Worship: Common Texts used in worship

In worship here at Second Congregational United Church of Christ—as with worship in most Christian churches—there are some texts that we say or sing in worship quite regularly, often in common with Christians around the world. Here's some info on some of them:

The Lord's Prayer

Sometimes called the "Our Father" by those familiar with Roman Catholic traditions, The Lord's Prayer is the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples to pray, as told by the books of Matthew (6:5-15) and Luke (11:1-13) in the Bible. The Lord's Prayer that is usually prayed is based on the version from Matthew. In the version we use here at Second Congregational United Church of Christ, it goes like this:

Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name;
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts
as we forgive our debtors;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil:
for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever.
Amen.

Why do you say "forgive us our debts ... debtors"?
There are three slightly different versions of the Lord's Prayer in common use in English-speaking churches: this version with "debts" and "debtors", the version that reads "forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us", and the version that reads "forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us". Both "debts" and "trespasses" are older, more traditional wordings—and all three versions are trying to express the same idea. In the United Church of Christ, there is no rule about which version should be used, and you can find UCC congregations that use each of the three. We use the debts/debtors version simply because it has been a long-standing tradition in our congregation, something we share with many UCC congregations (and Presbyterian ones, too).

The Gloria Patri

The Gloria Patri, sometimes known as the "Glory be" and historically called the "Lesser Doxology", is a simple refrain or response of praise to God. In some traditions, this refrain is added to the end of any Psalm when it is read or sung. Here at Second Congregational United Church of Christ, we usually sing it as a response to the "assurance of forgiveness", which is the declaration that God forgives us and our brokenness or sin. The text goes like this:

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost:
as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. Amen.

The music we sing this text to was written by Henry Greatorex in 1851, and is very common among mainline Protestant churches (UCC, Presbyterian, Methodist, and others)

The Doxology

What we call "the Doxology" is another refrain or response of praise to God. The text was first published as part of a longer hymn by Englishman Thomas Ken in 1674. Here at Second Congregational United Church of Christ, we sing this as a response to our acts of offering, while the monetary portion of that offering is brought forward to be dedicated. The version of the text we sing most often reads:

Praise God from whom all blessings flow;
praise God all creatures here below;
praise God above ye heavenly host;
praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.

Most often, we sing this text to a tune called OLD HUNDREDTH, which was originally written by Louis Bourgeois in the 1500s as a tune for singing the Psalms, and became most commonly associated with singing Psalm 100 (hence the name!). Occasionally, for more festival-like days or seasons, we will sing the text, with some additional "alleluia"s interspersed, to the very joyful tune LASST UNS ERFREUEN, originally written for a German Catholic Easter hymn in the 1600s and brought to English-speaking Protestants by famous British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams.

The Greeting

At the beginning of each worship service, and at the beginning of some special actions within a worship service, the pastor (or other worship leader) and the congregation greet one another, using the words:

Leader: The Lord be with you.
People: And also with you.

Very occasionally, the greeting will take a fuller form, based on words from the book 2nd Corinthians in the Bible:

Leader: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
People: And also with you.

The greeting marks sacred space, as it calls all who are gathered to be attentive that God is gathering us for praise. It is also a ritual gesture of hospitality, both from the leader to the congregation and from the congregation to the leader in return.

The Peace

In the "Gathering" portion of our worship service, following our prayer of confession and the declaration from the worship leader that God forgives us, the worship leader greets the congregation with the peace of Christ, saying:

Leader: The peace of Christ be with you all.
People: And also with you.

The whole congregation then turns to each other and exchanges similar words, 'passing the peace' to one another. Why do we do this? Through the assurance of forgiveness that the worship leader proclaims, we hear that our relationship with God has been reconciled. We then, at least ritually, reconcile our relationships with one another through the passing of this sign of peace—believing that what we do in ritual action begins to inform and shape what we do in everyday life.