Day 2
Report of LAC Outlines Wide Range of Interesting Work Carried Out
The creation of a range of new liturgical material was outlined to members of General Synod meeting online this evening (Tuesday May 14).
Proposing the report of the Liturgical Advisory Committee, the Very Revd Nigel Dunne (Dean of Cork) said that the committee continued to have quite a workload over the last year and had plenty to keep it occupied for the coming year.
Extensive work had been carried out on prayers for use by the 18–35 year old age group over the last two years, he said. This had been done in consultation with third level chaplains and much material had been drafted. He said work was almost complete on a daily prayer card and a large tranche of resources would be rolled out on a phased basis online from the end of the month.
Dean Dunne reported that the full set of revised Collects for years A, B and C had now been collated into one publication which was now available to buy. Another huge project was the provision of a major new resource to support liturgical ministry with children in church and in the home. The committee hopes it will be completed in the coming year.
Due to the huge amount of resource material available to the Church, he said that the Digital and Typesetting Sub Committee of the LAC was working on their own dedicated website which would allow for easier access to all the texts in a more user friendly way. This would be up and running by General Synod 2025, he stated.
The Dean concluded by reminding all committees of Synod that if they are working on liturgical material, the LAC would like to hear from them to offer help and so that they can sign off on material being produced in the name of the Church of Ireland as is their responsibility.
The report was seconded by Archdeacon Peter Thompson who emphasised the importance of worship to the Church.
He said that both the pew and full music edition of the Church Hymnal had been reprinted. The melody edition was not being reprinted as there was no demand for this. He pointed to the rising costs of reprinting short print runs and said that in the future they may face the question of a complete revision of the hymnals and the production of a sixth edition as a more cost effective route than reprinting the current book.
A book on the Canticles is almost ready to go to print, he said. The book explores the text of each song in the form of a devotional commentary as well as the use of the canticle in worship and providing resources to enable small congregations to sing the text.
The ongoing work of the Recorded Church Music Committee was also outlined. Their work progressed from CDs to memory sticks and the pandemic accelerated this to an online download which has proved a positive change, Archdeacon Thompson said.
Speaking to the report George Woodman (Connor) thanked the LAC for all their work which he said has proved a great resource in his own spiritual life. He asked if he could use the 18 to 35 years olds’ resource as the topics referred to were of interest. He said he was glad to see that the work on the Celtic saints was continuing. He commended the services available on the website and wondered if the large print edition of the prayer book would be reprinted.
The Revd Jonny Campbell–Smyth said that moving to a dedicated website was a positive way forward. But he said there may be a bigger issue to look at as it could be difficult to add things to the main Church of Ireland website.
In response, Dean Dunne thanked Mr Woodman and said age was in the mind. He said that large print editions of newer services would be very expensive. He explained that the existing Church of Ireland website was very restrictive which was why they were going with a dedicated website.