Week 36: Not a word writ formally down

Maximum number of words:	80,000
Words typed so far:	57,557
Words typed this week:	0
Words lost this week:	0
Total increase:	0
Days I managed to write this week:	2

Not much progress this week, actually there is two days, but there has been some serious analysis needing doing before I can write and I am afraid I have not been getting around to that, until today. The problem being that it is boring tedious routine stuff that always takes longer than you expect. Well it is more than that I had spent quite a bit of time thinking what I needed to do and drafting some of the words.

The thing is I have got onto the hymns, now in Reformed worship singing has been the most active (not necessarily most engaged) part of worship for the congregation, the rest of the time they are basically sitting quiet except for the Lord's prayer. Now I know you can be engaged quite potently with worship even when silent but your tend to be in what appears to be a passive role. The only time you actually seem to externally participate in worship as member of the congregation is when you sing hymns. Responses within the English Reformed tradition went out in seventeenth century and only started returning at the end of twentieth. They are still innovative and new as far as we are concerned just as much as guitars are.

As to taking communion regularly, well the normal view of congregations is proper preparation means in frequent communion, or really monthly is as frequently as most tolerate. John Calvin suggested that the least frequent acceptable was monthly until proper preparation could be made for the whole community to take it weekly. Unfortunately, as have all frequent communion Reformers since, he was overruled by the people (or more accurately the Burgher in his case) and had to do with quarterly, the frequency of Zwingli in Berne.

As to open prayer and such, that was discarded quite early with the view that the Holy Spirit really inspired the minister who had the time to spend on prayer and bible study that the normal church member did not. Not sure I agree with that one but that still seemed to be the view that developed.

So you have the hymns and the hymns are chosen in the first place by those leading worship. However I suspect that for a person to be comfy in a congregation they need to be singing words that fit with who they understand themselves to be. Obviously not every song, but the majority of songs and therefore the underlying tenor of the songs is going to be in tune with this.

Mind you as this takes such detailed analysis I am going to try writing about the sacraments next week and hopefully finish this analysis at the weekend.