregations kept using it for a long time, for The Lutheran Hymnal (1941), of the Synodical Conference, to which ELS had belonged since 1920, did not suit them.  The Bugenhagen service and many of their favorite hymns were not in the 1941 hymnal.  The current ELS hymnal and service book, the Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary (1996), retains the perceived best elements of the 1913 and 1941 books while modernizing the language of the services.

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III.  THE LUTHERAN FREE CHURCH (1897-1963)

The Lutheran Free Church (LFC) broke away from the United Norwegian Lutheran Church of America (UNLCA) in 1897.  The LFC encompassed a wide variety of worship styles, from those with some degree of formality to those with none, although the denomination did suggest orders of worship and specific rituals.  The ultimate standard was the Altar Book of the Church of Norway (the 1889 edition then the 1920 version), applied according to pastors’ discretion.

The LFC reprinted the Norwegian Landstad hymnal for years.  Yet English-language resources were numerous.  A 1920 survey revealed the use of twenty-eight hymnals in LFC congregations.  One of these books was Concordia:  A Collection of Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1917), a charming little book of 253 hymns and a simple order of worship published the UNLCA.  (My 1923 copy of it is really adorable!)  In 1932 the Norwegian Lutheran Church in America (formed via merger in 1917 and renamed The Evangelical Lutheran Church in 1946) published The Concordia Hymnal:  A Hymnal for Church, School and Home, a revision and expansion of the 1917 book.  The 1932 volume contained 434 hymns, two Orders for Morning Service (the second simplified from the first), an Order for Evening Service, and other forms derived from extant Norwegian-American worship resources.  The Concordia Hymnal (1932) sat beside the The Lutheran Hymnary (1913 and 1935) for the denomination which created it.  For the LFC, however, The Concordia Hymnal became the quasi-official denominational hymnal, which the vast majority of congregations used and the use of which the church body encouraged.

The LFC participated in the creation of the Service Book and Hymnal (1958), which featured the Common Service.  A 1960 LFC survey revealed that

less than a handful

of congregations used the liturgical portion of the new volume.  The more common practice was to use the Service Book and Hymnal as just a hymnal and to utilize the more familiar Order for Morning Worship II from The Concordia Hymnal.

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IV.  THE ASSOCIATION OF FREE LUTHERAN CONGREGATIONS (1962-)

The Lutheran Free Church merged into The American Lutheran Church (TALC) (1960-1987) in 1963.  Ahead of this union the Association of Free Lutheran Congregations (AFLC) organized.  They objected to a host of perceived sins of The American Lutheran Church, including Neo-orthodoxy, a relaxed attitude toward the Roman Catholic Church, ritualism, and the approval of social dancing.

The AFLC has not relaxed its attitude toward dancing in fifty-one years.  During my research into this question at the official denominational website I found three main documents which confirm this.  There was Anne Erickson’s article, “God Wants to Help Parents to Help Their Kids,” in the April 10, 2001, issue of the official Lutheran Ambassador magazine.  She affirmed the anti-school dances position she had learned growing up.  The AFLC operates a Bible school, Association Free Lutheran Bible School, in Plymouth, Minnesota.  Its 2009-2010 Student Life Guidelines say in part:

Gambling, dancing, viewing of pornography or any kind of unwholesome media are not permitted.  These rules are in effect both on and off campus.  (page 13)

And the 2012-2013 Student Life Handbook of the same institution forbids social dancing

on or off campus

as a school-sponsored event or that

the school’s name be associated with any such activity by any student, staff or group.  (pages 14-15).

As for worship, the denominations’ official Ambassador Hymnal for Lutheran Worship (1994) includes a ritual modeled after the Order for Morning Service II from The Concordia Hymnal (1932).

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V.  CONCLUSION

I have formulated what I call Taylor’s Law of Denominational Mergers:

Whenever two or more denominations unite, two or more denominations are likely to form.

The Lutheran Free Church, despite its Pietism and Low Church origins and practices, liberalized sufficiently to unite with The American Lutheran Church (1960-1987), of which The Evangelical Lutheran Church (1917-1960) had become a part.  Thus the 1963 merger which ended the existence of the the LFC was really a reunion.

Another conclusion regards the lasting influence of certain old hymnals across generations.  The Lutheran Hymnary (1913) looks very much like the Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary (1996).  And the influence of The Concordia Hymnal (1932) upon the Ambassador Hymnal for Lutheran Worship (1994) is obvious.  As some new hymnals and service books replace old ones, the contemporary builds upon the traditional.

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KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JULY 20, 2013 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAMUEL HANSON COX, U.S. PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER AND ABOLITIONIST; AND HIS SON, ARTHUR CLEVELAND COXE, EPISCOPAL BISHOP OF WESTERN NEW YORK, HYMN WRITER AND TRANSLATOR OF HYMNS

THE FEAST OF SAINT ANSEGIUS OF FONTANELLE, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBOT

THE FEAST OF ELIZAETH CADY STANTON, AMELIA BLOOMER, SOJOURNER TRUTH, AND HARRIET ROSS TUBMAN, WITNEEES TO CIVIL RIGHTS FOR AFRICAN AMERICANS AND WOMEN

THE FEAST OF SAINTS FLAVIAN II OF ANTIOCH AND ELIAS OF JERUSALEM, ROMAN CATHOLIC PATRIARCHS

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

As much as possible I prefer to work with primary sources, although secondary sources frequently prove invaluable in making the best sense of those primary sources.  And I prefer to work with actual bound volumes as much as possible.  For this post, however, some of my sources have been electronic, and I have provided links to them.  So I consider those linked ones cited properly.  I did find certain bound volumes invaluable.  Those credits follow:

Ambassador Hymnal for Lutheran Worship.  Minneapolis, MN:  Association of Free Lutheran Congregations, 1994.

