"We Need New Ways to Worship"

"We Need New Ways to Worship"

As much as I love liturgy, it still reflects the pyramid structure of the Church. It suggests an official religious experience, from the pulpit to the people. There isn’t much chance for the community to feed on itself, to enrich and nurture itself. The priest’s religious experience becomes the only source. One result of this narrow sense of liturgy is a very limited view of the Scriptures. It is a celibate, male, clerical, sometimes academic reading of the Scriptures.

Part of the reason New Jerusalem Community grew strong is that we had formats for worshiping and praying other than priest-led liturgy. I think the Church of the future is going to have to discover these formats. You see the power of other prayer gatherings, for instance, in the communidades de base, or base communities, which began in Latin America. They have sharing of lay religious experience. They ask, What is Jesus saying to us through the Scriptures and our daily lives? There is an opportunity to share faith experiences. It’s non-academic; it’s non-male; it’s non-clerical. It’s much more homey and folksy; it’s much more alive, even if it’s also harder to control. But that shouldn’t be our main concern, should it?

from U.S. Catholic, “Recipes of a Gourmet Pray-er”