Sign up to participate in the projects of the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music

The Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music (SCLM) is seeking input on two of their initiatives, and you can sign up to participate.

One of the initiatives is the trial use of Holy Women, Holy Men. You can receive daily emails with the commemorations - one way to help with the trial use. From their website: "Holy Women, Holy Men is a major revision of Lesser Feasts and Fasts, the official worship book which includes biographies of saints who are commemorated in the calendar of The Episcopal Church, along with the collects (prayers) and scripture readings appointed for worship on these feasts. Over 100 new commemorations were approved at the 2009 General Convention. Nine years in the making, the new volume offers a fuller representation of the diversity of the Episcopal Church as well as a broader ecumenical and international mix of commemorations. While a significant number are from the most recent centuries, the additions include saints from every period of church history. In addition, the convention added a third reading for each commemoration already on the calendar, so that each feast now has an Old Testament reading, a non-Gospel reading from the New Testament, and a Gospel reading.

The 2009 General Convention called for trial use of these commemorations, giving opportunity to pray with this new material before a final decision about whether to add each commemoration to the calendar of The Book of Common Prayer. We invite you to join us in this prayer each day, whether by worshiping with a congregation or by including the commemoration in your personal devotion. Then tell us about your experience. How did this person’s life witness to the Gospel? How does this person inspire us in Christian life today? How well does the collect gather the prayers of the assembly and pray about the significance of the person? How well do these lessons speak to the life of this saint?"

The other project the SCLM has been charged with by General Convention is carrying out Resolution C056, which directed the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music to collect and develop theological and liturgical resources for blessing same-sex relationships. Again from their website: "The Commission has formed several task groups to help it with this work:

• theological resources
• liturgical resources
• pastoral and teaching resources

to assist congregations who are considering whether to host such blessings, and to assist clergy preparing couples for a liturgical blessing. We invite your participation in this dialogue about blessing same-sex relationships. Your responses and observations here will help inform the work of the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music in our work of developing theological and liturgical resources for such blessings. We hope that this conversation will also be a way to renew and enliven a shared vision of the church’s mission in the world."

Find links to both these initiatives here.