Monday, October 27, 2008

What kind of liturgy do young adults like?

There was an interesting article posted on the Daily Episcopalian blog last week entitled "Yes, young people do like traditional liturgy." I encourage you to read it, if you have a chance, and maybe some of the comments that follow it. I've often wondered if St. Stephen's could attract more students to its regular worship services if they had a more traditional liturgy. I have heard that mentioned as an issue by some former students, but then I wonder how much of a difference that really makes. What do you think?

Interestingly, St. Stephen's has started a new Sunday evening worship service focused around a lectio divina study of scripture. Having attended the first one this past Sunday evening when I was back in town, I found it very enjoyable and a good way to get into the scripture passage read and think about how it applies to my own life. This could certainly be considered a contemporary liturgy (vs. a traditional one), though I would call it a contemplative liturgy. I have also heard that young adults like contemplative worship.

At Virginia Theological Seminary, where I attend, we have a service of Evening Prayer each weeknight at 5:30pm. Each day of the week has a different flavor of Evening Prayer: Monday uses the Evening Prayer service from the New Zealand Prayer Book, Tuesday's service is a chanted Evensong, Wednesday is Evening Prayer read from the 1979 Prayer Book, Thursday is an Evening Prayer service with contemporary praise music, and Friday is spoken Evening Prayer, sometimes in a foreign language (Spanish or French). There is no required attendance for these services. The two services that have the most regular attendance are the Tuesday Evensong service (which could be considered 'traditional') and the Thursday Evening Prayer & Praise service (which could be considered 'contemporary'). About half of the student body at VTS is under 35 years old. Both of the two services mentioned usually each get about 20 attendees, most in the under-35 age group, and I think I'm the only student that regularly attends both of these Evening Prayer services.

Do college students and/or young adults prefer traditional or contemporary worship? Does it depend on their background, what they grew up with? Or does it depend on the quality of the worship? If the worship is authentic and well-done (not boring, sloppy, or joyless), is that what makes it more attractive to young people? What do you think?

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