Innovative liturgy

All Hallows has a tradition of liturgical experimentation. The starting point for this was the church’s involvement in the campaign for the ordination of women in the Church of England in the late 1980s. Elizabeth Baxter, one of the ministers of the church at the time, was instrumental in introducing to our community the insights of feminist theology, especially as it related to liturgical practice.

For one visitor’s thoughtful analysis of the liturgy at All Hallows, see Rachel Parkinson’s piece Example of a “Postmodern” liturgy?.

Inclusive language

Exploring images of God that go beyond the traditional masculine images and incorporate the feminine has been a part of our liturgies for well over ten years.

As well as writing some of our own material, we draw on the beautiful writings of liturgists such as Janet Morley, Jim Cotter (see the Cairns Publications website), Lisa Woodrow, Jan Berry and Kathy Galloway, to name just a few.

Beyond words

However, words are not all that worship is about. In fact wordy services have often been the problem with a lot of church worship. We seek to make creative use of silence, music, chanting, symbols, art and movement in our worship to help us open our hearts to the reality of God in our midst.

Seasonal liturgies

We have developed distinctive liturgies for each season of the church’s year, plus a baptism service and an ‘All Together’ service (children and adults together). They are always a work in progress, and comments from members of the congregation are welcome. A liturgy group, responsible to the Ministry Team, revises the liturgies each year. You can view these services by clicking the links below; they are in PDF format.

• Advent
• Christmas: Christmas Midnight, Christmas Morning, Christmas Season
• Epiphany
• Candlemas
• Ordinary time (Candlemas to Lent) — from the Sunday after Candlemas until the Sunday before Ash Wednesday
• Lent (starting with Ash Wednesday)
• Holy Week: Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Holy Saturday
• Easter: Easter Dawn, Easter Morning, Easter Season
• Ascension Day (and the following Sunday)
• Pentecost (and an all-age Pentecost service)
• Trinity Sunday
• Lesbian and Gay Liberation Sunday (see also our page on Lesbian and Gay Liberation Sunday)
• Ordinary time (after Trinity) — from the Sunday after Trinity Sunday until the end of September (except for August — see below)
• Ordinary time (August)
• Creation Season* (see also timetable for Creation Season 2009)
• Kingdom Season (All Saints to Christ the King) and Kingdom Season prayers

• Baptism
• All Together service

* In October we celebrate the Creation Season, the theme of which is Developing a Creation-centred Christianity. For further details see the Christian Ecology Link website (www.christian-ecology.org.uk).

Liturgies for special occasions

• A Litany of Resistance (see also our page on Litany of Resistance)

This page was last updated on Tuesday, 06 October 2009

home | about all hallows | what’s on | worship and prayer | discussion and reflection | action in the community | projects | an open, welcoming … | weekly bulletin | site map | search site | admin |