Beauty and prayer

“The fact that Protestant celebrations are restricted to preaching is a confessional cliché which ought to be abolished. Also Protestantism acknowledges the significance and the beauty of liturgical expression.” “In the current reform process of Germany’s Evangelical Church (Ekd) the esthetical aspect of worship has in fact become one of the most important elements, the objective being not only that of increasing the number of Church attendants, but also an improved liturgical service”. Germany’s Protestant Church has been addressing the topic of the quality of religious celebrations, as reported by Herder-Korrespondenz in an article published in June’s issue. Follows a summary by Irene Vogt.With increasing enthusiasm. In 2006 the review “the Church of Freedom”, triggered a lively debate regarding Evangelical religious services. This topic was addressed also last year during the ‘Congress on the future’, organised by Ekd. “The minutes of the conference, recently published, under the title ‘Developing the quality of religious services’, describes the enthusiasm of the faithful, but not their satisfaction. Although the fact that the director of one of the most important hotels in Hamburg gives counsel on the right praise of God based on his experience of quality manager is rather surprising, this doesn’t mean that this issue doesn’t deserve to be viewed from the outside. The chief editor of a newspaper, invited in his capacities as expert, explained how professionals can put to worth their art, but this doesn’t imply that they are convincing […]. The similarity with preachers is patently obvious”. The art of elocution. “Among the proposals figured also various comparisons with theatre: ‘Religious service understood as a performance necessitates attentive planning, professionalism and improvisation by the liturgical players, so as to enable a free- rather than a formulated- interpretation”, declared Helmut Schwier, Professor of Pragmatic Theology in Heidelberg”. “Therefore it is no surprise that the advice of Jan Kauenhowen, playwright and film director in Berlin, is one of the most stimulating. He stressed that the Church must pay special attention to rituals, since in Central Europe it risks disappearing. Developed liturgical skill requires more ‘elocution’. This is true also for volunteer readers: ‘Only through an adequate art applied even in this sector, the liturgical player strips language of its empty artificial connotations which go beyond the daily expressions. A natural articulation combined with the art of rhetoric: a serene sovereignty”. No to formalism. “Kauenhowen criticizes the status quo, the fact that often too many texts are used as reference, since ‘in this way the religious service is not sufficient to the deepening, comprehension and reflection over these texts’. This is true also for the quantity of the chants. […] The ultimate goal should be that all faithful ‘end the service with a different and uplifted mood, with faith and full of energy in order to face, with God’s help, the week to come with a propositional approach. Precisely for this reason the ritual should be stripped of ‘a formalism with no thrust’. “Here too we hear the echo of the ancient Protestant focus on words, like in other contributions of the workshop, this is a better performance. There is hardly no mention of space and its atmosphere, of significant symbols and all the other elements whereby liturgy – along with the text, the rituals and ecclesial chants – is a symphony”. Quality isn’t always related to success. “In a Catholic context, the recurring concept of ‘creativity’ might be annoying, due to the occasional deviations it triggers. While the warning against an artificial originality or an exaggerated actualisation will be positively welcomed. However, this doesn’t change the fact that also Catholic liturgy gives rise to a natural suspense when only the liturgical texts are consulted. A celebration meant to be truly significant in the life of participants, will make the most of the reflections on the reform process of the Evangelical Church”. “The belief that each Sunday service represents an opportunity to ‘convey space, voice and form’ (claims Schwier) to the Gospel and its cultural power within post-secular society, reaches far beyond all confessional borders. One of the speakers has thus shown that quality isn’t necessarily a synonym of success.