Commission on the Liturgy and Hymnal, The.  Service Book and Hymnal.  Music Edition.  Philadelphia, PA:  United Lutheran Publication House, 1958.

Common Service Book of the Lutheran Church.  Philadelphia, PA:  The Board of Publication of The United Lutheran Church in America, 1917, 1918.

Concordia:  A Collection of Hymns and Spiritual Songs.  Minneapolis, MN:  Augsburg Publishing House, 1917.

Concordia Hymnal, The:  A Hymnal for Church, School and Home.  Minneapolis, MN:  Augsburg Publishing House, 1932.

Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary.  St. Louis, MO:  MorningStar Music Publishers, Inc., 1996.

Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference of North America, The.  The Lutheran Hymnal.  St. Louis, MO:  Concordia Publishing House, 1941.

Evangelical Lutheran Worship.  Minneapolis, MN:  Augsburg Fortress, 2006.

Fevold, Eugene L.  The Lutheran Free Church:  A Fellowship of American Lutheran Congregations, 1897-1963.  Minneapolis, MN:  Augsburg Publishing House, 1969.

Lutheran Hymnary Including the Symbols of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, The.  Minneapolis, MN:  Augsburg Publishing House, 1935.

Melton, J. Gordon.  Encyclopedia of American Religions.  4h. Ed.  Washington, DC:  Gale Research, Inc., 1993.

Pfatteicher, Philip H., and Carlos R. Messerli.  Manual on the Liturgy:  Lutheran Book of Worship.  Minneapolis, MN:  Augsburg Publishing House, 1979.

Stulken, Marilyn Kay.  Hymnal Companion to the Lutheran Book of Worship.  Philadelphia, PA:  Fortress Press, 1981.

Wentz, Abdel Ross.  The Lutheran Church in American History.  2d. Ed.  Philadelphia, PA:  The United Lutheran Publication House, 1933.

I also found some PDFs helpful:

“Ambassador Hymnal for Lutheran Worship.”  Hymnal Sales, Minneapolis, MN.  This is a document designed to convince congregations to purchase the 1994 hymnal.

Association Free Lutheran Bible School, Plymouth, MN.  AFLBS Student Life Guidelines 2009-2010.

__________.  AFLBS Student Life Handbook 2012-2013.

Christian Worship:  Supplement Introductory Resources.  Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, 2008.

DeGarmeaux, Bruce.  “O Come, Let Us Worship!  A Study of Lutheran Liturgy and Hymnody.”  1995.

Erickson, Anne.  “God Wants to Help Parents Help Their Kids.”  Pages 8-9 in The Lutheran Ambassador (April 10, 2001).

Faugstad, Peter.  “Centennial of The Lutheran Hymnary.”  In Lutheran Sentinel, May-June 2013, page 14.

Schalk, Carl.  ”A Brief History of LCMS Hymnals (before LSB).”  Based on a 1997 document; updated to 2006.  Copyrighted by The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod.

Walker, Larry J., Ed.  “Standing Fast in Freedom.”  2d.  Ed.  Association of Free Lutheran Congregations, 2000.

KRT

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Above:  Trinity Lutheran Church, St. Louis, Missouri

Image Created by the Historic American Buildings Survey

Image Source = Library of Congress

(http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/mo0396.photos.098626p/resource/)

Reproduction Number = HABS MO,96-SALU,120B–2

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U.S. LUTHERAN LITURGY, PART VI

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

We would gladly behold the day when the One, Holy, Catholic, Christian Church shall use one Order of Service, and unite in one Confession of Faith.

–From the Preface to the Common Service (1888); Quoted in Common Service Book of the Lutheran Church (1917), page 308

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My soul doth magnify the Lord:

and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior.

–From the Magnificat, quoted in Vespers, The Common Service (1888), as contained in The Lutheran Hymnal (1941)

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I.  PREFACE

In U.S. Lutheran Liturgy, Part I (https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2013/07/14/muhlenbergs-dream-the-road-to-the-common-service-1748-1888/), I wrote about the process which culminated in the unveiling of the Common Service in 1888.  I chose not to write about that liturgy because I had already entered twenty-four pages of writing from a composition book.  In U.S. Liturgy, Part II (https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2013/07/17/the-missing-canon-the-common-service-1888/), I focused on the Common Service.  In U.S. Liturgy, Part III (https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2013/07/17/truly-meet-right-and-salutary-the-common-service-in-the-united-lutheran-church-in-america-and-the-american-lutheran-church-1918-1930/), I wrote about it in The United Lutheran Church in America (1918-1962) and The American Lutheran Church (1930-1060).   In U.S. Lutheran Liturgy, Part IV (https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2013/07/17/the-lord-is-in-his-holy-temple-liturgy-in-the-augustana-evangelical-lutheran-church-1860-1928/), I focused on The Augustana Evangelical Lutheran Church (1860-1962).  In U.S. Lutheran Liturgy, Part V (https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2013/07/17/all-glory-be-to-thee-most-high-finnish-american-lutherans-1872-1963/), I wrote about Finnish-Americans.  Now, in Part VI, I turn my attention to the Missouri Synod.

