Program / Course 21: Liturgical Theology / Lesson 1.1
What you will learn
- Define liturgy and explain where the Greek word leitourgia comes from.
- Describe how Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, Lutheran, Reformed and free-church Christians use the word.
- Explain why Christians say that liturgy is public and shared, not only private.
- State what a person praying alone can and cannot do within the church’s liturgy.
The big idea
Liturgy is the church’s ordered public worship of God. The word comes from a Greek term for a public service done on behalf of others. In Catholic and Orthodox use it names the Eucharist and the church’s set prayers. Many Protestants use it for any ordered pattern of worship, and some free churches avoid the word while keeping a regular pattern. All the major traditions agree on one point: Christian worship is something a person joins, not something a person invents alone.
Key terms
- Liturgy
- The public, ordered worship of the church. In some traditions the word means chiefly the Eucharist; in others it means any set order of service.
- Leitourgia
- The Greek word behind liturgy. In ancient Greek cities it meant a public service paid for or performed for the community. The Greek Old Testament used it for the service of priests in the temple.
- Eucharist
- The central act of worship in which Christians remember Christ’s death and resurrection with bread and wine. Other names are the Lord’s Supper, Holy Communion and the Mass.
- Order of service
- The planned sequence of prayers, readings, songs and actions in a gathering for worship.
- Rubric
- A direction in a service book, traditionally printed in red, that tells ministers what to do.
- Divine Office (Liturgy of the Hours)
- The daily prayer of the church at set hours, built chiefly on the Psalms. Catholic teaching treats it as the prayer of the whole church even when one person prays it alone.
- Regulative principle
- A Reformed teaching that public worship should include only what Scripture commands or clearly supports.
Background
In ancient Athens a leitourgia was a public duty. A wealthy citizen might be required to pay for a chorus at a festival or to equip a warship. The word joined laos, meaning people, with ergon, meaning work. It is often explained as the work of the people. Many scholars point out that this is a simplification: the word usually meant a service done for the people, often by a few on behalf of all. Both senses show up in later Christian use.
The Greek translation of the Old Testament, made before the time of Jesus, used the word for the service of priests and Levites in the tabernacle and temple (Numbers 8:22 uses the related verb). The New Testament uses it for Zechariah’s temple service (Luke 1:23), for Christ’s priestly work (Hebrews 8:6) and for the believers at Antioch who “ministered to the Lord” (Acts 13:2). Christians soon applied the term to their own public worship, and in the East it became the ordinary name for the Eucharist.
The traditions still use the word differently. This lesson describes each as its members would, and then asks what they share.
Step-by-step explanation
Step 1: The Catholic use
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (paragraphs 1069 to 1071) explains liturgy as the participation of the people of God in the work of God, and as the work of Christ, the head, together with his body, the church. The Mass is its highest form, and the other sacraments, the Divine Office and the church year surround it. Catholic teaching also holds that liturgy is not the whole of the Christian life, and it speaks of private prayer and popular devotions as having a real but different place.
Step 2: The Orthodox use
In the Orthodox Church the Liturgy usually means the Divine Liturgy, the Eucharist celebrated on Sundays and feast days, most often in the form attributed to John Chrysostom. Orthodox writers such as Alexander Schmemann describe it as an entrance into the kingdom of God and an ascent to the heavenly worship, in which the whole creation is offered back to God. The daily cycle of services, the feasts and the fasts belong to the same reality.
Step 3: Anglican, Lutheran and Reformed uses
Anglicans worship by set forms gathered in the Book of Common Prayer and later service books. Lutherans kept the historic order of the Mass in revised form, and many Lutheran churches today speak of the Divine Service. The Reformed churches began from a strict view: Calvin and later the Westminster standards taught that worship must be governed by Scripture, which led to simpler services built around preaching, psalms, prayer and the sacraments. Reformed congregations often still follow a fixed order, even where they do not use the word liturgy for it.
Step 4: Free-church and other uses
Baptist, Pentecostal, Methodist and many non-denominational congregations often avoid set forms and speak of worship services instead. Yet most still keep a pattern: welcome, songs, Scripture, preaching, offering, prayer and, at set times, baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Scholars of worship therefore often say that every congregation has a liturgy, whether written or not. Some free-church Christians reply that the word suggests a fixed script, and that freedom to follow the Spirit is part of their conviction. The disagreement is real and it is about how worship should be guided, not about whether it should be reverent.
Step 5: What one person can and cannot do alone
A person can pray, read Scripture, sing, use the Psalms and keep the church year at home. A person can pray the Divine Office alone, and Catholic teaching counts that as joining the prayer of the church. What a person cannot do alone is celebrate the Eucharist, receive absolution as the churches understand it, or perform baptism in the ordinary way. These acts, in the Catholic, Orthodox and many Protestant understandings, need an assembly and a recognized minister. Protestant traditions differ on who may preside, but nearly all agree that the Lord’s Supper is a gathering of the church and not a solo rite.
- Does this act of worship belong to a gathered community, or to me alone?
- Who is acting here: the people, a minister, or Christ through the church?
- Is the pattern I follow written down, handed on, or invented for this occasion?
- What does this practice assume about how God is present?
- Which parts of what I do would change if I were praying at home instead of in church?
- What would a member of another tradition find missing or excessive here, and what would their reasons be?
