The Church Service Society: Editorial Note
New Editor James Stewart thanks his predecessor, Henry Sefton, and gives some indication of his intentions.
Volume 39 Spring 2004
Secretary
Regretful leave-taking after six years of Rachel Dobie and welcome to Neil Gardner.
What is Good Liturgical Language?
Maurice Taylor asks his question from the viewpoint of one standing in the Roman Catholic tradition, notes the work of the International Commission for English in the Liturgy (ICEL) and points to difficulties stemming from a renewed Vatican requirement for strict faithfulness to Latin originals and the sometimes conflicting requirements of good English designed to be read aloud. Some examples of earlier and later translations and of original texts in English are given.
Ministerial Formation in Christian Worship in Southern Africe
Graham Duncan, writing of the background to his teaching on the conduct of worship for black theological students, regrets the tendency of Western Christians to impose their dualistic notions on an inherited African awareness of the integration of life and worship, notes the ‘catholic’ influence of service books stemming from the Church of Scotland, the more evangelical influence of the Free Church, the spontaneity, freedom and participative nature of African worship, along with a vital concern for order. He ends, as he began, with an appreciative comment on insights from Alexander Hetherwick’s 1931 article in the CSS Annual.
Concerning Funerals: The Practice and Theology of Funeral Rites in the Church of Scotland since 1945 (Part I)
Ian Gough writes on the practice and theology of funeral rites in the Church of Scotland since 1945 against a background of lessening Christian commitment coupled with an apparently little-diminished desire for religious funeral rites. In this first article, he deals with The Venue, noting the influential role of undertakers; The Music, in which the trend towards the unconventional is noted; and Scriptural Sentences and the Liturgy of the Word.
Book Review
Scottish Medieval Churches: Architecture and Furnishings by Richard Fawcett, Tempus Publishing Ltd, Stroud, 2002
John R Hume outlines the structure of the work under review and describes it as ‘definitive’ and as ‘unquestionably the most important work on medieval church building in Scotland written since MacGibbon and Ross’s pioneering three volume Ecclesiastical Architecture of Scotland, published in 1890’.
Website
Intimation of the Council’s proposal to use part of Professor Reid’s legacy to develop a website.