Liturgy

The term liturgy (from the Greek λειτουργία leiturgia, public service ', from λαός / λεώς / λειτός laós, Leos, Leitos, people ', ' crowd ' and ἔργον ergon 'work', 'service' ) denotes the order and all the religious ceremonies and rites of the Jewish and Christian worship. In an analogous manner of speaking, the term is sometimes also used for the order of the religious celebrations and full trains of other religions.

The celebration of the liturgy is the worship of God and to deepen the communal faith. The liturgy includes the whole worship event: prayer, reading and preaching, singing, gesture, movement and vestments, liturgical instruments, symbols and symbolic actions, the administration of sacraments and sacramentals.

Judaism

Judaism understands the whole liturgy designed worship of the three daily prayers Shacharit, Mincha and Maariw of the Sabbath worship up to the holidays. The Jewish liturgy comprises mainly the cantillation of the Torah (see Teamim ), singing and prayer.

Christianity

Originally, the word referred to the service of the wealthy citizens of the poor, which included both feeding the poor as well as the establishment of public entertainment. Also cultic services could be referred to as such. In the Septuagint both the Jewish temple service as well as the pagan cult is called leitourgia. From here the terminology found its way into the Greek Christianity, where the term is assigned as the name of Christian worship only since the 9th century. The Latinized Liturgy was used in the Western Church until the late Middle Ages. On this background, liturgy is not to be equated with talk of cult and ritual, although religious studies, the liturgy is this attributable to a special form.

Consistently problematic is the separation of the speech of liturgy and worship the one hand, on the other hand, because there are a lot of historical, theological, and simple regional reasons to use these two terms interchangeably either or differentiating. Martin Luther leitourgia with, worship translated ' and thus influenced the further use of language to the present. But mainly in Protestant circles and communities to a speech by the liturgy has been established for the parts of worship, which have their place before and after the sermon - as if the sermon less liturgically. So therefore a more ritualized reference is made for " Liturgy", a distinction that is not Catholic side tracked. Here, however, would in fact be to differentiate into the talk of the " worship" as a colloquial usage and of " liturgy " as a high-level language of the officials.

Liturgy is never a private nature, but celebration and pursuit of life of the Church. It is therefore to be distinguished from profane meetings and private prayer. In addition to the Sunday and weekday liturgies community and the Kasualien (baptism, marriage and funeral ) celebrate parts of the community, communities (eg, conventions ) or groups other liturgical forms, such as the Liturgy of the Hours.

Early Christianity

No orders of worship are from the early Christianity yet known, since the design of the celebrations was still in development and subject to community also turned out differently. Probably the early Christian worship was more or less strongly inspired by the Jewish worship in the synagogue and integrated centrally, the reading and interpretation of the canonical Scriptures and the breaking of bread. Well there was also a tradition of liturgical foot washing. By means of literary criticism can be worked out in common use in the New Testament texts liturgical elements of style: so Christ songs (eg Phil 2:5-11 EU) or even elements of a creed in 1 Corinthians 15 EU; Paul also quoted in 1 Cor 11 EU traditional words of the Lord's Supper. In the early writings of the Church Fathers ( eg Justin Martyr ) and can be found in the Didache then numerous references to the processes of liturgical actions or instructions.

Catholic liturgy

The liturgy is the result of the historical development of the Church; one of the first lines leads to the Old Testament. A subject of the exodus of God's people from Egyptian captivity was not only the achievement of the promised land, but also God's command to Pharaoh:

"Say unto Pharaoh, Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to you and can tell you: Let my people go, that they may worship me in the desert. Until now you have not want to hear. "

The Pharaoh then allowed a sacrificial ceremony unspecified. But Moses was - the God's command executive - that the cult is also a selection was necessary because he was prevented from taking the formula for political compromise the cult. Israel finally moved out, not to be a people like any other, but to serve his God. After the extract was given at Mount Sinai, the people of God is not only the first comprehensive law and order of life but also cult instructions.

Allegations that the Catholic Church understood under liturgy primarily the order of the Holy Mass, fall short. At the Second Vatican Council, the Council Fathers proclaimed the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy Sacrosanctum Concilium. It reads:

" In the liturgy, especially in the divine sacrifice of the Eucharist, the work of our redemption is carried, and it carries the highest degree to the fact that the life of believers is an expression and revelation of the mystery of Christ and the real nature of the true Church. "

Consequently, it is in the Catholic liturgy understanding not primarily about the precise control of individual rites sequences, but a law enforcement nature of the Church. The Codex Iuris Canonici (CIC ) formulated this as follows:

" The sanctification fulfills the Church in a special way through the sacred liturgy, which is to be regarded as an exercise of the priestly ministry of Jesus Christ; in the sanctification of the people designated by meaningful characters and in this way each own causes as well as the mystical body of Jesus Christ, accomplished by the head and members, the inviolable official worship. "

Statements about the liturgy are found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church under the numbers 1066 ff

The forms used in the Latin Church for the various celebrations can be found in the revised within the framework of the liturgical reform ( and translated into local languages ​​) liturgical books of the Roman Rite ( Missale Romanum, Roman Ritual, big book of hours ).

