Customer Reviews

The Book of Occasional Services 2003

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It is an oft-quoted joke that if you ask an Anglican to pray, the Anglican will first reach for a book. Reality is, as it often is, twice as true and half as funny, but for a particular reason. The Anglican liturgical style is very rooted in tradition, and while innovation is acceptable, it must be done in full recognition and appreciation of the past. The primary book used during worship services is the Book of Common Prayer, a book that has remained the centre of Anglican worship in various formats since the 1600s. Each national church has the option of modifying the Book of Common Prayer (BCP) for itself; some nations opt to leave services that are less common, Occasional Services if you will, to a separate book.

This book, the Book of Occasional Services (BOS), is that book for Episcopalians, the American branch of the official Anglican communion. It is updated every three years for the most part, in response to developments at the triennial General Convention. Many Episcopalians can go through most of their church lives never realising this book exists -- many of the services here are performed so infrequently that the typical Sunday attender who doesn't go to much more than Sundays will likely never encounter them. However, this puts forth the real richness of Anglican worship possibilities. In this book one finds some more 'catholic' services -- Maundy Thursday, Stations of the Cross, Tenebrae, as well as other services.

The book is divided into three broad sections: The Church Year, Pastoral Services, and Episcopal Services. The Church Year deals with those services that come round once a year outside of typical Sunday or major holiday observances (those are contained in the BCP proper). This includes small liturgies that can be used even for home and family use, such as blessings of food at Easter time. Most Episcopalians don't practice the tradition of inviting the parish priest to their homes during the fifty days of Easter for a house blessing, but if they should, the pattern for worship is presented here.

The Pastoral Services include services of welcome and departure for congregation members, a vigil for the evening before baptism, regular house blessings, marriage anniversary celebrations, dedication of church properties, furnishings and ornaments, as well as restoring a church or consecrated property to secular use.

The final section on Episcopal Services includes consecration of chrism, reaffirmation of ordination vows, the ending of pastoral relationship, and the more ancient services of installing and seating a bishop. It also includes a service I feel should be used far more often, that is the Setting Apart for a Special Vocation. This tends to be used in monastic settings and the like, but I believe it could be used for so many more parish-based ministries, and could help reinforce the sense of the priesthood of all believers by showing the church is liturgically serious about lay ministers just as it is about the ordained clergy.

This book should be more widely known -- it is a history lesson in liturgy in many ways, and shows the greater richness of liturgical worship. Often, Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians, Old Catholics, Roman Catholics, and others will use the liturgies contained in here; there are few things that are specific to the Anglican church proper, and the Anglican church has a history of permitting its liturgical resources to become the shared inspiration of Christendom as a whole.

There is no doubt that if you are Anglican (Episcopal) clergy, this book is a must have. It contains rubrics and services not in the Book of Common Prayer but still fairly common. It would also be highly useful for those involved in planning Anglican liturgies, whether they do so from the perspective of the ordained or not. Others will find much less use for it but it could still be useful or even interesting if that is where your interests lie.

Speaking as a member of the United Methodist clergy, I find it useful as a guide for planning some things which our refferences do not directly address. I also find it useful to come up with variations on things our books do address. The healing service it contains has been of particular use. We have a similar rite but are very free to adapt. This book helped in that adaptation.

I also like this book just for the simple fact that I am interested in liturgy. As such, the subject matter is of interest to me.

People from a non-liturgical background will find very little in this book to recommend it. The people who will find use for it are probably aware of it already.

I decided to update. The BOOS that I had been using was the 1991 edition. The 2003 BOOS has a few more services for commissioning of ministries, but what I was pleasantly surprised to see was a new section with services in French and Spanish!

I was disappointed in this so-called update to The Book of Occasional Services - 1994. The only thing updated was a Spanish language section of the services. So if you have a 1994 BOS, don't bother to purchase this one. Of course, if you don't have one, I'd buy the 1994 one used, unless you have need of the Spanish language section.

i highly recommend this book that carries on from 2003 for the next 3 years,no changes have been made. A great resource for rites that arent usually done often within the episcopal church(book of common prayers),these rites deserved their own book for the unique style of conducting small but important ceremonies that mainstream episcopalians dont know of, but are beautiful ways of conducting services, well informative and educational services within the U.S. Episcopal church.

Excellent. Book arrived early & in perfect condition. No problems with the seller. Pleasant experience.