Anglican Liturgy and Community: The Influence of the Experience of Community on the Experience of Liturgy as a Challenge for Liturgical Renewal and Formation

Abstract

W people gather for worship on a Sunday morning, they bring with them all kinds of experiences, including joy and sorrow, laughter and pain, blessing and suffering. My research on the relationship between Anglican liturgy and suffering people reveals that such people feel acknowledged in liturgy only if they experience their church community positively. The experiences of suffering and of community pose a challenge to liturgical renewal and liturgical formation, two much-discussed issues these days.1 The present article focuses on the experience of liturgy in relation to the experience of community.2