Prayer books - does your denomination use them?

[Saint Fool]

Doing research for a story idea.

I grew up Episcopalian at the time when the church was still using the Anglican Book of Common Prayer. (They did a revised version in the 1980s). So I know the Anglican and Episcopal churches use prayer books with different services in them - Morning/Evening Prayer, Holy Communion, various rites such as marriage, baptism, death, etc. etc.

I believe that the Roman Catholics missels are similar.

Even though I did my share of best-friend church visiting, and have attended weddings and funerals in many different churches, I really can't remember which ones had prayer books. (Although I'm pretty sure the Southern Baptists and Seventh Day Adventists didn't.)

Does your denomination use a formal prayer book? If not, did worshippers routinely bring a Bible to the service?

Thanks for any info you can give.

 

[Reilly616]

Here in Ireland we get a missel at mass. It's not a book, just a low quality scrap that gets thrown away at the end. It usually has nothing more than the words of the mass and possibly song lyrics if there are any being sung. Also, no, bringing a Bible to mass is not common... unless you're a nun

 

[Guffy]

church of Christ does not use them.

 

[Deb Kinnard]

Pentecostals don't use them, or even hymnals, now that there are computers, projection feeds and PowerPoint.

 

[Roger J Carlson]

As noted, Baptists in general (not just Southern Baptists) don't have prayer books. However, in the back of most Hymnals, there is a section of Responsive Readings where the leader and the people alternate reading passages out loud. (Bold text is for the leader, regular text is for the congregation). In some ways, this is similar to a formal prayer book.

Often these are used at baptisms or other formal occassions as well as in services. Their use is diminishing as the use of hymnals is. Contemporary services are taking over everywhere. It is important to note that "contemporary" services are very different from "traditional" services and some churches (like mine) do both.

When I was growing up, EVERYBODY brought a Bible to church, even though there were Bibles in every pew. That is also diminishing as projectors become the norm. However, many people still bring Bibles to church for adult Bible study classes (still called Sunday School in many cases).

 

[windyrdg]

For the record, the word is missal(s), not missel(s). From the Latin missalis...

A missel is a European thrush.

 

[Fade]

In my church (it's Greek Orthodox) there are prayer books in all the pews. And they're really detailed, too! There are detailed descriptions of services that only occur once a year... I can never find what I need, so normally I just follow along without the books.

Some of the worshippers bring Bibles to church, but there are Bibles in the pews, too.

They also hand out a packet that has the sermon and Bible reading printed out, along with a couple of prayers and weekly news. Everyone in my church likes things written down.

 

[Saint Fool]

But ... but ... PowerPoint is of the Devil!. I was looking for a tech blog post, but found this at a Christian blog. The original poster didn't have a problem with projected presentations, but there is much debate in the comments as to the pros and cons of using projections during worship services. Googling "Power Point Church" I got over a hundred pages with links to presentational programs, graphics for church projections, and church websites. I had no idea ... but when I do attend church, it's usually High Church Episcopal which is very traditional.

Roger, is it the music itself that defines "contemporary" (electric guitars/drums/got a good beat) and traditional (organ with choir, traditional hymns)? Or are the services themselves different in terms of tone/structure/etc.?

Thanks for all of the responses.

Now going off to write "missal" 1000 times.

 

[Yeshanu]

I'm a member of the United Church of Canada, which is probably no help since we don't exist in the US. We're the product of a union between the Canadian Methodists (there are no specifically Methodist churches in Canada any more), 2/3 of the Presbyterians (the rest remained Presbyterian), and the Congregationalists, which likewise don't exist separately any more.

We've never had a prayer book. However, even denominations without a specific prayer book that one finds in the pews may have a hidden one around somewhere...

Meaning that we have a book of services that ministers use to put the worship service together. It also has quite a few prayers for all occasions in it, and liturgies for regular and special occasion services. These prayers would be printed in the bulletin (for non-techie congregations) or projected on the wall (for the more technically able congregations). So after a while, if the minster doesn't have a lot of creativity or use a lot of outside resources, the services will start all sounding the same, just like they came out of a prayer book.

