Church Processions

 I hope you’re as glad as I am to be done with that long 12-part series on Anglicanism.  😊  It was fun to write a series. but that one was particularly long and somewhat heady.  So, let’s get back down to earth.

Is there such a thing as a “recessional” hymn in church parlance?  The common language folks use for when ministers enter the church is to “process” into the church.  And by extension the opening hymn is referred to as “the processional” or “processional hymn.”  In contrast the hymn sung on the way out of church has been referred to and defined by Webster as the “recessional.”  In essence we walk in (proceed) and we walk out (recede.)  But are we really receding?

While in seminary in our first week in liturgics the professor attempted to deconstruct that type of language and insist that we do not recess from church.  Can you feel the eyes rolling in my head?  What does it matter?  Well as people of the prayer book I have to say language and words do matter.

What the professors were trying to get across to us was that we do not recede from church or from the Presence of God.  Especially since, at the end of worship, we have just consumed the Presence of Christ in the Holy Sacrament.  It’s analogous to think of it as Christ going with us and in us into the world.  In fact, when we listen to the words of the post communion prayer, it anticipates that we are proceeding into the world “to do the works thou hast given us to do" or "to do all such good works as thou hast prepared for us to walk in.” Then, we should see ourselves as the “Church” (Body of Christ) proceeding into the world to further God’s work where ever he leads us.

Why is this important?  Because liturgy is supposed to shape the way we think about things.  When you leave church, are you thinking about stepping away from God by leaving the building and going out into world?  That’s a reasonable perspective.  

Alternatively, as Jesus stepped (proceeded) into the world to save sinners it would be more in line with his character if we, his followers, understood that we too are proceeding into the world, for the purpose of bearing his gifts into the same.