I have been studying this material closely, trying to record information accurately as I have reviewed primary and secondary sources.  This has required a commitment of much time, for there are so many synods about which to read.  And, since I grew up United Methodist in southern Georgia, U.S.A., in the Baptist Belt, Lutherans were scarce, if present at all, when I was quite young.  My spiritual journey has taken me into The Episcopal Church.  Anglicanism and Lutheranism have many theological and liturgical similarities and considerable theological overlap, but my adopted vantage point is still one outside of Lutheranism.  If I have misstated anything, I can correct it.

The material is, by its nature, complicated.  I have tried to organize and format it for maximum ease of reading and learning, however.  So, without further ado, I invite you, O reader, to follow the proverbial bouncing balls with me.

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II.  BACKGROUND INFORMATION

The German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States (GELSMOOS) organized in 1847.  Seventy years later it dropped “German” from their name and quickened the pace of its transition to English-language worship because of anti-German hysteria during World War I.  Mobs were, for example, burning German-language books in various places.  The City of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, banned the performance of any music by Ludwig van Beethoven (dead since 1827, by the way).  And, when people were really mad and out of their tiny minds, they renamed food products and dog breeds.  So German Shepherds became Alsacian Shepherds and Sauerkraut became Liberty Cabbage, for example.  (That was almost as bad as Freedom Fries, for real “French” Fries are actually Belgian.)  The newly renamed denomination, abbreviated as ELSMOOS, assumed its current name, The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS), in 1947.

My shorthand name for the denomination in this series of posts is the Missouri Synod.

A related body was the English Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri and Other States (EELSMOS), or the English Synod of Missouri, which formed in 1888.  Its members worshiped in English and sought a way to unite with the Missouri Synod.  They succeeded in 1911, becoming the English District.

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III.  FROM GERMAN-LANGUAGE SERVICES TO ENGLISH-LANGUAGE WORSHIP

Worship in the Missouri Synod, consistent with the name “German Evangelical Lutheran Synod,” was in German.  The two main sources of liturgy were Wilhelm Loehe’s 1844 Agenda for Christian Congregations of the Lutheran Confession and the 1856 revision of the Saxon Agenda.  Yet there was sufficient desire within the Missouri Synod for worship in the English language for some congregations to use the Hymn Book for the Use of Evangelical Lutheran Schools and Congregations (1879) (http://archive.org/details/hymnbookevangeli00cruluoft), the first English-language hymnal for Norwegian-American Lutherans.  And three years later, the Missouri Synod published Lutheran Hymns for the Use of English Lutheran Missions.  Hymns of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (http://archive.org/details/hymnsofevangelic00evan) followed in 1886.

Meanwhile, the English Synod of Missouri had published the first edition of the Evangelical Lutheran Hymn-Book in 1889.  Three years later the second edition (http://archive.org/details/evangelicallu93evan) added a liturgy–the Common Service–and more hymns.  Multiple printings continued for nineteen years (http://archive.org/details/evangelicalluthe5evan and http://archive.org/details/evangelicalluthe09evan).

The Missouri Synod revised its English translation the Loehe Agenda to echo the rhythms of the Common Service after 1888.  This is obvious in the third edition (1902) of the Liturgy for Christian Congregations of the Lutheran Faith (http://archive.org/details/liturgyforchrist00lhew), a book which includes the Litany from the General Council’s Church Book (http://archive.org/details/congruse00gene).  The 1902 Loehe Liturgy (revised) also listed some fixed feasts:

• Christmas Day (December 25);
• the Circumcision of Jesus (January 1);
• the Epiphany (January 6);
• Reformation Day (October 31 or July 25);
• St. Stephen’s Day (December 26);
• festivals of Jesus:  the Presentation, the Annunciation, and the Visitation;
• St. Michael the Archangel (September 29); and
• feasts of the usual Apostles except for St. Thomas and the Confession of St. Peter.

There were also Matins, Vespers, a second rite for Morning Worship, a form for the Orders of Catechization, Introits, and various prayers.

In 1905 the Missouri Synod published the Hymnal for Evangelical Lutheran Missions (http://archive.org/details/hymnalforevangel00luth), with five pages of liturgy:  a partial Common Service Communion rite, the Apostles’ Creed, and the General Confession.

Seven years later, the English Synod of Missouri having become the English District, the Missouri Synod published the revised Evangelical Lutheran Hymn-Book (1912) (http://www.projectwittenberg.org/etext/hymnals/ELHB1912/index.htm), containing the Communion and Vespers services from the Common Service.  The successor to this volume, the first official English-language Missouri Synod hymnal, was The Lutheran Hymnal (1941), the topic of a future post in this series.

