Sound of the Liturgy

This book: helps readers appreciate how liturgical texts are written and understood, why some texts 'work' in worship and others don't; looks at the use and abuse of scriptural texts and versions within the liturgy; considers how sound, rhythm and the arrangement of words can help congregations to worship well together; and offers a finely balanced critique of the language, style and sentence construction in Common Worship and BCP 1662/1928, examining good and bad examples from each. The basic antithesis between words as semantic carriers and words as evokers of feeling and memory leads to consideration of the effect of words on worshippers in both corporate worship and private prayer. In doing so, the book explores four main aspects of liturgical speech: Anaphora, Rhythm, Posture and Punctuation.