Announcing an Episcopal-Mormon liturgy

I'm putting out a shout-out to any liberal Mormon types in the Chapel Hill-Durham area of North Carolina. During the Epiphany season, the Episcopal Church of the Advocate, which Hugo and I have been attending for the past several years, will be using during its Sunday services a formula for the Prayers of the People which I've composed using language adapted from the "Olive Leaf" (D&C 88). I'm excited that they're using it. They used it for the first time in their morning service today; but during the evening service, which is what Hugo and I attend, they had a baptism, so they used a different formula for the prayers as part of the baptismal rite. So I won't actually get to hear the "Olive Leaf" Prayers of the People used until this coming Sunday, January 16.

If you're intrigued to see an ecumenical use of a Latter Day Saint text, I'd encourage you to come by. I understand we'll be using this formula for the Prayers of the People all through the Epiphany season, which runs through the beginning of Lent—so from now until early March. Evening services are held at 5:00 p.m. Directions here.

About these prayers: In Episcopal liturgical practice, the Prayers of the People come in the Sunday liturgy after the sermon. There are certain things that the Book of Common Prayer specifies should be prayed for—the universal church, the leaders of the nations, the needs of the local community, people in all kinds of trouble, the dead—but otherwise congregations have a lot of leeway about how exactly they conduct the prayers. At the Advocate, there are typically biddings followed by silences in which people can voice their petitions.

During the Epiphany season, the liturgy often invokes images of light. So I had the idea a few weeks ago, originally with the first-Friday Taize service in mind, of developing a text for prayers that used language from the "Olive Leaf," which talks a lot about the light of Christ. I didn't realize until later that the Olive Leaf was composed between Christmas 1832 and Epiphany 1833, a fact which makes that text all the more appropriate as a resource for an Epiphany liturgy.

After I composed a version of the prayers, I passed them on to the vicar because she's interested in innovative liturgies, and I wanted to show off some of the liturgical resources I see in the Latter Day Saint tradition. A couple of months ago, she and I were having a conversation about my religious identity, in the course of which I was surprised to realize that she didn't know Mormons consider themselves Christian. So I wanted her to see what this Latter Day Saint text had to say about the light of Christ.

She liked the text and asked if it might be possible to rework it in order to include all the biddings that the Book of Common Prayer prescribes for the Prayers of the People. So I did, and the results are below.

The stanzas that begin "Jesus Christ..." contain language from the "Olive Leaf." I drew from the following verses (though not in this order): D&C 88:5-13, 41, 49-50, 63. The stanzas that begin "Christ our light..." contain the biddings required by the Book of Common Prayer. There's one difference between the text I've pasted below and the text the Advocate is using: the "Olive Leaf" uses the word "abound" in a way that sounds ungrammatical to modern ears, so they've substituted "flourish."

************

Leader One:
Jesus Christ,
you are the light that is in us,
and we are in you.
In you and by you, we are quickened;
without you, we cannot abound.

Leader Two:
Christ our light, make your church grow in grace and truth.
Pour out your blessings on all who seek after righteousness.

The people add their own petitions.

Leader One:
Jesus Christ,
you are the light that proceeds from the presence of God
to fill the immensity of space—
the light which is in all things,
which gives life to all things,
which is the law by which all things are governed.

Leader Two:
Christ our light, make peace and justice prevail on this earth you have created.
Breathe a spirit of wisdom over the nations and all in authority.

The people add their own petitions.

Leader One:
Jesus Christ,
you are the light of truth.
You are the light of the sun,
the light of the moon,
the light of the stars,
and the power by which they were made.
You are the light that illuminates our eyes
and the light that enlivens our understanding.

Leader Two:
Christ our light, give us eyes to see the needs of our neighbors,
and give us hearts moved to act.
Lift up all who labor in service to others.

The people add their own petitions.

Leader One:
Jesus Christ,
you have ascended above all things,
and you have descended below all things,
so that you might be in all and through all.

Leader Two:
Christ our light, comfort all who suffer and are in trouble.
Wherever there is darkness, make your presence known.

The people add their own petitions.

Leader One:
Jesus Christ,
all things are before you,
and all things are round about you.
You are above all things,
and in all things,
and through all things,
and round about all things;
all things are by you, and of you,
forever and ever.

Leader Two:
Christ our light, we are yours in death as well as in life.
We pray for our dead: may eternal light shine upon them.

The people add their own petitions.

Leader One:
Jesus Christ,
you have promised
that if we seek you, we will find you;
that if we ask, we will receive;
that if we knock, the door will be opened to us.

Leader Two:
Christ our light, we live awash in an ocean of graces.
We thank you for all your gifts.

The people offer their thanksgivings.
The celebrant adds a concluding collect.