1 September 2024

At the Reformation, the Church of Scotland didn’t go down the Anglican route which focused its main services on the monastic offices. Instead, the Kirk’s  liturgy is based on the historic liturgies for the Sacrament of Holy Communion. Because of a shortage of ministers, the service was curtailed to the first part – the Liturgy of the Word.

In this way, our main act of worship was meant to be sacramental. Not only that, the Sacrament was to be celebrated alongside the preaching of the Word. When I was a teenager, I remember my old minister telling me that he understood the preaching of the Word to be like the breaking of bread, a breaking of the Word.

This came back to me when I read Alexander Schmemann’s book on the Sacrament.  ‘Western Christians are so accustomed to distinguish the Word from the sacrament that it may be difficult for them to understand that in the Orthodox perspective the liturgy of the Word is as sacramental as the sacrament is ‘evangelical’.

The latter part of the quotation is intriguing for he seems to suggest that like preaching, the Sacrament is also an instrument of the evangel. Perhaps mission should not so readily be predicated upon the preaching of the Word but should also embrace the celebration of the Sacrament.

Whereas preaching uses words, the Sacrament is enfolded in silence. It more readily reflects the silent witness of God in our lives. Like the silence of seeds growing in the soil and light shining from a flickering candle, the bread and the wine are at their most eloquent when the minister concludes the Great Prayer.

Developing his theme further, Schmemann says, ‘The proclamation of the Word is a sacramental act par excellence because it is a transforming act. It transforms the human words of the Gospel into the Word of God and the manifestation of the Kingdom. And it transforms the man who hears the Word into a receptacle of the Word and a temple of the Spirit …’


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