The Eucharist of Beulah and Pearl Liturgy and Introduction

This particular introduction to the Eucharist and accompanying liturgy and cover art (by Scott Moore) was for Sunday February 2010 (not the night of the original recording), although for the most part all that need be changed for the particular date are the Scripture readings.

Introduction: the purpose, theology, inspiration and creation of the Eucharist

For too long Christians have been defining themselves by what they are against rather than what they are for. Although I believe this to be true in all realms of the Church’s life, it is specifically my belief in this regard regarding the unity—or lack thereof—of the Church catholic which has been the driving force behind “The Eucharist of Beulah and Pearl”. As an aside, it is important to note at this time the difference between “small c” catholic and “big c” Catholic. Big C “Catholic” is short for “Roman Catholic Church,” which is one Christian tradition among many, whereas small c “catholic” refers to the Christian Church as a whole. The word “catholic” implies not only who makes up the Church (i.e. the Church universal as “everyone who believes in Christ”) but the fundamental nature of the Church as “welcoming everyone”. When we neglect the small c catholic Church and define ourselves by what we are against, through our thoughts and actions we ultimately say “we are not them, and they are not us.” In so doing we make “the Church” neither inclusive of all believers, nor welcoming to all people. When we do this we achieve what even Jesus’ persecutors did not: we break the body of Christ.

On the other hand, when we define ourselves not by what we are against but by what we are for, the path to reconciliation and keeping the “bond of peace” opens before us. And as the Church catholic, what are we for? Namely, Christ.

I believe that the beginning step towards the unity of the Church catholic is discerning what is fundamental to the Christian faith—that which often is referred to as ‘orthodox’, meaning central core beliefs which have withstood the tests of time and heresy. Once we are able to perceive that which is core to the Christian faith we are able to see how the particulars of our personal and corporate faith and traditions are the outworking of Christ in us through the Spirit in the midst of our specific communities and cultures. In other words, authentic faith in Christ manifests itself differently in particular cultures, communities and individuals while adhering to fundamental orthodox belief. When we focus on the particulars of how faith is worked out we divide, but when we focus on that which we share in Christ we are unified through the Spirit to the glory of God the Father.

Because of my desire to find ways that I as a Protestant—a tradition I might add that, by name, defines itself by what it “protests”, not by what it advocates—can seek, affirm and encourage the unity of the Church catholic, and because of my particular passion for theology, music, and worship, I have composed what I am calling “The Eucharist of Beulah and Pearl”.

“The Eucharist of Beulah and Pearl” is what is sometimes called a “true Mass,” which, for a participatory culture like ours, means, unlike many of the Mass’s of Bach and Beethoven, this is not an orchestral composition for the purpose of listening, but is written to be a community’s participatory worship in cele- brating the Lord's Supper. The reason I have called it “Eucharist” is in part because of negative connotations and assumptions, though usually from false understanding, associated with the Roman Catholic (RC) Mass as understood by those standing outside of the RC tradition. More so I have called it Eucharist because the word “Eucharist” was used to refer to Christian communal worship long before the word “Mass” came to be accepted as the norm. The word “Eucharist” comes from the Greek noun eucharistia meaning “to thank” and is taken from 1 Corinthians 11: 23-24 where Paul writes “and when He (Jesus) had given thanks (eucharisteo), He broke it (the bread) and said, “this is my body...””. Also, the word ‘Mass’ itself refers simply to the dismissal of people after communal worship has concluded (“Ite missa est” is Latin for “Go, the dismissal is made”) where as the word ‘Eucharist’, a word accepted by most Christian traditions, refers to the central symbol and activity of Christian worship, what we often call “communion” or “the Lord’s Supper”.

Secondly, I have named the Eucharist “the Eucharist of Beulah and Pearl” in dedication to my two grandmothers Beulah Steeves (1907-2002) and Pearl Kay (1912-2000). There are a number of ways a Mass is named, the most common being after the composer (Beethovan’s 1st, 2nd, etc), a Feast Day, or a Saint. Because of my particular (not fundamental) convictions, I believe that all Christians are Saints, and so I have dedicated this Eucharist to two amazing women from and through whom I received a rich heritage of faith; my two grandmothers.

Allow me to attempt to briefly introduce some of the particulars of “The Eucharist of Beulah and Pearl”. As this is a very brief summary, if you would like more detailed descriptions and information, two great and easily accessible resources are the Catholic Encyclopedia (www.newadvent.org/cathen/index.html) and Wikipedia.org.

Although the Eucharist as a whole is to be seen as one cohesive unit, there are two main components to it: the liturgy and the music. Because the root of word Liturgy means “of the people” or “work of the people”, by definition every part of the Eucharist as the peoples worship is “liturgy.” For simplicity’s sake I will use the word liturgy in this case to refer primarily to the aspects of the Eucharist that are not accompanied by music. As a whole, the Eucharist is divided into four sections: The gathering of the community, the proclamation/liturgy of the Word (essentially hearing Scripture, professing orthodox faith through a creed and responding by praying for ourselves and the world), the celebration of the Eucharist (centered around the primary symbols of the bread and cup as Christ’s body and blood), and the conclusion (being sent out into the world).

One of the challenges in attempting to develop liturgy and music that not only respects a variety of Christian traditions but that also is the authentic worship of a particular community (in this case, TILT, the community of Spring Garden Church that gathered Sunday nights) is the balance of old and new. How does one honour a tradition like Eastern Orthodox which has a high value of heritage (for example, their core liturgy, attributed to St. John Chrysostom, is at least as early as the 5th century) while also honoring a tradition like the Vineyard that has a high value on worship being culturally relevant and fresh? The way that I have chosen to address this issue with “The Eucharist of Beulah and Pearl” is multifaceted. To begin, none of the liturgies and song words have been written by me but are from English translations of ancient texts (with the exception of “Amidst Us Our Beloved Stands” which was written in the 19th century). As much as possible, I have used translations that are generally accepted, but have made minor exceptions to this in cases where the translation was inconsistent with Torontonian vernacular. From a musical perspective, one of the challenges of adhering to these translations was composing melodies in contemporary styles with lyrics that have no particular rhythmic or syllabic patterns.

