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Cathedral dean pens book of Eucharistic aids

By Melodie Woerman
Editor, The Harvest

	The Very Rev. Steve Lipscomb

The Very Rev. Steve Lipscomb, dean of Grace Cathedral, Topeka, has written a book he hopes will enrich worship in parishes across the Episcopal Church. He has created special proper prefaces and offertory sentences for every Sunday of the church year that tie in to the lessons appointed for the day.

Proper prefaces are variable portions of the Eucharistic prayers that change with the church season or for given holy days. Offertory sentences are the words used by the celebrant before the offering is taken.

Lipscomb said he undertook this project while on sabbatical four years ago. He’d long thought that it would be beneficial to have proper prefaces that were more connected to the readings, which themselves are tied together with a common theme. When no one else created such a work, he took on the project himself.

The Prayer Book provides a total of 22 proper prefaces, three for use on Sundays, nine for the various seasons of the church year and 10 for special occasions.

Unique every week

Lipscomb hopes his language might make worshippers take notice, especially on Sundays when the same preface is repeated so often during the year. “People’s ears become accustomed to the three we have,” he said. “The fact that you’re not hearing those might make you realize this is something different, something new.”

He said the variety his prefaces provide makes each week unique and “is one more way to connect the liturgy together.”

He said the prefaces and the offertory sentences will reflect one of several options: the Old Testament reading, the psalm, the epistle, the gospel, the theme of the day or the theme of the season. His book notes which of these he used for the prefaces and the sentences.

Lipscomb has written these enhancements for every Sunday in the three-year cycle of scripture readings and for holy days that might fall on a Sunday. He has created them both for the Revised Common Lectionary currently in use in this and most other dioceses and also, where it differs, for the Episcopal lectionary that is printed in the back of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer.

The RCL versions are pointed for Anglican chant, he said.

He finished his research and writing during his sabbatical and then spent the next three years “field testing” them in weekly use at the cathedral. He said he discovered a few places where the written words didn’t speak as easily as he’d like, and he’s adjusted those spots. He also sent them all to a friend in South Carolina who has provided useful input from the experience in that parish, he said.

The book is available only by electronic download, one church year at a time. Year C, which began on the First Sunday of Advent, is available now for $30.

Lipscomb said he’ll received about 20 percent of any profits, but he doubts it will be much and isn’t the reason he wrote the work. He did it as “something other churches can use and, I hope, find helpful,” he said.

He said his next sabbatical might involve writing Prayers of the People for every Sunday that also would reflect the theme of the day.