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IV.  CONCLUSION

I understand worshiping in the language one knows best, so I grasp why many German immigrants preferred German-language liturgies and hymns.  And so much of one’s culture comes wrapped up in one’s language, with its references, rhythms, and subtleties.  The Missouri Synod dis what it had to do and should have done–reach out to English-speakers while continuing to serve its German-language constituency.  That English would become the dominant language of worship in the Missouri Synod was inevitable.  Nevertheless, that anti-German hysteria forced the issue was most unfortunate, speaking loudly of the intolerance of many people.

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KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JULY 18, 2013 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF ARTHUR PENRHYN STANLEY, ANGLICAN DEAN OF WESTMINSTER AND HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF BARTOLOME DE LAS CASAS, WITNESS FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

As much as possible I prefer to work with primary sources, although secondary sources frequently prove invaluable in making the best sense of those primary sources.  And I prefer to work with actual bound volumes as much as possible.  For this post, however, some of my sources have been electronic, and I have provided links to them.  So I consider those linked ones cited properly.  I did find certain bound volumes invaluable.  Those credits follow:

Common Service Book of the Lutheran Church.  Philadelphia, PA:  The Board of Publication of The United Lutheran Church in America, 1917, 1918.

Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference of North America, The.  The Lutheran Hymnal.  St. Louis, MO:  Concordia Publishing House, 1941.

Melton, J. Gordon.  Encyclopedia of American Religions.  4h. Ed.  Washington, DC:  Gale Research, Inc., 1993.

Stulken, Marilyn Kay.  Hymnal Companion to the Lutheran Book of Worship.  Philadelphia, PA:  Fortress Press, 1981.

Wentz, Abdel Ross.  The Lutheran Church in American History.  2d. Ed.  Philadelphia, PA:  The United Lutheran Publication House, 1933.

I also found one PDF helpful:

Schalk, Carl.  ”A Brief History of LCMS Hymnals (before LSB).”  Based on a 1997 document; updated to 2006.  Copyrighted by The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod.

KRT

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Above:  Gethsemane Lutheran Church, Austin, Texas, 1961

Image Created by the Historic American Buildings Survey

Image Source = Library of Congress

(http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/tx0357.photos.156340p/resource/)

Reproduction Number = HABS TEX,227-AUST,7–3

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U.S. LUTHERAN LITURGY, PART IV

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We would gladly behold the day when the One, Holy, Catholic, Christian Church shall use one Order of Service, and unite in one Confession of Faith.

–From the Preface to the Common Service (1888); Quoted in Common Service Book of the Lutheran Church (1917), page 308

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The Lord is in His holy temple:  His throne is in heaven.  The Lord is night unto them that are of an humble and contrite spirit.  He heareth the supplications of the penitent and inclineth to their prayers.  Let us therefore draw near with boldness unto His throne of grace and confess our sins.

—The Hymnal and Order of Service (1925), page 587

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I.  INTRODUCTION

In U.S. Lutheran Liturgy, Part I (https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2013/07/14/muhlenbergs-dream-the-road-to-the-common-service-1748-1888/), I wrote about the process which culminated in the unveiling of the Common Service in 1888.  I chose not to write about that liturgy because I had already entered twenty-four pages of writing from a composition book.  In U.S. Liturgy, Part II (https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2013/07/17/the-missing-canon-the-common-service-1888/), I focused on the Common Service.  In U.S. Liturgy, Part III (https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2013/07/17/truly-meet-right-and-salutary-the-common-service-in-the-united-lutheran-church-in-america-and-the-american-lutheran-church-1918-1930/), I wrote about it in The United Lutheran Church in America (1918-1962) and The American Lutheran Church (1930-1060).   Now, in Part IV, I focus on The Augustana Evangelical Lutheran Church (1860-1962).

I have been studying this material closely, trying to record information accurately as I have reviewed primary and secondary sources.  This has required a commitment of much time, for there are so many synods about which to read.  And, since I grew up United Methodist in southern Georgia, U.S.A., in the Baptist Belt, Lutherans were scarce, if present at all, when I was quite young.  My spiritual journey has taken me into The Episcopal Church.  Anglicanism and Lutheranism have many theological and liturgical similarities and considerable theological overlap, but my adopted vantage point is still one outside of Lutheranism.  If I have misstated anything, I can correct it.

The material is, by its nature, complicated.  I have tried to organize and format it for maximum ease of reading and learning, however.  So, without further ado, I invite you, O reader, to follow the proverbial bouncing balls with me.  Breaking up content into a series of posts should help in the process of digesting the material intelligently; that is my purpose and hope.

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II.  SWEDISH-AMERICAN LITURGY

Many Scandinavians who had joined the Northern Illinois Synod, an affiliate of the General Synod, left in 1860.  They formed the body which, in time, called itself The Augustana Evangelical Lutheran Church, the full name I will use for it from its beginning, abbreviating the name as “Augustana.”  Augustana merged into the Lutheran Church in America (LCA) in 1962.  The LCA, in turn, helped to form the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) in 1987.

Augustana liturgies were initially those of the Church of Sweden or adapted from them.  (There were Church of Sweden liturgies over time.)  Worship in Swedish continued as worship in English became more popular.  So, naturally, English-language liturgies were initially translations of Swedish-language ones.  The Hymnal for Churches and Sunday-Schools of the Augustana Synod (1899) (http://archive.org/details/hymnalforchurche00evan) offered forty-one pages of rituals–for Sunday School, morning worship, Holy Communion, and evening worship–based on Swedish liturgies.  Some of the content appeared again in the Sunday School Book Containing Liturgy and Hymns for the Sunday School (1903) (http://archive.org/details/sundayschoolbook00unse).

