Radical Common Prayer
Tue, 11/02/2010 - 17:35 — Sean CarneySince they are incapable of not having a project on the go, Jonathon Wilson Hartgrove, Shane Claiborne and Enuma Okoro have authored Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals. While I find this project very interesting, it also raises some questions in my mind.
The idea of a book of common prayer is nothing new, and many books have been published advocating an everyday liturgy. Do we really need to brand this with the word 'radical' in order to sell it? I am all for radical-ness; however, it is merely one of many buzzwords used in Christian advertising. Radical should be a concept, not a brand.
Now, knowing what Jonathon Wilson Hartgrove has to say, this book will certainly contain passages that will be radical. I just wish that people would be able to approach a book like this one without a re-branding and marketing campaign.
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Comments
I'm not finding it radical. I
I'm not finding it radical. I am disappointed, though, that each day's benediction is identical; that seems rather lame or lazy, and definitely boring. Benedictions can be so great, and were often my favorite part of a worship gathering.
Benedictions
I attend a church where we either speak or sing the collect for purity at the beginning of each service. While some people may find this tiresome and/or repetitive, each time I say/sing the collect I am really drawn into the words. It really depends on what you respond to. Some people, such as myself, find a deep comfort in the liturgy.
I think something will always be lost when you try to distill such a rich and deep tradition into a series of brief daily offices. While this book falls short of the 'canonical' book of common prayer, this was certainly a good attempt.
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