The liturgy itself is compiled from the Catholic Order of Mass, the Anglican Book of Alternative Services of the Church of Canada (essentially an updated version of the Book of Common Prayer), the Eastern Orthodox Divine Liturgy, and an Anabaptist Form for Christ’s Supper by Anabaptist theologian Balthasar Hubmaier (1526) . In essence, the form of the Eucharist as I have it now is made up of the places where these traditions have shared liturgy and theology, which necessarily meant removing parts of the liturgies that emphasized places of disunity. The most obvious example of this is where the Catholic Liturgy goes out of its way to affirm that the bread and wine physically become the body and blood of Christ, while the Anabaptist liturgy goes out of its way to oppose this belief by saying the bread and wine are nothing more than bread and wine. In line with this, I have chosen to use as the “Eucharistic Prayer” a prayer from the Book of Alternative Services which was written by an unofficial ecumenical com- mittee of Roman Catholic, Episcopal, Presbyterian, Lutheran and Methodist scholars, sourced from the liturgy of St Basil of Caesarea. I am aware that Christian traditions that will not accept any change in their liturgy will not find my work “inclusive”, but unfortunately at this time I do not personally see any way of working towards unity without change.

Additionally, I have tried to keep in place core elements of various traditions. For example, I have included the Trisagion as it is a central hymn in Eastern Orthodox worship. Also, in every Catholic Mass there are six core liturgies which are set to music called "Ordinarium Missae", in English simply called the “Ordinary” which, being so central, are styled a “Mass”: Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Benedictus and Agnus Dei. Typically the Sanctus and Benedictus are combined in one piece giving the impression that there are only five parts of the Ordinary. Because there are a number of traditions that continue to worship with the Ordinary in Latin (and in the case of the Kyrie, Greek), I have written the Ordinary in both English and Latin. However, because of my personal preference for vernacular in worship, with the exception of the Kyrie, what follows is English only. Musically I have been faithful to observe standard requirements for setting the Ordinary to music. For example, based on the music of Hildegard Von Bingen (12th century), the melody of the Kyrie is plainsong, melismatic (one syllable held over several notes), employs large interval leaps, descending scales, and has an AAA BBB C’C’C’ setting (each section is made up of a phrase repeated three times). However, although the composition of the melody itself adheres to traditional requirements, the particular styles in which I have arranged the music is true to the musical expression of worship of TILT and the Spring Garden community as a whole.

An additional musical aspect of the Ordinary and the Catholic Mass in general is the use of different ‘modes’. In its most basic description, a ‘mode’ is the way the 8 notes of an octave are related by interval. For example, most popular Western music is one of two modes: Ionian (what we call “Major) and Aeolian (what we call “minor”). The 8 notes of the Ionian mode are a scale where the 1st and 2nd notes are separated by a tone (two semi-tones), 2nd-3rd by a tone, 3rd- 4th by a semi-tone, etc. In Western music there are 7 basic ‘modes’, all but one of which are found in the Eucharist: Gloria (and others) is Ionian (Mode 1- “Major”); Kyrie is Dorian (Mode 2); Psalm 24 the verses are in Phrygian (Mode 3) and the chorus in Dorian (Mode 2); Psalm 134 is Lydian (Mode 4); Psalm 116 is Mixolydian (Mode 5); The Lord Be With You is Aeolian (Mode 6).

Another tradition that I attempted to incorporate is that of the Divine Offices and Psalm prayers as set out in St. Benedict’s “Rule of St. Benedict” (5th-6th century). Throughout the history of Christianity the Psalms have been the Church’s songbook. In the “Rule of St. Benedict” there are eight times a day when monks were to stop what they were doing to worship and pray. So that the monks would pray/sing all 150 of the Psalms every week, Benedict allotted certain psalms to certain times of day. The time of day at which TILT gathers is called “Vespers”, a time which Benedict called for praying/singing 4 psalms, hence the Eucharist has 4 psalms. Of the four psalms of the Eucharist, all but one are from Benedicts listed Vespers Psalms (Psalm 24). Although we do not know exactly what musical form the singing of these psalms took in the 5th century, a common form of communal psalm singing is called “Psalm-Tone.” Although there are number of variations on the form of Psalm-Tone singing, a basic form as I’ve used with Psalm 116 is where the text of the Psalm is sung in the rhythm of normal speaking on a single tone with an inflection at the end of each line. In the case of Psalm 116 the final note of the first of a paired line moves up and the final note of the second line moves down. Additionally, often one of the verses of the Psalm is repeated as a refrain (i.e. chorus).

Finally, in regards to the Scripture passages for this particular morning of February 7, 2010, in the spirit of ecumenicalism I have chosen to use the scriptures as found in the lectionary (a prayer book which has Scripture readings as- signed for each day, in this case over a two year cycle) “For All the Saints,” a prayer book published by the Lutheran church designed to be accessible to Protestants, Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions.

By way of conclusion I feel it is important to reiterate that this is an incomplete beginning of working towards orthodox unified worship. What has been a personal project over the past year could not only be the focus of doctrinal studies, but a lifelong vocation! So, let us participate as a community in unified worship, bearing in mind that this is a humble and far from perfect offering to the only One in whom and through whom true unity across traditions can be made. May God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit continue to unify His Church for His glory in the world and for the witness of His Kingdom among the nations.