As religious liturgies are called historical or current special forms of the Roman Rite in different orders, for example Carthusians, Dominicans, Norbertine, Cistercian.

The Catholic liturgy includes the liturgies of the various associated with Rome Eastern Churches which follow their own, Oriental rites.

Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox liturgies

The liturgies that celebrate the various Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox churches are divided ( rites ) in different liturgical families: Byzantine rite, rite Westsyrischer, East Syriac rite, Alexandrian rite ( divided into the Coptic and Ethiopian rite ) and Armenian rite. The best known in the West Eastern Orthodox rite is probably the Byzantine rite, which dates back to the Church of Constantinople Opel ( Byzantium ). Commonly used for the celebration of the Eucharist here is the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom; next to it there is the Liturgy of St. Basil ( Basil's anaphora ), which adopted a higher profile to the first turn of the millennium and is still celebrated today in unaltered form to ten days a year, and that on the day of St. Basil (1 January ), at the the eve of Christmas (December 25 ) and Epiphany ( January 6), on five Sundays of Great Lent, Holy Thursday and Holy Saturday. In addition, a joint Communion celebration known: the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts (mainly on Wednesdays and Fridays in Lent ).

Of course there is not the other usual in churches Catholic type sacramental celebrations: baptism, ordination, marriage, etc., and hours of prayer and church services and blessings of all kinds Allen Eastern Rites in common is that they were created before the middle of the first millennium and since then the general feeling after practically have remained unchanged. In fact, her story is no less moved than the Western liturgies before the Reformation.

The Uniate Eastern Churches with Rome celebrate the liturgy in principle, but with more or less significant deviations in their traditional rite of the Eastern Church.

Evangelical liturgy

For the member churches of the VELKD and the former EKU in Germany there is a common order of service, which is included in Evangelical Worship Book. The service book is based on the " principle of the fixed base structure in variable formation ", which should guide a self-responsible use of the liturgy ( Lutheran Worship Book, p 17).

Other regional churches have their own orders of worship and agendas, such as the Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau, the Evangelical Church of Hesse Electorate - Waldeck, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Baden, the Evangelical Church of the Palatinate.

The Independent Evangelical Lutheran Church ( SELK ) the services are celebrated liturgically by the Lutheran Kirchenagende, which is a decidedly Lutheran.

In some free churches, the word liturgy is frowned upon because the term is too much connected with tradition, but most of them still have an order for the communion service (with a few exceptions such as the Quakers). Nevertheless, in almost all communities a ritualized sequence can be seen, thus yes, the liturgy apart: as a service to the community.

In the Swiss Reformed tradition, the liturgy was redesigned again and again. In the past decades, a five-part structure has developed which is - seems to prove - in all creative freedom. This structure is easy to compare with that of Latin rhetoric (Cicero ) as well as with the structure of classical, Aristotelian theater and essentially comprises: Collection - praise and worship - reading and preaching - intercessions ( Communion ) - Send and blessing. The comparison with the Latin, respectively. Greek tradition is the fact that from the introitus to the redeeming, blessing completion of a similar shape is observed of dramaturgy. This ( mandatory ) structure of the liturgy can nevertheless be a variety of design options. Recently, therefore, models have been developed for determining how to worship understood as communicative events and designed accordingly.

Apostolic liturgy

The liturgy of the New Apostolic Church corresponded initially ( until about 1885) of the Catholic Apostolic Church, contained the elements of the rite of the Catholic and Anglican churches.

Under the influence of Dutch Calvinism, the worship focus shifted in 1885 to the Liturgy of the Word ( preaching high proportion ). Chance can still be rudiments of the Catholic Apostolic tradition in the New Apostolic liturgy. Until 1998, the Lord's Supper was celebrated only on Sundays and religious holidays, since 1998, a celebration of Holy Communion also takes place in the weekday religious services. On 1 Advent 2010 extended liturgy of the New Apostolic Church enters into force. In particular the celebration of Holy Communion is to be made worthy of fortified liturgy elements. Liturgical texts are partially changed or adjusted.

Modern crisis and liturgical renewal

Given the increasing appreciation of spontaneity and authenticity speak many scientists from a liturgy inability of modern man. On the other hand, develop in many areas of life ( sports events, media) new community rituals and liturgies, para.

However, there is also a liturgical renewal and rediscovery. This includes for example the Berneuchener movement ( " Michael Brothers" ) or the songs of Taizé.

Liturgical Studies and Rubrizistik

The liturgy or liturgy science ( scientia liturgica ) has to penetrate a target, the liturgical celebrations and actions mentally, to promote their origin, their history, explain their importance and their proper and lively enforcement by superintendent and the community. The Rubrizistik ceremony or teaching, so the rite of worship, aims to set out the external ceremonies and rites, and to explain the shape, after the liturgical actions should happen. These statements are called rubrics, because they are usually written in the liturgical books for the differentiation of the liturgical texts in red.