Your post reminded me of an interesting book that explores some of the same ground. The book, “Paul and the Expansion of the Church Today”, was written by Ed Firmage.

Though I welcome Gladys Knight’s infusion of musical variety to the annual MoTab Christmas concert, I remain miffed that brass instruments (excluding the organ stop) are excluded from Mormon worship. However, I have noticed a few bell choirs that have sneeked onto the stage in Mormon liturgy over the last 20 years or so. I’d like to think that some of the early bell pioneers from Philadelphia helped prepare the way for the recently formed bell choir on Temple Square.

I think like Jana that the Mormon view is that a lot of the most important worship is personal or to be conducted with family (or friends). Of course, I think most actual Mormons don’t think of it this way. Most actual Mormons seem to think of Sunday meetings as the core of their worship. This is sad because as you say the worship part is so limited and often not that well done. I think the way we grow through learning to serve and be served by one another is ultimately more important than worship, so I’m okay with our meetings, but I think really good worship can also be very nourishing, so it is a real loss that we don’t do better at it. (I am also sad that most Mormons seem to let Sunday meetings become the core of their gospel learning process, because they are far from enough on that front too)

But for you, perhaps part of your personal worship is Evensong. So you are actually following the program better than most Mormons!

For me, my personal worship routine used to include things like (i) about once a month talking late into the night with Patrick and Melissa and Mike and Kennan and some of our other friends at ND; (ii) practicing and then performing in church songs like “Jesus Christ the Apple Tree” while awkwardly dodging participation in the ward choir; (iii) singing the Alfred Burt Carols and other favorites around the piano with my family for an hour or two whenever I made a visit home; (iv) progressively compiling and elaborating a list of temple study scriptures with my sister over the course of the past fifteen years.

I do think though that the current Mormon collective worship pattern is highly contingent and is driven partly by cultural assumptions (such as distrust/lack of appreciation for the role of the body, ritual, non-verbal communication and expression), and partly by practical necessity. Due to pluralism and urban sprawl we don’t all live a five-minute walk from the church anymore to have meetings multiple times per day (the assumed context of many older worship traditions I suspect). Of course, in places like Utah we do, so it is unfortunate that we don’t take advantage of it for services like these. I am hopeful that in a few more years we will be ready to shift gears again and adapt worship schedule, curriculum, etc. somewhat to local circumstances.

Kristine, what do you make of the fact that at many churches worship involves a rock band? To what extent is the wonderful music you enjoy at Evensong a reflection of a certain rather odd demographic at that church which is totally different from what we have and would realistically want in the CJCLDS? Is it apples and oranges to compare this with the CJCLDS? Or . . . would it make sense for someone in MoTab to compare their experience there with their ward meetings?

Next time I’m in New England, can I come to Evensong?

I’ve long seen the continuous and acrimonious public battles of the episcopal church as evidence of the importance of revelation and priesthood authority. While the ECUSA has been able to weather much theological difference over the years (I’ve been in a university chapel where the main cross had a removable jesus, depending upon the theology of the episcopalians using it), the battles of the last three decades–women priests, prayer book, women bishops, the role of scripture, now proudly gay bishops and same-sex unions–have produced tremendous amounts of acrimony and hurt feelings and schism (and believe me, congregations left and schismatic congregations were formed in response to all of those–don’t forget that more than 300 priests and a number of bishops left the anglican church after they ordained women). So often the focus of the episcopal church has turned to politics rather than coming to Christ. Dioscese and parish committees spend inordinate amounts of time and effort addressing these issues, and fighting among themselves–it’s not just a national or international issue. So I see it as a poor model.

And it seems to me that Schori and Robinson and their allies now seek a kind of authoritarian response, in denying those who episcopalians who priviledge scripture as a source of authority and who reject openly homosexual bishops the kinds of solutions which have been used for years in other provinces of the communion where such deep rifts have developed, like the use of primatial vicars for dissenters within a province. Indeed, this refusal to even try to recognize the “conservatives” viewpoint as valid suggests to me very strongly the authoriarians tendencies of progressives and others of the left. Really, it seems to me that, properly negotiated, the Tanzania communique may offer a way out for both sides. But I think that the majority in the ECUSA is at the point where it just wants the conservative/traditionalist minority to either shut up or leave, or be forced to shut up through threats to seize churches etc.
So I don’t see their “open-ness” as being in any way desireable. Rather, debating and voting over doctrine may seem nice according to the ways of the world, but I beleve it is ultimately destructive of faith and community.

When I hear people complain about TM, I ask them for the last time they themselves stood and delivered…