Landscape Liturgies

Outdoor worship resources from the Christian tradition

Nick Mayhew-Smith

• Publisher: Canterbury Press Norwich
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781786223807
• eBook ISBN: 9781786223821
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Rituals & Practice

Landscape Liturgies offers outdoor worship material drawn from 2, 000 years of outdoor Christian practice. It contains prayers, rituals, blessings and liturgies compiled from Anglican, Roman Catholic, Methodist and Orthodox sources, as well as early church material, the desert tradition and monastic spirituality.It includes resources for the blessing of water courses, tree planting, garden blessings, a wide range of churchyard ceremonies, Rogation and other processionary ideas, field and animal blessings, pilgrim and walking prayers, ceremonies at holy wells and sacred grottoes, at hilltops and landmark monuments, and for the ringing of bells which traditionally demarcated sacred space in the landscape.This fascinating and versatile resource will enable urban and rural churches and church schools, retreat houses and pilgrimage centres to conduct a wide variety of services and meditations in the landscape around them.

1. ANIMAL BLESSINGS

For many of us animals are the closest relationship we have to the natural world. Constant companions and very much part of home life, pets in particular have a special place in our hearts, much cherished and loved, and much mourned at their deaths. The liturgies in this chapter offer a way of channelling such emotions and connections. But they also look beyond, to a celebration of all of God’s creatures for their own sake, rather than serving human needs alone.

Bees in particular are an important part of many ecosystems, infinitely greater than their immediate use to humans, and are rightly honoured here with their own thoughtfully composed liturgy from the Russian Orthodox tradition. It is one of the hopes of this book that it will inspire and enable churches to adopt their own little bee home in a churchyard wherever possible, offering sanctuary and an honoured place to our beloved and much-threatened pollinators.

It is not difficult to find meaningful animal interactions in the Gospel accounts of Jesus, from the very moment of his birth in the stable through to his observations and comments about bird life. Jesus compared himself favourably to animals, a mother hen and the lamb of God, and was also touched by a dove at the moment of his baptism. ‘You save humans and animals alike, O Lord’, sang the psalmist – just one of many Jewish verses which ground such attitudes in wise and ancient traditions (Ps. 36.6).

The spiritual significance of animals is a theme picked up from the early church onwards, with hymns, poems and prayers abounding in inspiration sparked by contact with the natural world. The early Christian writer Origen argued that animals would share in the universal redemption.11 That is not to say the whole of Christian history has been marked by a sympathy towards all of God’s creatures, and indeed Origen’s writings have been contested, and humans considered to be superior in a hierarchical order of creation.

Indeed many theologians have taught that the natural world was provided as a resource for humans to exploit. Such a line of thinking had fewer worrying consequences in medieval times, when much of the world was still wilderness, and wolves and bears might easily provoke uncharitable thoughts towards nature in the raw. Today however the effects of human over-exploitation and environmental degradation have given a new urgency to the work of theologians alongside others in re-evaluating the ethical, moral and spiritual aspects of our relationship to our fellow creatures.

Modern theologians have picked up this important thread and continue to witness to the spiritual and devotional significance of animals in a number of ways. Revd Barbara Allen, former chaplain at the Lort Smith Animal Hospital in Melbourne, has kindly provided a blessing service to be held on St Francis Day, 4 October. Professor Andrew Linzey has a particularly venerable place in the development of animal theology, having produced books on the subject since the 1970s. He is founder and director of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics12 and has also contributed two liturgies to this chapter. His influence has helped to inspire other contributors, including another Oxford-based charity, Pan-Orthodox Concern for Animals (panorthodoxconcernforanimals.org).

This book envisions that the blessing services involving animals are conducted outdoors. For animal welfare issues around bringing pets into a church building, some simple but important considerations need to be borne in mind. Among many good resources on this topic we recommend Professor Linzey’s book Animal Rites.13

Blessing of the Bees and Hives

The following prayer and ritual is a traditional Russian Orthodox prayer for the blessing of bees and the thriving of their hives. It involves the sprinkling of holy water over the hives three times, a reading from Luke’s Gospel and a blessing on the keepers who maintain the bee communities.14 At the end of this ritual, the prayers seek to dispel ‘spells’ or ‘enchantments’ that may linger around the bees, a term we have translated as ‘pollution’ for reasons both spiritual and environmental. Thus the service begins by describing bees as useful for our needs, but ends by speaking of human contamination; a balanced view of our place in creation.

The Bee Blessing

The minister and congregation gather near the beehive

Minister: Blessed is your name, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, now and forever.

All: Amen.

Holy God, holy and mighty, holy and immortal, have mercy on us. (Said three times)

All-holy Trinity have mercy on us. O Lord cleanse away our sins, O Master, forgive our iniquities, O holy one visit and heal our infirmities, for your name’s sake.