An interesting side note: I've been in a couple of congregations that use PowerPoint projectors, and a number that don't, and the defining characteristic isn't always age or type of service. It's how much natural light there is in the building at eleven in the morning. Some of the oldest churches are best for this, because they have blank walls, not fancy ones, and darkly stained, narrow windows. The most modern church I was in would never be able to effectively use PowerPoint during a morning service--one whole wall is lined with huge picture windows that overlook the Don Valley, and it's only dark enough to see a projected image at night!

 

[Roger J Carlson]

Roger, is it the music itself that defines "contemporary" (electric guitars/drums/got a good beat) and traditional (organ with choir, traditional hymns)? Or are the services themselves different in terms of tone/structure/etc.? .

No, it's not just the music, although that is a big part of it. The whole service is different. As you noted, there will be a band rather than an organ. Piano is still used, however. There will be a worship leader who has a "back-up group" of 3 or 4 that lead in "worship" songs (although I don't think they are any more worshipful than hymns). Everyone stands through all the songs. Of course, there are no hymnals. Everything is projected.

Wars have been fought in churches over the style of service. People who like the contemporary service think the traditional service is irrelavant. People who like the tradtional service think the contemporary is irreverant.

My church has both types of service and the only thing they have in common is the sermon.

I have a friend who attends the contemporary service while I attend the tradtional. We have a friendly rivalry about it. He calls the traditional service the "funeral service", and I call the contemporary service a "hootenanny'.

 

[Saint Fool]

. He calls the traditional service the "funeral service", and I call the contemporary service a "hootenanny'.

Great description.

Good point about wars and style of service. The beginning of the current debate/schism in the Episcopal church has its roots in the adaptation of the modern version of the Book of Common Prayer. Although there was a long transition period, some churches still left the Communion because they wanted to stay with the old services.

 

[Yeshanu]

Great description.

Good point about wars and style of service. The beginning of the current debate/schism in the Episcopal church has its roots in the adaptation of the modern version of the Book of Common Prayer. Although there was a long transition period, some churches still left the Communion because they wanted to stay with the old services.

*shakes head*

Our local Anglican Church has a typically Canadian adaptation to that controversy--the early service uses the BCP, the later one uses the newer adaptation.

Rather like Roger's congregation, which has different styles of worship for each service.

Me, I like both, and our current service at church is a blend, using some contemporary and some traditional elements. The people like both, as long as the music is good. We do have a very musical congregation, and our ministers have always been able to sing, and they can tell the difference between good and bad music of any style. The music director, her sister and her husband are also the nucleus of a professional country band, and that helps too.

As far as my family is concerned, I was surprised that my son (who was raised going to services in both traditions) prefers the traditional service and music. But then, he's a classically trained musician and English major.

 

[matdonna]

In my church (it's Greek Orthodox) there are prayer books in all the pews. And they're really detailed, too! There are detailed descriptions of services that only occur once a year... I can never find what I need, so normally I just follow along without the books.

Some of the worshippers bring Bibles to church, but there are Bibles in the pews, too.

They also hand out a packet that has the sermon and Bible reading printed out, along with a couple of prayers and weekly news. Everyone in my church likes things written down.

Hey, Fade, another Orthodox here (wave) Though not Greek, I'm with the OCA.

We have basically the same liturgy as Fade's church, but in our parish my husband (who is the priest) encourages people to go scriptless. We have little booklets for visitors, but most of our own people know the service backwards and forwards from long practice. A choir leads the responses, but everyone is expected to sing, and even first time visitors can catch on to "Lord have mercy" "Alleluia" and "Amen" without worrying about a book.

(P.S. we don't have any pews either.....)

I don't think most people bring a Bible, unless it's for the study time after lunch or after Saturday vespers.

 

[Alpha Echo]

No prayer books - I'm an "Assembly of God" church. We are very contemporary, which I prefer. But I grew up traditional, and loved it. But now that I'm used to contemporary, when I sat through my mother's very traditional church...I was bored out of my mind!

 

[Shamrockgreen]

No prayer book, non-denominational church.