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It’s hard to pin down a real definition of these terms.  In the original sense of the term High Church, what was meant was a preference for the liturgical ritual and ceremony of the Roman Catholic service — particularly the Tridentine Mass, a solemn liturgy which originated following the Council of Trent and involved a deacon and subdeacon’s celebrating the service.  This preference was opposed to that of those who preferred a simpler service — “Low Church”.  The arguments about High Church vs. Low Church occurred mainly in the more liturgically conservative Lutheran and Anglican communions.  After Vatican II, the Catholic church itself has been involved in this debate — whether to keep the traditions, rituals and cermonies that have come down through the ages, or adopt a more contemporary style of worship.  Currently, permission or leave to celebrate the Tridentine Mass has to be obtained — otherwise the liturgy of the post Vatican II Missal is to be observed.  To Methodists, even the reformed service might seem “High Church”.

Methodists — indeed just about any liturgical denomination — now use these terms in a broader sense in referring to worship styles that are more ordered and formal versus those which are more casual and open.  At one end of the spectrum, vestments are more ornate, symbolism is based on tradition and (in some churches) incense may play a part in worship.  At the other end of the spectrum, vestments may discarded altogether for casual clothing and symbolism may draw from current society.

One author has likened effective liturgy as a type of Bethel experience.  You’ll recall that Bethel (literally, “House of God”) was the place where Jacob dreamed of the ladder, or stairway, to Heaven, and God appeared to him and made his covenant with Jacob.  The next morning, Jacob set up as a pillar the stone on which he had laid his head while he slept and anointed it with oil.  Even this early we see the use of ritual as a means of re-creating communication with the Divine.

Whether you’re talking about High Church, Low Church or Emerging Church worship (more about the latter tomorrow), you’re talking about ritual.  One question is where these rituals are drawn from.  Another is whether they take into account that what we are about is sacred.  God is both completely “other” than us and yet, by the grace of the incarnation and the Spirit, accessible to us.  How then, do we go about achieving both a sense of awe at the mystery of the eternal and awesome nature of God, while also invoking a sense of His mercy and immediate presence?

For those who’ve been attending class the past few Sundays, you’ve heard the terms anamnesis and prolepsis more than once.  One of the things we try to achieve in worship is to recall the past into the present and to anticipate now the future of Christ’s reign.  We don’t let ourselves fall into the very human trap of boxing in the past, present and future, but attempt — as best humans can attempt — to intersect our world with God’s eternal world.  One of the ways we can do this is to recognize that the Church — not the individual — is (as Prof. Stookey puts it) the irreducible unit of Christianity; and the Church consists of the past, present and the future.

Can we do this without taking into account the rituals and symbols of centuries of worship by those who have gone before us?  Can we do this without also taking into account the needs of the present and the people who Christ directs us to in ministry — both physical and spiritual?  And how do we anticipate the reign of Christ the King while observing the other two?

Hey, I’m asking the questions here, you folks need to be getting your answers ready.