The first official English-language Augustana hymnal to get to the pews was the Hymnal and Order of Service for Churches and Sunday-Schools (1901) (http://archive.org/details/orderser00evan).  This volume, intended to be an interim hymnal, lasted for twenty-four years.  It provided not only hymns but various liturgies:

• Morning Service;
• Holy Communion;
• Evening Service;
• Litany;
• Burial of the Dead; and
• Order for the Service of the Sunday School.

Most of these were repeated from the 1899 Hymnal for Churches and Sunday-Schools.

The Hymnal and Order of Service (1925), keyed to the American Standard Version of the Bible (1901), offered some different (and some same) liturgies:

• Morning Service;
• Holy Communion;
• Matins on Christmas Day;
• Matins on Easter Day;
• Vespers;
• The Litany;
• General Morning and Evening Prayers;
• Order of Service for the Sunday School; and
• the Common Service.

The first Morning and Communion rituals were different from their counterparts in the 1901 book.

In 1928 Augustana published The Junior Hymnal Containing Sunday School and Luther League Liturgy and Hymns for the Sunday School and Other Gatherings (http://archive.org/details/juniorhymnalcont013244mbp).  After the hymns came the Order of Service for the Sunday School, Psalms and other responsive readings, and an Order of Worship for Luther League.

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III.  CONCLUSION

I found a wonderful paragraph which is especially appropriate for this purpose:

During the first half of the twentieth century, Lutheran churches in America were divided into a confusing assortment of districts, synods, and general or national church bodies.  From colonial times the immigrant church had perpetuated its original linguistic, ethnic, cultural, and theological differences into separate organizational structures from shore to shore.  The multiplicity of Lutheran groups and especially the alphabetical abbreviations by which they were known were largely incomprehensible not only to non-Lutherans but also to the vast majority of Lutheran pew sitters.

–Marilyn Kay Stulken, Hymnal Companion to the Lutheran Book of Worship (Philadelphia, PA:  Fortress Press, 1981), p. 108

Immigrants brought liturgies and attachments to the old countries with them.  Over time, however, ethnic populations enriched and assimilated into the broader culture.  The Common Service, which drew from a variety of sources, represented a multi-ethnic, history-based liturgy, one which Augustana accepted fully with the Service Book and Hymnal (1958), which included the Common Service but not any Swedish one.

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KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JULY 17, 2013 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF BENNETT J. SIMS, EPISCOPAL BISHOP OF ATLANTA

THE FEAST OF THE MARTYRS OF COMPEIGNE

THE FEAST OF THE RIGHTEOUS GENTILES

THE FEAST OF WALTER CRONKITE, JOURNALIST

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

As much as possible I prefer to work with primary sources, although secondary sources frequently prove invaluable in making the best sense of those primary sources.  And I prefer to work with actual bound volumes as much as possible.  For this post, however, some of my sources have been electronic, and I have provided links to them.  So I consider those linked ones cited properly.  I did find certain bound volumes invaluable.  Those credits follow:

Commission on the Liturgy and Hymnal, The.  Service Book and Hymnal.  Music Edition.  Philadelphia, PA:  United Lutheran Publication House, 1958.

Common Service Book of the Lutheran Church.  Philadelphia, PA:  The Board of Publication of The United Lutheran Church in America, 1917, 1918.

Hymnal and Order of Service, The.  Lectionary Edition.  Rock Island, IL:  Augustana Book Concern, 1925.

Melton, J. Gordon.  Encyclopedia of American Religions.  4h. Ed.  Washington, DC:  Gale Research, Inc., 1993.

Pfatteicher, Philip H., and Carlos R. Messerli.  Manual on the Liturgy:  Lutheran Book of Worship.  Minneapolis, MN:  Augsburg Publishing House, 1979.

Reed, Luther D.  The Lutheran Liturgy:  A Study in the Common Service of the Lutheran Church in America.  Philadelphia, PA:  Muhlenberg Press, 1947.

__________.  The Lutheran Liturgy:  A Study in the Common Liturgy of the Lutheran Church in America.  2d. Ed.  Philadelphia, PA:  Fortress Press, 1959.

Stulken, Marilyn Kay.  Hymnal Companion to the Lutheran Book of Worship.  Philadelphia, PA:  Fortress Press, 1981.

Wentz, Abdel Ross.  The Lutheran Church in American History.  2d. Ed.  Philadelphia, PA:  The United Lutheran Publication House, 1933.

KRT

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Above:  Detail of the Pulpit and the Altar, St. James German Evangelical Lutheran Church, Altoona, Pennsylvania

Image Created by the Historic American Buildings Survey

Image Source = Library of Congress

(http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/pa2541.photos.142605p/)

Reproduction Number = HABS PA,7-ALTO,78–2

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U.S. LUTHERAN LITURGY, PART III

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We would gladly behold the day when the One, Holy, Catholic, Christian Church shall use one Order of Service, and unite in one Confession of Faith.

