The word liturgy is sometimes used as a synonym of worship. (The Holy Qurbana is called the Divine Liturgy in the Greek Orthodox church.) But here we use these words with different meanings. Worship is aaraadhana, which is an event at a specific time and place conducted by a specific group of people. Liturgy is aaraadhana kramam, a written order of worship prepared as a planning to conduct the worship. It consists of a set of prayers, hymns, scripture readings, and meditations chosen and arranged to suit the situations of worship. It is like a planning for a meeting. A master of ceremony conducts a meeting according to a program. Liturgy is the pre-planned program that tells what to do in worship, who may do it, how to do it, and when to do it. Liturgy is not essential for worship. But it can make worship orderly and more meaningful.
The word prayer is sometimes used as a synonym of worship. Prayer is done by an individual as well as by a group. But worship is done by a group. We usually don’t speak of an individual worshiping alone. Worship includes prayers, singing of hymns, reading and meditating scriptures, and performance of meaningful rituals.
The Origin and Development of Liturgy
Let us imagine a group of Christian students in a university that get together occasionally to worship. When they begin, they may worship without much planning. Slowly an order and pattern arises. Eventually they write down this order as a guidance for the succeeding generations. Thus they worship with the help of the written order. When the written order gets very important, the worship gets so much dependent on it.
As years pass by, new generations of students come, and their worship might become mechanical, and reciting the written order of worship might get equated to the worship itself. A reformation might happen in such a community, and then they might choose to revive worship by discarding the liturgy, the written order of worship. They might see the inherited liturgy as a burden, and they might prefer to worship without it. After worshiping for some time without any liturgy, eventually a liturgy develops and the cycle repeats.
Christian church began as a reformation movement within Judaism. Although it slowly developed its own liturgy, it was influenced by the liturgy of Judaism. Moreover, Judaism had its liturgy in Hebrew, but Christian church developed its liturgy in Greek and Aramaic, the living languages during the period. Later in western Europe developed the liturgy in Latin, and it continued in Latin for over ten centuries, even after the common people stopped using it in their daily life. Worship was equated to the priests reciting the liturgy in Latin, and the common people couldn’t understand it or participate in it meaningfully. That is when reformation happened under the leadership of Martin Luther. The reformed churches discarded the liturgy in Latin, and they made their liturgies in the living languages of Europe like German, English, and French.
After the Second Vatican Council in the 20th century, the Latin church of western Europe (The Roman Catholic church) began to develop liturgies in the living languages.
The church of Eastern Europe (Orthodox churches) began with the liturgy in Greek, but eventually when classical Greek was dead, they developed it in the various living languages such a Russian, Alexandrian, and Georgian. The church of Ethiopia developed its liturgy in their language. In Asia, they had their liturgy primarily in Aramaic, which later became known as Syriac.
In the 19th and 20th centuries, there were more reformation movements in the USA, giving birth to evangelical and other nondenominational churches. They began discarding the existing liturgies, and they have been slowly developing their own liturgies.
The Content of Liturgy
The content of liturgy may be broadly classified into verbal and nonverbal.
All Christian churches have almost the same kind of verbal content in their liturgy.
l Reading and exposition of the Holy Scriptures
l Singing hymns
l Praying
The nonverbal acts in worship such as making the sign of the cross, prostration, and giving the kiss of peace may vary from church to church.
Prayers and biblical expositions were written and included in the liturgy in such a way that the participants, when repeatedly use it, learn the basic aspects of the Christian faith. Thus in addition to providing a plan and structure to worship, liturgy also has an educational purpose.
Conclusion
The basic questions of worship are answered differently in a living community and in a dead one. A dead community sees only the form of worship; they don’t see the real spirit, the real purpose, of the worship. For a living community, worship is the real adoration rising from the depth of human hearts. The entire creation is the worshiping community, and the entire world is the place of worship. The particular place of worship, the people assigned to lead, and all the actions in worship are representational and symbolic. But for a dead community, worship is mere recitation of liturgy that rises from the lips, the priests are the ones who worship, and a temple/church is the only place of worship. Thus watching how a Christian community worships, we can find out if it is a living one or a dead one.
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