ECCT offers the following frameworks and resources in the hopes that they are conversation partners with you as you finalize if/how your Parish or Worshipping Community engages with the observation of the 250th Anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of the Independence. There is no singular approach to this observation.
Scripture
The Propers of the Day for Sunday, July 5th are Proper 9, Ordinary Time, Year A. The Propers of the Day provide some excellent opportunities for exploring what it means to be a follower of Jesus today. We suggest you might add the Collect for the Nation (BCP pg. 258), Collect For Peace (BCP pg. 258), or Thanksgivings for National Life, For the Nation (BCP pg. 838).
Hymns
The Hymnal 1982 has some excellent choices for marking this moment. Some suggestions include In Christ there is no East or West (#529) and America the Beautiful (#719).
There are also strong choices beyond Hymnal 1982. One we might suggest is Finlandia. Our invitation to you, regardless of what hymns you pick is to spend time prayerfully with the hymns exploring how they proclaim the gospel message of love. How do they further our mission of growing in faith, living in hope, and serving in love? If you reproduce the hymn for a service leaflet please make sure you have copyright permission.
Prayers
There are a number of excellent resources for prayers, both within the Book of Common Prayer and beyond. We encourage you to look for resources that will incorporate the voices of marginalized communities today and ones which speak to our calling to be followers of Jesus.
We commend to you this litany written by the Reverend Thomas Blake, Rector of Trinity Church, Branford.
Using historical prayer books
If you choose to offer a liturgy out of one of the historical prayer books of The Episcopal Church, please be in touch with the Bishop Suffragan’s Office to be in conversation. Some questions we are asking you to explore include: What teaching are you offering around the liturgy, including acknowledgement that only White male clergy were leading the services? What spaces are you giving for everyone to reflect on how the liturgy speaks to the community gathered in the 1700s and how it does or does not speak to our communities today?
Readings in addition to those from scripture
There are several resources that people are exploring from some of the marginalized voices of our country. If you would like to include one in the liturgy of the day, please reach out to the Bishop Suffragan’s Office for conversation and idea sharing about how it could be incorporated. If you would like to offer such a reading during a coffee hour or forum after church with a discussion, we commend your exploration of those topics.