–From the Preface to the Common Service (1888); Quoted in Common Service Book of the Lutheran Church (1917), page 308

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It is truly meet, right, and salutary, that we should at all times, and in all places, give thanks unto Thee, O Lord, Holy Father, Almighty Everlasting God.

–The Common Service (1888)

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I.  INTRODUCTION

In U.S. Lutheran Liturgy, Part I (https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2013/07/14/muhlenbergs-dream-the-road-to-the-common-service-1748-1888/), I wrote about the process which culminated in the unveiling of the Common Service in 1888.  I chose not to write about that liturgy because I had already entered twenty-four pages of writing from a composition book.  In U.S. Liturgy, Part II (https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2013/07/17/the-missing-canon-the-common-service-1888/), I focused on the Common Service.  Now, in Part III, I write about it in The United Lutheran Church in America (1918-1962) and The American Lutheran Church (1930-1060).

I have been studying this material closely, trying to record information accurately as I have reviewed primary and secondary sources.  This has required a commitment of much time, for there are so many synods about which to read.  And, since I grew up United Methodist in southern Georgia, U.S.A., in the Baptist Belt, Lutherans were scarce, if present at all, when I was quite young.  My spiritual journey has taken me into The Episcopal Church.  Anglicanism and Lutheranism have many theological and liturgical similarities and considerable theological overlap, but my adopted vantage point is still one outside of Lutheranism.  If I have misstated anything, I can correct it.

The material is, by its nature, complicated.  I have tried to organize and format it for maximum ease of reading and learning, however.  So, without further ado, I invite you, O reader, to follow the proverbial bouncing balls with me.  Breaking up content into a series of posts should help in the process of digesting the material intelligently; that is my purpose and hope.

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II.  THE UNITED LUTHERAN CHURCH (1918-1962) AND ITS PREDECESSORS

Dr. Martin Luther nailed the Ninety-Five Theses to the church door at Wittenberg in 1517.  1917 being the 400th anniversary of that event, many U.S. Lutherans focused on the occasion to reduce factionalism and to establish a measure of organic unity.  That year three Norwegian synods merged to form the Norwegian Lutheran Church of America, which renamed itself The Evangelical Lutheran Church in 1946.  (I will write about this branch of U.S. Lutheranism in a subsequent post.)  And, in 1917, the General Synod (1820), the United Synod of the South (immediate roots back to 1863), and the General Council (1867) agreed to reunite the following year as The United Lutheran Church in America (ULCA).

The ULCA’s hymnal and service book was the Common Service Book of the Lutheran Church (1917) (CSB), prepared by the denomination’s three predecessor bodies and modeled after the General Synod’s Church Book, itself a towering liturgical achievement.  The CSB followed the Table of Contents of the Church Book closely, down to the CSB‘s Occasional Services, which resemble the Church Book‘s Orders for Ministerial Acts.

Fixed feasts interest me.  So I note that the General Synod’s Liturgy for the Evangelical Lutheran Church (1881) (http://archive.org/details/liturgyofevangel00gene) had only four such feasts:

• Christmas Day (December 25),
• the Circumcision of Jesus (January 1),
• the Epiphany (January 6), and
• Reformation Day (October 31).

The General Council’s Church Book had those also and added the feast days for St. Stephen, St. Michael the Archangel, the Conversion of St. Paul, the Presentation of Jesus, the Annunciation, the Visitation, and the Apostles (including St. Matthias).  The Southern Book of Worship had all of these except the Feast of All Saints.  The CSB followed the lead of the Southern Book of Worship.  And none of these volumes recognized the Holy Innocents or the Confession of St. Peter.  As for the latter omission, I suppose that “…upon this rock…” was too hot a potato for people who did not want to call the Church “Catholic” as late as 1917.

The Icelandic Evangelical Lutheran Synod of America (formed in 1885) merged into the historically German-American ULCA in 1942.  Thus the ULCA became more heterogeneous.

The ULCA merged into the Lutheran Church in America (LCA) in 1962.  The LCA, in turn, helped to form the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) in 1987.

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III.  THE AMERICAN LUTHERAN CHURCH (1930-1960) AND ITS PREDECESSORS

On August 11, 1930, three historically German-American denominations merged to form The American Lutheran Church.  The Buffalo Synod had formed in 1845.  The Iowa Synod had broken away from the Missouri Synod in 1854.  And the Joint Synod of Ohio and Other States had broken away from the Ministerium of Pennsylvania and Other States in 1818 ahead of the creation of the General Synod in 1820.  The American Lutheran Church was an ecumenically active denomination more conservative than The United Lutheran Church in America and more liberal than the Missouri Synod.

The Buffalo Synod used German liturgies initially.  Its first English-language hymnal and service book, produced with the Joint Synod of Ohio and Other States, was The Evangelical Lutheran Hymnal (1880) (http://archive.org/details/evangelicalluthe00evan).  The Sunday morning service in the 1880 edition resembled that of the Southern Book of Worship, but the same sort of material in the 1908 version (http://archive.org/details/evangelicalluthe08van) looked very much like the Pennsylvania Liturgy of 1860 (http://archive.org/details/liturgyforuseofe00np).  The Evangelical Lutheran Hymnal also offered various forms for evening worship and provided an afternoon service.

