A Service for Today's Church is a resource produced by The Rev. John Mason, in consultation with others.
It is in use at St. Clement's Mosman, in Sydney, having received approval from the Archbishop of Sydney under the provisions of Section 4 of the Constitution of the Anglican Church of Australia.
Read about the service below and then download the text of the 64 page booklet here.
Download the files
Parts 1 and 2 in RTF (Introduction and the Resource in full) approx 65k
Part 3 in RTF (Samples of services derived from ASTC - 2 forms each for Morning and Evening Prayer and Holy Communion) approx 106k
These are in Rich Text format (most word processors will handle this well, although you may need to tell your word processor it is an RTF import). These could then be printed in landscape orientation with 2 columns to a page.
The team at St. Clement's would appreciate feedback on the service. Printed booklets of the service and accompanying notes are available from -
- St. Clement's Anglican Church
- P.O. Box 474, Mosman, NSW 2088 Australia
- Tel (02) 9968 1699 during office hours (International + 61 2 9968 1699)
- Fax (02) 9968 1692 (International + 61 2 9968 1692)
(Potential users of the material in Sydney Diocese are reminded of the provisions of Section 4 of the Constitution concerning permission for use.)
A Service for Today's Church - a helpful new evangelical ministry tool [Reprinted from the October 1997 issue of ACL News]
Last year's debate at Sydney Synod on A Prayer Book for Australia demonstrated a desire that liturgical forms should teach Biblical truth in a clear and unclouded way.
John G. Mason (Rector of St. Clement's Mosman), in consultation with such people as Bishop Donald Robinson, Dr Don Carson and Dr Alan Cole, has produced a new form of service which seeks to be Biblical and user-friendly.
Having its origins in A Modern Liturgy, the new service, A Service for Today's Church (ASTC), seeks to address the needs of continuity and flexibility -
Continuity
It seeks to retain a sense of continuity with the doctrinal and liturgical framework of our Anglican heritage.
Many aspects of ASTC have a familiar feel and it is described as a service "that resonates well with Anglicans who are attuned to our liturgical heritage".
Flexibility
At the same time, it allows sufficient flexibility to address the pastoral realities of a generation which expects informality and variety.
ASTC can be adapted to the needs of diverse congregations - On the one hand, it provides a form that can be used in a formal, traditional Anglican context where people value having every word of the service printed out for them to follow and join in.
On the other hand, it can be adapted to congregations where a formal liturgical service is perceived as unfriendly and unedifying.
ASTC can be used as a 'Morning' or 'Evening' service and for Holy Communion without the Communion section being an 'add on'. And it can be presented on two (for MP or EP) or four (HC) sides of an A5 page rather than in a booklet.
While seeking to retain those elements central to evangelical Anglican heritage, ASTC provides sufficient flexibility so that no two consecutive services need be the same.
Approved for use
St. Clement's Mosman has recently been given permission to use the service under Section 4 of the Constitution of the Anglican Church of Australia. A sub-committee of the Liturgical Panel is looking into ASTC further.
It is John Mason's hope that the new service will continue to spur on the process of liturgical revision and assist evangelical Anglicans especially, in effective ministry to the diversity of Anglican needs in the 1990s and beyond.
It would be good if as many as possible across the Diocese could give John comments and feedback so that the service might be further refined.
For this purpose, ASTC is available for download from the ACL's website, or on disk or in printed form from St. Clement's Mosman. (Users in Australia are reminded of the provisions of Sections 4 of the Constitution of the Anglican Church of Australia concerning approval for the use of church services.)
John G. Mason has served as Rector of St. Clement's Mosman, in Sydney, and a Vice-President of the Anglican Church League. He is currently ministering in the USA.
Documents added 15 November 1997, updated 5 September 2000