Improvisation for Worship

 I'm not sure how often it has happened.  

You are waiting in Church for a locum Priest to arrive to take your mid-week BCP service, when 10 minutes before the start you get a call to say that they are unwell and won't be here.  In the meantime the first members of the congregation are sitting in the Pews, the Altar is laid up, the candles are lit and you have a problem.

You are in vacancy, your retired Priest is away, you don't have permission to lead a service of Communion by Extension, and not enough consecrated hosts in the home communion kits to cover those expected anyway and no time to find a stand in at 10 minutes notice.

So, saying a quick thank you to the unattending Priest, you need to make a decision. What can you do?

Cancel - but people are expecting to worship?

Go straight to the coffee?

Or lead a Service of the Word - but those coming are BCP worshipers in the main?

You have nothing prepared, but you happen to notice the pile of the "Green, Shorter BCP" on a table waiting to be collected by the church you are donating them to.  

The light bulb "Why Not BCP Morning Prayer"?  

You can use the normal days readings, you have enough books for everyone. So you go for it.

You announce that due to the absence of the Priest Holy Communion is now not an option, but we will be saying Morning Prayer together from the Green Books and you would lead.  If anyone felt like they would like to leave as the service wasn't the one advertised, please feel free to do so.  But thankfully nobody does.

The saving grace for you is your familiarity with the BCP, and that of those in church, more used to Holy Communion or Evensong. One or two not used to using the Prayer Book are comfortable, once they realise it is a set format and they will be led by the Minister through the service and their responses are laid out in front of them.

So you proceed and it all goes well. The person due to read the Epistle reads it, you read the Gospel and tell those present that you will not give them a sermon, but spend five short minutes explaining one or two aspects of the readings and the relationship between them.

The service proceeds to the end and you go to the back of church as people leave and are delighted that many of them are more than happy that they could still worship without a Priest present and use a form of worship, which is over 450 years old and despite the language, were able to feel part of it all.

This is something that happened at my parish several years ago, and I thought that it might be a one off episode, but other share the experience of the times when someone didn't turn up and as a Church Warden they'd had to lead Morning or Evening prayer themselves.  

I was glad that my training as a LLM had been used for the purpose it was intended, and now tomorrow, I find myself doing something similar, due to illness and non-availability of a celebrant, but at least I have had notice, have had time to prepare a specific OOS (The Green Books are long gone) for it and a sermon that I was going to preach at the service of Holy Communion.

Somehow this is what my calling is. To support those who lead, but being prepared to step in when required, not to their role, but an alternative leadership role as a Licensed Minister in the Church of God.

And I thank God for calling me to this role, for giving me the skills and knowledge to cope and to fulfill that role and the confidence to immediately step up to the plate when needed.