The Iowa Synod published the Wartburg Hymnal for Church, School, and Home (1918) (http://archive.org/details/wartburghymnalfo00hard).  The Common Service formed the basis for the Communion and the Vespers liturgies there.

The American Lutheran Hymnal (1930), less stately and artsy than the Common Service Book (which came with calligraphy on some pages) offered fewer services than the CSB yet duplicated much material (such as the Common Service) from it.  Other liturgical material came from the 1908 and 1918 hymnals.

The American Lutheran Church (1930-1960) merged into The American Lutheran Church (TALC) in 1960.  TALC, in turn, helped to form the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) in 1987.

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IV.  CONCLUSION

The three main predecessor bodies of The United Lutheran Church in America had prepared the Common Service.  They had been using it for decades when the Common Service Book (1917) debuted.  Adoption of the Common Service in the denominations which formed The American Lutheran Church in 1930 was gradual, however.  Immigrant patterns were giving way to a dominant American liturgy.

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KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JULY 17, 2013 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF BENNETT J. SIMS, EPISCOPAL BISHOP OF ATLANTA

THE FEAST OF THE MARTYRS OF COMPEIGNE

THE FEAST OF THE RIGHTEOUS GENTILES

THE FEAST OF WALTER CRONKITE, JOURNALIST

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

As much as possible I prefer to work with primary sources, although secondary sources frequently prove invaluable in making the best sense of those primary sources.  And I prefer to work with actual bound volumes as much as possible.  For this post, however, some of my sources has been electronic, and I have provided links to them.  So I consider those linked ones cited properly.  I did find certain bound volumes invaluable.  Those credits follow:

Common Service Book of the Lutheran Church.  Philadelphia, PA:  The Board of Publication of The United Lutheran Church in America, 1917, 1918.

Lutheran Intersynodical Hymnal Committee.  American Lutheran Hymnal.  Music Edition.  Columbus, OH:  The Lutheran Book Concern, 1930.

Pfatteicher, Philip H., and Carlos R. Messerli.  Manual on the Liturgy:  Lutheran Book of Worship.  Minneapolis, MN:  Augsburg Publishing House, 1979.

Reed, Luther D.  The Lutheran Liturgy:  A Study in the Common Service of the Lutheran Church in America.  Philadelphia, PA:  Muhlenberg Press, 1947.

__________.  The Lutheran Liturgy:  A Study in the Common Liturgy of the Lutheran Church in America.  2d. Ed.  Philadelphia, PA:  Fortress Press, 1959.

Stulken, Marilyn Kay.  Hymnal Companion to the Lutheran Book of Worship.  Philadelphia, PA:  Fortress Press, 1981.

Wentz, Abdel Ross.  The Lutheran Church in American History.  2d. Ed.  Philadelphia, PA:  The United Lutheran Publication House, 1933.

KRT

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Above:  St. John’s Lutheran Church, Charleston, South Carolina

Image Created by the Historic American Buildings Survey

Image Source = Library of Congress

(http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/sc0169.photos.148684p/)

Reproduction Number = HABS SC,10-CHAR,42–11

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U.S. LUTHERAN LITURGY, PART II

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We would gladly behold the day when the One, Holy, Catholic, Christian Church shall use one Order of Service, and unite in one Confession of Faith.

–From the Preface to the Common Service (1888); Quoted in Common Service Book of the Lutheran Church (1917), page 308

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I.  INTRODUCTION

In U.S. Lutheran Liturgy, Part I (https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2013/07/14/muhlenbergs-dream-the-road-to-the-common-service-1748-1888/), I wrote about the process which culminated in the unveiling of the Common Service in 1888.  I chose not to write about that liturgy because I had already entered twenty-four pages of writing from a composition book and I perceived that starting this post with such analysis would be better from the perspective of readers.  Thus I will do so.  And since, during my continuing process of writing about the period of adoption of the Common Service has become so verbose and detailed, I have decided to devote one post to the Common Service itself.

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II.  THE COMMON SERVICE

The Common Service (1888), as contained in the General Synod’s Church Book (1891) (http://archive.org/details/churchbookforus00gene) and the United Synod of the South’s Book of Worship (1888) (http://archive.org/details/bookofworshi00unit), for example, sets forth an order of Sunday morning worship.  Before the worship service proper begins there is the INVOCATION, followed by the CONFESSION OF SINS and the ABSOLUTION.  The Invocation is a Lutheran feature of liturgy.  It is neither historically Anglican or Roman Catholic, although the text of the Invocation:

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and the Holy Ghost.  Amen.

is historic to both of those duly revered communions.

Then the service proper begins.  The order of worship follows:

• INVOCATION
• GLORIA PATRI
• KYRIE
• GLORIA IN EXCELSIS
• SALUTATION
• COLLECT OF THE DAY
• EPISTLE READING
• GRADUAL (CHORAL)
• GOSPEL READING
• NICENE CREED OR APOSTLES’ CREED.

The Church is “Christian,” not “Catholic,” in the Creeds here, although Luther D. Reed, in The Lutheran Liturgy (1947), page 285, mentions that the Church is “Catholic” in Lutheran liturgies from France, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark.

Then follow:

• HYMN
• SERMON
• OFFERTORY
• OFFERING
• GENERAL PRAYER
• LORD’S PRAYER (Except on a Communion Sunday)
• HYMN
• COMMUNION (When celebrated)
• BENEDICTION.

