The Rev. Holly A. Davis of St. John's Episcopal Church in Franklin, Pennsylvania has written to ask about the placement of announcements during the Holy Eucharist. She notes that she find "announcements at the beginning of the Mass to be, sadly, a necessary evil, announcements in the middle to be a disturbing intermission, and at the end anti-climactic to the invitation to 'go into the world.'" She asks about the "history of announcements."
Editions of the Book of Common Prayer from 1552 to 1928 provided for a limited number of announcements between the creed and the sermon hymn. The order of sermon and creed were reversed in 1979, however, requiring some rethinking about the location of announcements. The editors of the 1979 edition of the prayer book decided to allow announcements in one of three places: before the service, before the offertory, and at the conclusion of the service.
The choice from among these locations should be based on the content of the announcements made. Those that concern the service itself ("We will be singing rather than saying the psalm this morning.") belong at the beginning of the service before the opening hymn. Those that concern the ongoing activities of the congregation ("We need volunteers for the food pantry; you can sign up in the parish hall during the coffee hour.") work best at the end of the service. Those that concern the prayers of the people ("We prayed today for Judy today. She suffered a heart attack last Thursday and is at St. Phoebe's Hospital. Keep her in your prayers.") generally work best at the middle or end of the service. I am glad that the prayer book gives us options.
What I find most disruptive is the loading of all announcements at a fixed point in the liturgy without consideration of the content.
There is often another issue involved with announcements. Should they be given by the presiding clergy person or should announcements be given by members of the congregation who are involved in the events they describe? The first choice can theoretically make the announcements more concise and consistent. The second choice, however, can be a wonderful demonstration of the ministry of the laity. Lay announcements can also be very helpful to newcomers, who get to learn about both the activities of the parish and the people to contact to become involved in the activities.
Bob
answered by The Rev. Robert W. Prichard, Ph.D., Professor of Christianity in America and Instructor in Liturgy at the Virginia Theological Seminary. Questions can be send to Bob's gmail address. The address begins with rwprichard and ends with the usual gmail designation (@gmail.com)
1 comment:
BCP also allows announcements before the prayers of the people. I think Galley makes the excellent point that this can be the right way, depending on circumstances, to announce a death or hospitalization, rather than peoples' first notice being as an intercession is read.
I think that fits well with your call for timing the announcement to the particular announcement being made.
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