Med de bästa intentioner Hur kyrkohandboksrevisionens avsikter med gudstjänstens inledning har genomförts i kyrkohandboksförslaget

Abstract

With the Best Intentions How the Handbook Revision’s Stated Purposes are Implemented in the Proposed Kyrkohandbok for the Church of Sweden

In this article I give an account of the intentions that the committee behind the proposed new worship book for the Church of Sweden has expressed in their commentary to the proposal and if and how these intentions are fully implemented in the proposal itself.

I focus on the Gathering, i.e. the initial part of the Sunday service, above all the Office of Preparation (“Beredelsen”) and the Kyrie. In order to illuminate both the intentions of the committee and the actual suggestions in the proposal, I give a historical background for each part of the ritual, a short summary of the committee’s work and some comparisons with corresponding parts of the Sunday service in other Lutheran churches.

My conclusion is that some of the (mostly well-founded) intentions of the committee have not been pursued in the proposal. To clarify what one is asking for forgiveness for in the Prayer for Forgiveness is one such intention that was not carried out, as the proposal does not provide any words of preparation for this prayer. The committee also wanted the Kyrie to be separated from the Office of Preparation, but its place in the proposal makes the two entwined. Another intention not fully realized in the proposal is the intention to express the complexity of God as described in the Bible: both unfathomable and close, both severe and merciful. In the proposal, almost the whole emphasis is on God as close and merciful.

I wish the committee would have continued along the way they themselves staked out for the various elements of the service. Then it ingrid dahlström 83 would have been possible to discuss thoroughly the differences between the proposed innovations and the old usages, which might have led the way to a more pastoral service.