Episcopal worship is full of “stuff.” Candles, crosses, special garments, bread, wine, water, and more. We like to worship God in the beauty of holiness, and we use many things from God’s creation in order to communicate meaning and deepen prayer. Our bodies are part of the “stuff,” as we use them actively in worship: making the sign of the cross, walking up the aisle, shaking hands at the peace, eating bread. All of these elements of our worship come down to us from generations of our forebears in faith. All of the things and movements held meaning for people --  enough meaning that they were passed along, commended or commanded to the next generation, and make up part of what we cherish as “tradition.”

In our worship at the Lutheran Episcopal Ministry (LEM) at MIT, as in many other communities of young adults these days, we love the “stuff.” We’ve made frontals for the altar, we bake our own bread, we fill the baptismal font and dip our hands in it all through the Easter season. When I was in seminary, we talked a lot about the “sign value” of material and gesture. A big loaf of bread was better than a tiny wafer because it had greater sign value. A big, noisy baptismal font was better than a tiny bowl of water, because it had greater sign value. That has seemed to be true in our worship at MIT. Students love draping long bolts of blue cloth over the altar and down the aisle for Advent Lessons & Carols. They love celebrating Easter day Eucharist with a huge loaf of Portuguese sweet bread.

But stuff is not just stuff in worship. It points to something beyond itself. It is a sign of something greater than its physical material. Our gestures are not random gestures, or just there for fun. If we are actually worshipping, then our gestures indicate or invite something about our relationship with one another, with stuff, and with God. I’ve wondered in recent years what exactly it is we are communicating in liturgical worship with young adults at this time in history. Does a candle mean to a college student today what it meant to a college student in England in the 17th century? Do vestments communicate now what they communicated in the 4th century? What lens do people bring with them when they come to church for the first time and try to figure out what all this means?

Last Wednesday at MIT, we did an experiment to try to learn more about what our worship service communicates – what it seems to mean, both to newcomers and to our worship “regulars.” We called this a “reverse instructed Eucharist, ” because rather than the pastors explaining what the church is trying to communicate, we wanted to learn from the people what it was they understood the service to mean. We asked the students active in LEM to bring along a friend who had little-to-no experience of liturgical worship. Before the service began, everyone was asked to simply notice certain things during the service: candles, special clothing, movement, people reading in unison, bread & wine, gestures. After the service, everyone was asked to write down (anonymously) their impression of what these things mean. We asked, “What do they ‘say’ to you, what do you imagine we are communicating in or through them?” 

So what did we learn? First, there was no one thing or movement that everyone understood in the same way. For example, candles “meant” the power of God to one person, the power of nature to another, and peace to another. Second, there was remarkably little difference between the responses of the newcomers and the regulars. For example, passing the peace was interpreted by both groups basically as a social exchange meant to foster community.

Third, and most interesting to me, the elements of the service that seemed to communicate most powerfully and positively to all students were those in which they were actively involved and that they understood as “unifying.” These included passing the peace, speaking or singing in unison, holding hands for the Lord’s Prayer, and offering the blessed bread and wine to one another. The actions, apparel, and words of the clergy were less salient, readable, and, frankly, important to the newcomers. 

Our experiment at MIT doesn’t prove anything that is generalizable, of course, but I think it was valuable for us. It sends me back to the liturgical think tank with questions like: How important is it that stuff means to people today what it meant back in the day? What are my responsibilities as a priest to teach the community what the church “means” in the elements of worship?  Is there “stuff” in culture today that communicates core Christian truths and values which might be creatively incorporated into worship, and if so, how do we invite it in?

If you’d like to know more about our “reverse instructed Eucharist,” or try one yourself, please be in touch (mccreath@mit.edu).

The Rev. Amy McCreath, Episcopal Campus Minister at MIT

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