Examples
Morning prayer alone
A woman reads Psalm 95, the Lord’s Prayer and a short Scripture reading in her kitchen each morning. She is doing real prayer. In Catholic and Anglican understanding, if she uses the church’s official prayer book for that day, she also joins a prayer that others are praying at the same time. (A constructed example.)
A Sunday with a printed order
A Lutheran congregation opens with a confession of sins, hears readings, sings, hears a sermon, confesses the creed and receives communion. Everyone has a booklet that shows each step. The pastor leads, but the congregation speaks and sings its parts. (A constructed example.)
A service with no booklet
A Baptist church has no printed liturgy, but each Sunday follows a similar shape: songs, a welcome, Scripture, a sermon, an invitation and prayer. Members would say they are following Scripture and the Spirit. A scholar might say the shape is a liturgy anyway. (A constructed example.)
Different perspectives
Catholic
Liturgy is the public worship of Christ’s body, the church, and the Eucharist is its summit and source. It is regulated by the church so that it expresses the faith of the whole church and not of one minister.
Orthodox
The Divine Liturgy is a participation in the worship of heaven. Its forms are received from the fathers and are not freely changed, because they carry the church’s faith and experience.
Anglican and Lutheran
Both kept historic forms of worship and revised them in the sixteenth century in the light of Scripture. They hold that ordered worship is helpful and fitting, though neither claims that one form is commanded for all times and places.
Reformed
Worship must be guided by Scripture, which leads to simplicity and a high place for the preached word, psalms and prayer. Reformed Christians argue that human additions to worship risk displacing what God has commanded.
Free-church and Pentecostal
Worship should be led by the Spirit and open to the present moment. These churches value spontaneity and heartfelt participation, and they often fear that set forms can become lifeless. Many, however, keep a stable pattern.
Why it matters
Everything else in this course depends on the meaning of this word. A student who thinks that liturgy means only a script will misread free-church worship. A student who thinks that worship is private feeling will misread Catholic and Orthodox teaching. Starting with a fair definition allows each tradition to be described in its own terms, and it also makes clear which parts of worship a person can practice alone and which belong to the gathered church.
Common misunderstandings
Misunderstanding: Liturgy means a Catholic or Orthodox service.
Correction: The word is used by many traditions, and even churches that avoid it have a pattern of worship. Catholic and Orthodox usage is one important use, not the only one.
Misunderstanding: Leitourgia simply means work of the people.
Correction: That popular explanation has some truth, but ancient usage was more often a public service, sometimes done by a few for the many. Careful writers state both senses.
Misunderstanding: Set prayers cannot be sincere, and spontaneous prayers cannot be disciplined.
Correction: Neither claim holds. Set forms can carry deep devotion, and extemporaneous worship can follow a careful pattern. The question is how worship is guided, not whether feeling is present.
Misunderstanding: Praying at home is the same as taking part in the church’s liturgy.
Correction: Home prayer is real and valued by every tradition. But the churches teach that the Eucharist and other sacramental acts belong to the gathered church, so private prayer does not replace them.
Knowledge check
Where does the word liturgy come from, and what did it first mean?
It comes from the Greek leitourgia, built from words for people and work. In ancient Greek cities it named a public service performed for the community. The Greek Old Testament used it for the service of priests, and Christians applied it to their public worship.
How do Orthodox and Reformed Christians differ in how they think worship should be guided?
Orthodox Christians receive the forms of the Divine Liturgy from the fathers and hold them as handed down. Reformed Christians hold that worship must be governed by what Scripture commands or clearly supports. Both want faithful worship but locate authority differently.
Do free churches have a liturgy?
Many scholars say yes, since nearly every congregation follows a regular pattern. Many free-church members prefer not to use the word because it suggests a fixed script. The disagreement is partly about vocabulary and partly about conviction.
Name one thing a person can do alone and one thing the churches say needs a community.
A person can pray the Psalms, read Scripture and keep the church year at home. Celebrating the Eucharist needs a gathered church and a recognized minister in the Catholic, Orthodox and many Protestant understandings.
Think it through
- Which definition of liturgy fits the worship you know best, and which does not?
- What is gained and what is lost when worship follows a written order?
- Which parts of your own prayer life would you call liturgical, even if you never used the word?
- How might someone from another tradition describe your tradition’s worship unfairly, and how would you correct them?
Independent assignment
Describe one service in three ways
In your own notebook, write 400 to 600 words. Choose one service of worship, whether you have attended it or read its description. First describe it in neutral terms: its parts and their order. Then describe how its own tradition explains its meaning. Then list two questions that someone from a different tradition might ask about it. Note what you can practice alone from it and what needs a gathered church. Do not send this to anyone.
Further study
- Catholic Church, Catechism of the Catholic Church Read the opening of Part Two on the celebration of the Christian mystery, especially the paragraphs on the meaning of liturgy.
- Alexander Schmemann, For the Life of the World An Orthodox account of worship as the center of Christian life.
- Westminster Assembly, The Westminster Confession of Faith Read the chapter on religious worship for the Reformed principle that worship follows Scripture.
- Timothy (Kallistos) Ware, The Orthodox Church Read the section on Orthodox worship for a plain description of the Liturgy.
- Acts 13:2 Believers at Antioch minister to the Lord.
- Hebrews 8:6 Christ’s ministry described with the same Greek word.
- Acts 2:42 The first believers continue in teaching, fellowship, bread and prayers.