Liturgy launch - The Farewelling of a Home
The Rt. Rev. Dr Peter Carrell, Anglican Bishop of Christchurch, and Jane pray that the liturgy will be a blessing to many.
From the address by the Rt. Rev. Dr Peter Carrell, Anglican Bishop of Christchurch
Most church liturgies are composed by committees, with varying results, and there is room for an individual to produce a liturgy that both meets a need and gains wide acceptance.
Your liturgy meets a need and I hope it gains wide acceptance.
In due course, and through formal process it could be that your liturgy is accepted as an official liturgy of our church.
From the launch address by Bernadette Hall, Canterbury poet (NZOM)
The liturgy provides an emotionally sound framework. Tradition is not abandoned. The familiar and much loved is here, for example Ecclesiastes 3:1–8 and the Lord’s Prayer in English and te reo. There is plenty of space, breathing room if you like, right through the liturgy. Opportunities for those present to respond and share their own creativity, their memories, music and songs. The liturgy isn’t static. There’s movement, as people walk through the rooms of the house, through the garden.
One of my favourite texts is the prayer in the kitchen:
Creator God, we give thanks this day
for cooking and conversation,
for family and friends, unexpected guests,
the fruit of the earth, the work of our hands,
for recipes passed down, new ones to test …
From the address by Jenny May, heritage consultant, (ONZM)
Having lost our home of 25 years in the earthquake and then moving 14 times over 6 years while waiting to settle with our insurers, a liturgy such as The Farewelling of a Home would have been a wonderful and comforting thing to have had. A home holds a special sense of place and protection in our lives; a place full of the intangible – memories – be they happy, sad, profound, character-building; a place where we have grown and developed our personalities; loved, laughed, and wept – a place that holds our human emotions.
But leaving a home is not always a sad occasion it can be an exciting change, a move forward. Whatever the reason, it is important to farewell our home in a manner that we feel we are at peace with. If you didn't say goodbye to your home in a ritual way, particularly over the last decade, then reading the liturgy might help work through that loss and provide comfort, reasoning and understanding.
I was pleased to hear Bishop Peter say that this liturgy fills a niche where there is a gap in our liturgies. I am sure it would be a welcome addition, I hope in the not-too-distant future, to our Anglican canon of liturgies. My sincere congratulations Jane on publishing this work.
