Antiphonal Worship

Back when we were discussing purchasing chairs for our sanctuary seating, one of the things we considered was the flexibility chairs would offer in the way we set up our worship space. Since we’ve adopted them, and set them out, we’ve mostly left them set up in same semi-circular fashion. This approach really conveys the fact we are a community of brothers and sisters who gather together to worship God. It’s a great structure and it reminds us that we are a group of people who share something precious together.

But that is not the only way we can arrange the chairs, and it's not the only ethos (“feel”) we can strive to reenforce with the arrangement of our seating. As I’ve mentioned before, for the majority of church history there wasn’t seating in any church—with the possible exception of a chair for the presiding pastor…who, frankly, hardly ever sat anyway. The only other exception was a ledge or bench along the wall for the elderly and infirm who could not realistically stand throughout a whole service (which generally lasted a couple hours).

The first addition of seating for anyone other than the presider, were chairs set up facing each other, which were generally reserved for monastic persons (male and/or female). They were not given these seats as an honor, but rather to aid them as they chanted large portions of the liturgy, the psalms, and sang other music. This arrangement created a different air of community. As the monks faced each other they sang different parts of growingly complicated musical arrangements. They needed to face each other (rather than be standing in various/unspecified locations in the building) so they could see and hear each other better. They needed this so they could weave together the more complex musical arrangements that were being sung in worship.

I suggested to the Worship Committee that we take the 5 weeks from Sept 21 through Oct 19—the final portion of the Pentecost Season—and give this different give this arrangement a try. They have agreed. So I’ve crafted a liturgy (focused on giving thanks, the theme of this short period) which has a lot of antiphonal call and response. So in addition to me (P), and the Assisting Minister (AM) leading our liturgy and everyone responding together (C), we will also have several responses marked R and L denoting the right side of the sanctuary (as you walk in) and the left side. Eric is also planning on selecting some music which can be naturally divided up between the right and the left.

There is more than one way to be community together. We’ve been celebrating community in unison—gathered to do the same thing at the same time. And that is community.

But there is also community in harmony—where some are doing one thing and others are doing something else, and it all fits together to make something beautiful. It takes a bit more work, and I don’t plan to have us do it all the time, but for 5 weeks we’re going to incarnate a more complex community of interplay, blessing each other with God’s Word and in song.

And so we’ll gather between God’s Word (the lectern) and God’s Table, as his children, and worship him in harmony with one another, speaking and receiving God’s Word back and forth between us. May God bless us as we all take on the role of blessing each other in Jesus’s name!

Peace!

Pastor Derek