Local Preachers and The Liturgy
Compared to lay people in some other denominations, Methodist local preachers are accorded significant authority over the progress of a service, for which they are seen as having overall responsibility, rather than just delivering the sermon. A local preacher may, at his or her discretion, do a number of different things:
- modify the order of service
- omit or include any part of the order of service
- determine which Bible readings are to be included, which may - but need not - be selected from those defined in the lectionary
- involve other people in the preparation and leading of the worship
Increasingly, in British Methodism, Local Preachers accept guidance from the churches to which they go, for example in regular or seasonal local elements of liturgy, or in using those nominated in a rota of readers or prayer leaders. A relatively recent development is the appointment of Worship Leaders who are members of the local church and authorised to share in the leading of worship there. All preachers and worship leaders are offered additional resources for shaping worship and preaching by their own charity, the Leaders of Worship & Preachers' Trust (LWPT) which publishes a quarterly journal (Ichthus) and has its own website.
Read more about this topic: Methodist Local Preacher
Famous quotes containing the words local, preachers and/or liturgy:
“Resorts advertised for waitresses, specifying that they “must appear in short clothes or no engagement.” Below a Gospel Guide column headed, “Where our Local Divines Will Hang Out Tomorrow,” was an account of spirited gun play at the Bon Ton. In Jeff Winney’s California Concert Hall, patrons “bucked the tiger” under the watchful eye of Kitty Crawhurst, popular “lady” gambler.”
—Administration in the State of Colo, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“Every accent, every emphasis, every modulation of voice, was so perfectly well turned and well placed, that, without being interested in the subject, one could not help being pleased with the discourse; a pleasure of much the same kind with that received from an excellent piece of music. This is an advantage itinerant preachers have over those who are stationary, as the latter can not well improve their delivery of a sermon by so many rehearsals.”
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790)
“You never see animals going through the absurd and often horrible fooleries of magic and religion.... Dogs do not ritually urinate in the hope of persuading heaven to do the same and send down rain. Asses do not bray a liturgy to cloudless skies. Nor do cats attempt, by abstinence from cat’s meat, to wheedle the feline spirits into benevolence. Only man behaves with such gratuitous folly. It is the price he has to pay for being intelligent but not, as yet, quite intelligent enough.”
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)