Lord have mercy. (Said three times)

Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit both now and forever unto the ages of ages.

The Lord’s Prayer

Lord have mercy. (Said 12 times)

O come let us worship God our king. O come let us worship and fall down before Christ, our King and God. O come let us worship and fall down before the very Christ, our King and God.

Psalm 50

During the recitation of the psalm the minister blesses the beehive once with holy water; two further blessings will follow later in the service

The mighty one, God the Lord,

speaks and summons the earth

from the rising of the sun to its setting.

Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty,

God shines forth.

Our God comes and does not keep silence,

before him is a devouring fire,

and a mighty tempest all around him.

He calls to the heavens above

and to the earth, that he may judge his people:

‘Gather to me my faithful ones,

who made a covenant with me by sacrifice!’

The heavens declare his righteousness,

for God himself is judge.

‘Hear, O my people, and I will speak,

O Israel, I will testify against you.

I am God, your God.’

‘Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you;

your burnt-offerings are continually before me.’

‘I will not acc...

Table of contents

• Copyright information
• CONTENTS
• Dedication
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• FOREWORD
• INTRODUCTION
• 1. ANIMAL BLESSINGS
• Blessing of the Bees and Hives
• The Prayer of St Mammes for Animals
• Blessing of the Animals on St Francis Day
• St Bride’s Charm for Animal Blessings
• Liturgies of Animal Care
• 1 Celebrating the Creatures
• 2 A Service for Animal Welfare
• Blessing of the Animals: A Short Service
• The Prayer of St Modestus for Animals
• Blessing for Animal Welfare Staff and Sanctuaries
• Prayer at the Death of Companion Animals
• 2. LOVE FEASTS AND COMMUNITY GATHERINGS
• Liturgy for a Love-Feast: A Time of Centring
• Liturgy for a Love-Feast: Katrina’s Dream
• Liturgy for a Love-Feast: UK Methodist Version
• 3. CHURCHYARD, PARISH AND ROGATION BLESSING RITUALS
• Clipping Service
• Two Blessings of Green Things: Crops, Grass and Herbs
• The Blessing of Public Utilities: Roman Catholic Order
• A Traditional Rogation Liturgy
• An Elizabethan Rogation Day Service
• Blessing of a Bridge, Road and Other Means of Transport: Roman Catholic Order
• Prayers for Street Pastors
• Blessing of a Sports Field or Gymnasium: Roman Catholic Order
• Visiting a Cemetery: Roman Catholic Order
• 4. WATER BLESSINGS AND RITUALS
• Well Blessing from the Bobbio Missal
• Three Anglo-Saxon Water Prayers
• The Great Blessing of the Waters
• Blessing of the River from a Bridge
• Blessing of the Waters: The Syrian Ritual
• Sea Sunday Service and Blessing of Boats
• 1 Sea Sunday Service and Blessing of Boats
• 2 Choral Evensong for Sea Sunday
• Sea and Ocean Blessings from the Carmina Gadelica
• Blessing of Boats and Fishing Gear: Roman Catholic Short Rite
• 5. TREE BLESSINGS AND GATHERINGS
• A Tree-planting Liturgy
• A Tree-planting Eucharist
• A Toast to a Tree
• A Prayer Over Trees and Vines
• An Early Medieval Tree Blessing
• 6. FIELDS, HILLS, WEATHER AND AGRICULTURE
• A Service for the Apparition of St Michael the Archangel
• Field Blessings from Anglo-Saxon England
• The Prayer of St Tryphon for the Protection of Gardens, Fields and Crops
• Blessing of Seeds at Planting Time: Short Order Roman Catholic Rite
• The Æcerbot Field Blessing Ritual
• Blessing of First Grain and Blessing of a Bakery
• A Reaping Blessing from the Carmina Gadelica
• Two Blessings: For Apples and First Fruits in Anglo-Saxon Tradition
• Harvest Blessing from the Apostolic Tradition
• Blessing of Grapes and Beans
• A Prayer Against Lightning
• Order for the Blessing of Fields and Flocks: Roman Catholic Order
• 7. PILGRIMAGE PRAYERS AND BLESSINGS
• Anglo-Saxon Journey Blessings
• An Irish Blessing For Travellers
• Prayer for Travelling
• Prayer to St James Prayed While Walking the Camino
• The Blessing of Pilgrims: Roman Catholic Order
• A Prayer Over Pilgrims from the Sarum Missal
• A Service for Pilgrims and Travellers
• Anglo-Saxon or Celtic Journey Charm
• Prayer for One who Intends to Go on a Journey
• BIBLIOGRAPHY
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS OF SOURCES
• FURTHER READING AND RESOURCES
• NOTES
• LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS