A comparison between Common Worship and Collective Worship

A straightforward fourfold shape is commended by the Church for simple acts of worship:

• Preparation (a greeting, recollection or confession, praise and a collect or prayer for the day)
• 
  Liturgy of the Word (hearing and exploring the words of the Bible )
• 
  Prayers (thanksgiving and prayers for those in need and the Lord’s Prayer)
• 
  Conclusion (dismissal)

It only takes a few moments thought to see that the most commonly used pattern of whole school collective worship closely reflects this:

• An opening greeting, a song, a story a prayer with perhaps some form of conclusion and an orderly exit from the gathering place.

This means that Common Worship can become an appropriate resource for collective worship, as it offers:

• 
  greetings and opening sentences
• 
  (praise) responses
• 
  intercessions
• 
  introductions to Bible readings
• 
  dismissals and blessings

Sources
The words are taken from the new Church of England service book, Common Worship, and some of its associated volumes, particularly New Patterns for Worship and Times and Seasons.

The language used in Common Worship

‘"Common Worship language" draws from many sources and reflects the challenges of meaning-making of varied cultures: the ancient cultures of the Hebrew Bible (or Old Testament); the world of the early Christians in the New Testament. There are prayers and texts which were developed, written down and used in the worship of Christian communities until the Reformation, and then there are the words of the Book of Common Prayer, most of which was translated from the Latin texts of the pre-Reformation Church or written anew to meet the dilemmas of the time, by Archbishop Cranmer. Finally, there are prayers and texts written more recently that try to give us words to offer to God the puzzles and dilemmas of our present age.

Drawing on all these sources the materials try to answer questions which are universal to all humanity, through all ages, in all times and places. For example the big existential questions – Why am I here? What will happen when I die? By contrast, some of the texts deal with personal needs and experiences -Why am I bullied? Please protect me. We find superb examples of the latter in some of the Psalms, for example. Some of the material is about the needs of "now": global warming or the problems of pollution and terrorism etc.