Evensong Prayers and Intercessions

This is one of those posts that have been on my "to do" list for a very long time as I have witnessed a good deal of confusion around the best technique for writing a good set of intercessions at a service of Book of Common Prayer (BCP) Choral Evensong. 

This confusion seems to be compounded by the fact that many clergy and lay ministers use Common Worship Daily Prayer (CWDP) for their daily office. The structure of CWDP differs in a number of ways from the BCP, and one of the stark differences is that there are no intercessions for others within the most commonly used set liturgical options  (with the exception of the Lord's Prayer). Instead, after the Benedictus, there are thematic suggestions and the instruction:

These responses may be used

Lord in your mercy

Hear our prayer

(or)

Lord hear us.

Lord graciously hear us. 

This can lead to the temptation to treat BCP Evensong intercessions in a similar vein to those in CWDP, or even in a similar vein to Eucharistic intercessions, with lengthy biddings followed by the aforementioned response. However, although I hate to be too dictatorial of the prayer life of others there are two reasons why I personally this is a bad idea.

In short:

1 - "Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer" is not in the liturgy for 1662 Evensong, and a number of those who come to Choral Evensong because they want a traditional service find the response rather annoying, because it has been parachuted in from another liturgy altogether.

2 - The response "Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer" isn't in the book. (At least I have never seen a Choral Evensong service book with this response written in it). Those leading the intercessions are therefore expecting the congregation to simply know this response, and that is deeply unfair to visitors and makes spiritual seekers and tourists feel unwelcome. Particularly because Choral Evensong is the kind of service which attracts spiritual seekers and tourists, especially in town-centre churches and cathedrals. Moreover in tourist towns a number of attendees don't have English as their first language and "Amen" is international.

It is true that those leading intercessions can tell the congregation what their responses should be at the start of the prayers, and this would indeed be good practice for those insisting on using this form of intercession. However I would like to argue that there is something more fundamental going on in the structure of intercessions at Choral Evensong. Therefore let's take a few snapshots of the responses that the choir have sung. The choir is not simply entertaining us (although the music should, hopefully, be lovely). The precentor and choir are, in fact, leading us in intercessory prayer. 

O Lord, shew thy mercy upon us.

And grant us thy salvation.

A prayer for our salvation, the salvation of those we know and love, and the salvation of the world. 

   

O Lord, save the King.

And mercifully hear us when we call upon thee.

A prayer for His Majesty the King, but, it seems to me, also a prayer for his government, the stability of our nation, and the rulers of the earth. 

Endue thy ministers with righteousness.

And make thy chosen people joyful.

A prayer for the Church, and for all who lead and teach within it, followed by a prayer for those who are in emotional turmoil; depressed, lonely, grieving or heartbroken. A lot of prayer is packed into those two short lines!

   

O Lord, save thy people.

And bless thine inheritance.

Once again a prayer of salvation but also a prayer of blessing and an opportunity to remember before God those we know and love. 

   

Give peace in our time, O Lord.

Because there is none other that fighteth for us,

but only thou, O God.

A prayer for peace on Earth and an opportunity to particularly remember those areas of conflict within the world. 

   

O God, make clean our hearts within us.

And take not thy Holy Spirit from us.

A prayer for our own personal spiritual refreshment and renewal. 

Therefore, in a service of Evensong, before we ever come to the spoken intercessions, we have already held a number of situations in prayer before God. Traditionally the practice following the Choir's anthem (if there was one) was to use the state prayers; a prayer for the King's majesty, a prayer for the Royal family, a prayer for the clergy and people, finishing with the most popular prayer of St John Chrysostom and the Grace. These four prayers are all written in the style of a collect , and the ending of these prayers: "Through the merits of Jesus Christ our saviour"/"Through Jesus Christ Our Lord" clearly leads to a congregational Amen. 

I would therefore argue that good practice in Evensong intercessions should be to follow a similar pattern. Having already prayed for almost every kind of situation within the sung responses this final section of an Evensong is our chance to personalise this international and historic liturgy to our time and place. The best way to do this is through very short biddings; for example"We pray for peace in N and all affected by the N (news item)" followed by a collect style prayer, leading clearly to an Amen. These do not have to be historic, but it is beneficial if they are poetic, matching the beauty and poetry of the sung prayers and the anthem. The subjects for these biddings may be themes which have occurred within the bible readings, current news topics, or areas of concern within the church.  It is also good practice to have a prayer of remembrance for those who grieve, checking the RIP list. People who have recently lost a loved one often come to an Evensong service shortly afterwards or on the anniversary of their death to hear that person's name read and remembered before God. 

There are some really lovely collect-style prayers available at our disposal: prayers of the saints, twentieth century prayers by William Temple, Dean Eric Milner-White and many many more. It is also good practice on a saints day, or anniversary of the death of a writer to use a prayer written by them. Although it was traditional to have four of these collect style prayers, adding a bidding increases the length and I have discovered over time that only having two or three seems to work best, and in any case good practice would dictate that this time lasts no longer than three minutes in total. Otherwise it is taxing the patience of a congregation some members of whom may never have attended church before. An alternative approach (particularly for gifted writers and poets) is to write collects which encompass the biddings or current situations. Here are a couple of mine as examples. 

O God who gave the universe its melody
and placed rhythm into our heartbeat:
Bless Winchester Cathedral Choir
and all who work to give a glimpse of the harmonies
of heaven to the people of our earth. 
May our ears be ever open to the prompting of your Spirit.
May our eyes be ever open to the beauty of your world.
May our voices dress your church 
with the songs of light and life
That we might partner with the angels 
in their never-ending hymn of praise
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

Almighty God, 

Who moulded Adam from the clay of the earth 

And who shapes our lives and fires them in the crucible of your Spirit:

Create and make us into the vessels of your love; 

Open us when we are closed and afraid, 

Raise us when we are low and fallen, 

Smooth us when we stray from the ways of your perfection, 

and help us to be the people you have called us to be, 

in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

Whichever tactic is used the endings need to lead to an Amen. "Through Jesus Christ our Lord" is the most obvious way to get there, but using this for every bidding can get a little repetitive. Other options are as follows:

...through Jesus Christ our Saviour

...through Jesus Christ your Son

...who lives and reigns for ever and ever, world without end

...through our Saviour Jesus Christ

...through Jesus Christ our healer

...through Christ our Saviour and our Lord

....through Christ who hears our prayers and sees our tears

(and there are many more variations upon this kind of theme)

Therefore the congregation are invited to say 3 Amen's and the Grace, the text of which is generally printed in the book:

THE grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit [or Ghost], be with us all evermore. Amen.

Structuring the intercessions in this fashion, personalising them to the readings and to current news items, but keeping them succinct will finish the service beautifully. It will not grate against the poetry or the music or embarrass newcomers, asking too much of those who do not yet believe. Moreover it will, perhaps, lead people into a place of prayer for the first time when they experience the wonder and awe of intensely beautiful music and prayer within an exceptionally lovely building. I hope so, and this is why I am writing this piece, not because I am a liturgical pedant, but because I long for others to connect with the Eternal God.