Fresh Summer Worship

Who Celebrates?

The following article by The Rev. Kate Jenkins, Associate Rector, appears in the June 2010 Epistle newsletter, available to pick up in the church this Sunday.

What's in a name? Do we identify the ordained priest who oversees the liturgy as the "celebrant," the "presider," the "presiding priest," or the "priest"? And is this question of terminology mere hair-splitting or is there something more to it?

When The Book of Common Prayer that we currently use in worship was authorized by General Convention in 1979, one of the most significant changes theologically was the recovery of a thoroughly baptismal ecclesiology -- that is, an understanding of the church that defines Christian community in terms of the common ground that all of the baptized members share. Baptism became the defining sacrament of incorporation, not Confirmation.

This renewed vision of the church, the "body of Christ," also caused a re-examination of the role of the ordained in relation to the role of the laity. The previous model had been heavily "clerical" in theology -- the 1979 prayer book is far more balanced. A baptismal ecclesiology affirms that the gifts of the Holy Spirit are given to all members so that ministry can be understood as shared by all of the people, whether lay or ordained, each according to the nature of the gifts that the Spirit has given.

Presider or Celebrant? Words Matter.

Thirty years later, we are still in the process of incorporating the theology of baptism recovered from the early church into our daily life of worship and three decades of reflection and prayer have lead to some subtle adjustments. We see this notably in the words we use to describe leadership roles in the liturgy. In recent years several ancient terms have reappeared to designate the role we have usually called the "celebrant." The term "presider" may seem new, but it is in fact the oldest term in the Christian vocabulary for one who serves as the liturgical overseer at a celebration of the eucharist; the one who proclaims the words of the Great Thanksgiving, the eucharistic prayer by which the gifts of bread and wine are consecrated for communion. Newer eucharistic liturgies from various parts of the Anglican Communion, namely from the U.S., New Zealand, England and Canada reflect this recovered theology by using the terms "priest" or "presiding priest" to refer to the liturgical overseer.

The term "celebrant" developed in a context in which the ordained priest was seen as the only essential person for a celebration of the eucharist to take place - the laity were extraneous to the essential action. Limiting the term "celebrant" to bishops and priests sends the message that only the priests are celebrating the eucharist, and fails to recognize that all the people gathered are celebrants. All of the people who have gathered are the celebrants of the liturgical action. Thus, the celebration of the eucharist is not an act of the ordained clergy that laity are permitted to observe, but the "work of the people," which is the classic definition of the word leitourgia, liturgy.

St. Paul's is a church which embraces this transformed vision of ministry -- you, the people of God -- live a baptismal-shaped life. Just ask Fletcher Lowe! However our continued use of the term "celebrant" did not accurately reflect or support that vision. Beginning on the First Sunday in Lent, we began referring to the priest overseeing the liturgy as the "presider" rather than the "celebrant" to more accurately acknowledge that the Eucharist is truly the shared action of the whole people of God -- not one person wearing a stole.

Words matter.