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The liturgy was beautiful and quite moving. This time, however, I was the one who had trouble keeping up. The bulletin was crowded, difficult to read, and did not provide appropriate page numbers to guide me through the Prayer Book. There were no verbal or written signals indicating when the congregation was to stand, to kneel, or to sit.

Nor were there any indications given to visitors—especially non-Episcopalian visitors like myself—as to whether or not we were welcome at the communion table. As a result, I ended up muddling my way through most of the service. Taken together, both of these incidents reveal some assumptions that we often make in planning and conducting public worship, assumptions I believe work against the hospitality we say we desire.

These assumptions are usually unstated and unacknowledged, and are for the most part largely unconscious. Yet they can influence the reaction visitors have to our worship in ways we are often totally unaware of. Assumption 1: All those who come to worship are similarly abled and have similar social skills. Many of the newer worship practices being adopted by Protestants today—from Palm Sunday processions to Advent candle readings—reveal this assumption.

We assume that worshipers and would-be worshipers as well can hear. We assume that they can see.

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We assume that they can speak. Unless we see wheelchairs or crutches, we assume that everyone can stand and walk easily. We also assume that everyone can sit quietly and concentrate for relatively long periods of time. These assumptions simply are not true. Many people—and not just the elderly—have hearing problems that are not immediately discernable. Many indeed most children have short attention spans. Many folks aid their mobility in various ways: crutches, walking casts, wheelchairs, walkers, canes and so on. Others may use their feet but move slowly.


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Yet, by assuming that everyone interested in coming to worship is similarly abled, we give the unintended message that such people are not really welcome at our services. When children come to worship, for example, we are often at a loss as to what to do with their energy.

When we have visitors like those I mentioned earlier from the state facility, we are often either unprepared for their presence or we overcompensate and condescend to them. Neither reaction is appropriate and neither makes them feel welcome. This is not true either. A surprising number of adults in North America the statistic quoted most often is one out of five are functionally illiterate—in other words, they don't have the basic reading skills needed to get by in their day-to-day existence.

Still others either read at levels below those of most church bulletins or have eye problems that make reading difficult. Yet in most of our church services we still assume that everyone reads equally well. We cover the bulletin boards in our narthexes with words. We fill the banners in our sanctuaries with words. We fill our. Sunday bulletins with words. Sometimes we even cover the communion table itself with words. The intention, of course, is to communicate, to draw people into the worship experience. However, such wordy efforts can often have the opposite effect on those who find reading difficult.

The typewritten bulletins, the pile of books in the pew racks, the long responsive readings, can all give the unintended message that such persons are "different," that they are not expected in worship, and that they do not "fit in" when they do come to worship. Assumption 3: Everyone who attends our services is equally familiar with the liturgical traditions of the church. Most of us assume as did the Episcopal church I visited that Easter Sunday that all our worshipers know what to do and when to do it. We presume that they understand why we do what we do.


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  • We use words like lectionary, pascal mystery, doxology, Advent, and Pentecost and assume that everyone knows what we mean. We also use a sometimes dizzying array of colors and symbols, rituals and ceremonies, and we believe that everyone knows their significance. These assumptions are also not true. Some people we worship with, for instance, may have recently joined our congregation and may still be unfamiliar with much of our liturgy and tradition. Others may have grown up in a church without a "liturgical" tradition.

    If they were originally Baptist, Pentecostal, or even Presbyterian, the tradition they grew up with may have been deliberately "anti-liturgical. Consequently, a surprising number of the people sitting in our pews and most of our visitors are not as familiar with our traditional liturgy as we might like to think. Many are not acquainted with even such simple liturgical practices as the singing of responses or the recitation of the Creed.

    The Bylaws of the Synod provide for a status called "restricted status.

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    This is imposed upon them by their district president to provide time to work through some things, such as personal problems. During the time a CRM pastor is on restricted status, he is not available for a call. The pastor may request removal of restricted status, for which the Synod has provided an appeal process in its Bylaws. When a congregation considers a call list that includes the names of pastors that are currently CRM, it should consider the names of CRM pastors with the same care and prayer with which it considers the other names on the list.

    Of course there will be interest in knowing why a pastor is currently without a call CRM. It may even be that he has resigned his call from his most recent parish.

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    It is of course quite possible that the cause behind his resignation lays with circumstances in the congregation rather than any concerns or shortcomings on his part. In any case, his district president by granting to him CRM status is saying that this pastor is fit for the ministry and may be considered a candidate to receive consideration and a call. Unfortunately, CRM status is at times associated with trouble. This is not a correct general association for reasons already given. As a matter of fact, a congregation that passes quickly over pastors on a call list that are on CRM status are doing an injustice to those pastors and to themselves.

    Many such pastors come from very positive past call situations. They are inactive and therefore advisory members with all the rights, privileges, and responsibilities of advisory membership in the Synod. They must be communicant members in good standing of a congregation of the Synod.

    An exception to the age limit is made for pastors who are totally and permanently disabled. Most often, pastors emeritus are merely retired pastors who have requested and have been granted emeritus status. Is there a biblical reference, or is it a man-made concept? ANSWER: Article 14 of the Augsburg Confession one of the formal Lutheran Confessional writings says, "It is taught among us that no one should publicly teach or preach or administer the Sacraments in the church without a regular call.

    The specific process by which a congregation extends a call to a pastor is not set forth in the Scriptures, and so this process may vary from time to time and place to place. In the interest of doing things "decently and in order" 1 Cor. Women are allowed to hold other offices in the church, as long as these offices do not involve the one holding them in carrying out the distinctive functions of the pastoral office.

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    At its convention, the Synod adopted Resolution A affirming the conclusions of this report. Nearly half — more than 9, — of the Synod's professional, full-time church workers are women serving in such offices as teacher, deaconess, director of Christian education, etc. And where should the flags be placed? This is, ultimately, an adiaphoron — i. We do have, however, a history and background to be considered in whether or not to display flags in the sanctuary, as well as the message that displaying such flags might convey.

    William Schmelder — a seasoned parish pastor, historian and professor emeritus of Concordia Seminary, St. In the history of my home congregation Immanuel, Bristol, Conn.

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    There was a flag on the grounds between the church and the school, and it was raised and lowered with considerable ceremony when school was in session.