The Lay Worship Assistants (LWA) Hub page is a page of recommended worship resources and aids. It is designed for Lay Worship Assistants and others leading worship in the diocese.
Index to resources:
- Children’s Worship
- Church of England resources and liturgies
- Intercessions and Prayer Stations
- Leading worship guidance and aids
- Lectionary resources
- Music, hymns, psalms and songs resources
- Personal prayer resources
- School Worship
- Reflecting on Scriptures in place of a sermon
- Specific styles of service
- Worldwide Anglican resources
- Reading resources
- Diocesan Resources
Please suggest further links or notify broken links to Elizabeth Harper.
Children’s Worship
Church of England Resources
- Church of England Worship Resources: There is a lot here including:
- Common Worship Collects, Prayers, Litanies and Services
- Book of Common Prayer Services (Matins and Evensong)
- Services for different times of the year (Christmas, Holy Week etc.)
- The Liturgical Year explained
- A Service of the Word
- New Patterns for Worship – lots of ideas for a Service of the Word
- Daily Prayer App
- Exciting Holiness provides prayers and collect for the festivals and a little detail of the saints.
- An editable Word copy of Common Worship Morning Prayer on Sunday
- An editable Word copy of BCP Evening Prayer
Intercessions and Prayer Stations
- Leading Intercession a guide from the Exploring Worship Course
- The Bath and Wells Diocesan Prayer resources including Prayer Stations
- 24/7 Prayer International has many resources for prayer
- Methodist Church Introduction to Preparing Prayer Stations
- A Prayer Room for 24/7 prayer stations created by an American Salvation Army cadet
- a name=”lead”>Theresa Cho’s Prayer Stations for Seasons of the Year
Leading Worship
- Praxis offers resources and training for leading worship. There is a south west branch for local training.
- Visual Liturgy Live is a computer based liturgy planning software, pricey but if you are constantly creating your own service sheets it may save you a lot of time.
Lectionary based Resources
- Common Worship Living Word produces a quarterly CD Rom or Book from a more catholic charismatic perspective
- Roots A Methodist hosted site with weekly resources to enrich worship and learning with your whole church community
Music, Hymns, Psalms and Songs
Help with how to choose hymns:
- Royal School of Christian Music (RSCM) resources for planning music for a service. See also their Sunday by Sunday magazine with suggestions for hymns to fit the lectionary.
- Advice from the Church of Scotland ‘Assist our Song’
- Hymn Society Great Britain and Ireland’s short guides to choosing hymns for various occasions. The earlier guides are more general so start from the last page.
- Worship Library’s blog post on selecting hymns.
- EngageWorship is a more contemporary worship resource page.
- Cyberhymnal can help find alternative tunes in the same meter and see hymn lyrics and hear tunes
Instead of missing out the Psalm or hymns, because you have no choir, why not play a modern version? The following sources might help:
- You Tube – you can find most hymns somewhere on YouTube
- Gnu-Tube – songs and psalms from Christchurch Clifton, Bristol (Berj Topalian)
- David Ogden – Psalm Songs from Clifton Cathedral Bristol is an old but good CD. