Six Layers of Liturgy

The word "liturgy" can mean several different but related things, depending on context.

  1. Cultural Liturgy. If liturgy is a community's habitual practice of certain rituals to impart meaning and instill desires, then liturgy is everywhere. It’s not just a church thing. Cultural liturgies attempt to shape our hearts and minds in much the same way that Christian worship does. The writings of James K. A. Smith explore this topic in detail. The secular world may not call them liturgies, but Christians recognize the patterns of religious worship when they see them.
  2. Religious Liturgy. Every Christian community has a worship liturgy. It’s not just a high church thing. The Baptist church to which I first belonged sang “Just as I Am” to conclude every Sunday service. They never would have described the ritual as "liturgical," but it was. If your church has a pattern of worship that it regularly follows, that’s its liturgical form. Shouting “Amen” during the sermon and praying, “I just want to thank you, Father, God” are just as much forms of liturgy as standing to sing "Alleluia" before the reading of the gospel.
  3. Written Liturgy. People commonly use the word “liturgy” to describe forms of worship that have written prayers and readings for the members of the congregation to recite, whether these forms are of recent or ancient vintage.
  4. Historic Liturgy. The Church, in its various forms, has inherited confessions, prayers, hymns, acts of praise and other modes of worship from earlier generations of Christians. Many of these forms have been in use for centuries, some for millennia.  These acts of worship represent the received faith, one that we share with Christians across the generations. Lex orandi, lex credendi. As we pray, so we believe.
  5. Official Liturgy. Liturgy can refer to the “the whole complex of official services, all the rites, ceremonies, prayers, and sacraments of the Church, as opposed to private devotions.” (Catholic Encyclopedia). For United Methodists, Bishop Scott Jones has written that our approved liturgy is one level of our church's official teaching.
  6. Eucharistic Liturgy. In Orthodox and other Eastern churches, the word "liturgy" refers only to the primary Eucharistic service of the church, the Divine Liturgy (Θεία Λειτουργία). Even Arabic-speaking Christians describe the Eucharist as al-liturgiah.

When I say that I like liturgical worship and think it's important for the life of the church, I mean layers 4-6. More on that tomorrow.

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