The order of Communion follows:

• PREFACE
• SANCTUS

The CANON, or EUCHARISTIC PRAYER, or in Lutheran terminology, the PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING, is notably absent, for Martin Luther had removed it from the Lutheran Communion service in the 1500s.  There were at least three reasons for this:

1. Luther opposed the doctrine of Transubstantiation.
2. Thus he wanted to emphasize the reception of the elements, not the transformation thereof.
3. He wanted to emphasize the actions of God, not the words of people.

Liturgically the absence of the Prayer of Thanksgiving is awkward.  The Service Book and Hymnal (1958) restored this part of the liturgy.  Most subsequent U.S. Lutheran service books have followed suit.  Even the ultra-conservative Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod did so in 2008.

The Communion rite continues:

• WORDS OF INSTITUTION
• PEACE
• AGNUS DEI
• NUNC DIMITTIS
• THANKSGIVING
• BENEDICTION (Aaronic Blessing).

The Common Service also encompasses Matins and Vespers, services included in the earliest European Lutheran service books yet lost after the Thirty Years’ War (ended in 1648).

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III.  CONCLUSION

Liturgy is an extension of theology.  When theology is more responsive than reactive, more considered than reflexive, and more affirmative than negative, the resulting liturgy is better.  How can it be otherwise?

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KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JULY 17, 2013 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF BENNETT J. SIMS, EPISCOPAL BISHOP OF ATLANTA

THE FEAST OF THE MARTYRS OF COMPEIGNE

THE FEAST OF THE RIGHTEOUS GENTILES

THE FEAST OF WALTER CRONKITE, JOURNALIST

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

As much as possible I prefer to work with primary sources, although secondary sources frequently prove invaluable in making the best sense of those primary sources.  And I prefer to work with actual bound volumes as much as possible.  For this post, however, some of my sources has been electronic, and I have provided links to them.  So I consider those linked ones cited properly.  I did find certain bound volumes invaluable.  Those credits follow:

Ambassador Hymnal for Lutheran Worship.  Minneapolis, MN:  Association of Free Lutheran Congregations, 1994.

Christian Worship:  A Lutheran Hymnal.  Milwaukee, WI:  Northwestern Publishing House, 1993.

Commission on the Liturgy and Hymnal, The.  Service Book and Hymnal.  Music Edition.  Philadelphia, PA:  United Lutheran Publication House, 1958.

Common Service Book of the Lutheran Church.  Philadelphia, PA:  The Board of Publication of The United Lutheran Church in America, 1917, 1918.

Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary.  St. Louis, MO:  MorningStar Music Publishers, Inc., 1996.

Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference of North America, The.  The Lutheran Hymnal.  St. Louis, MO:  Concordia Publishing House, 1941.

Evangelical Lutheran Worship.  Minneapolis, MN:  Augsburg Fortress, 2006.

Hymnal and Order of Service, The.  Lectionary Edition.  Rock Island, IL:  Augustana Book Concern, 1925.

Hymnal Supplement 98.  St. Louis, MO:  Concordia Publishing House, 1998.

Inter-Lutheran Commission on Worship.  Lutheran Book of Worship.  Pew Edition.  Philadelphia, PA:  Board of Publication, Lutheran Church in America, 1978.

Lutheran Hymnary Including the Symbols of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, The.  Minneapolis, MN:  Augsburg Publishing House, 1935.

Lutheran Intersynodical Hymnal Committee.  American Lutheran Hymnal.  Music Edition.  Columbus, OH:  The Lutheran Book Concern, 1930.

Lutheran Service Book.  St. Louis, MO:  Concordia Publishing House, 2006.

Lutheran Worship.  St. Louis, MO:  Concordia Publishing House, 1982.

Pfatteicher, Phiip H.  Commentary on the Lutheran Book of Worship:  Lutheran Liturgy in Its Ecumenical Context.  Minneapolis, MN:  Augsburg Fortress, 1990.

Pfatteicher, Philip H., and Carlos R. Messerli.  Manual on the Liturgy:  Lutheran Book of Worship.  Minneapolis, MN:  Augsburg Publishing House, 1979.

Reed, Luther D.  The Lutheran Liturgy:  A Study in the Common Service of the Lutheran Church in America.  Philadelphia, PA:  Muhlenberg Press, 1947.

__________.  The Lutheran Liturgy:  A Study in the Common Liturgy of the Lutheran Church in America.  2d. Ed.  Philadelphia, PA:  Fortress Press, 1959.

Stulken, Marilyn Kay.  Hymnal Companion to the Lutheran Book of Worship.  Philadelphia, PA:  Fortress Press, 1981.

Wentz, Abdel Ross.  The Lutheran Church in American History.  2d. Ed.  Philadelphia, PA:  The United Lutheran Publication House, 1933.

With One Voice:  A Lutheran Resource for Worship.  Minneapolis, MN:  Augsburg Fortress, 1995.

I also found some PDFs helpful:

Christian Worship:  Supplement Introductory Resources.  Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, 2008.

DeGarmeaux, Bruce.  “O Come, Let Us Worship!  A Study of Lutheran Liturgy and Hymnody.”  1995.

KRT

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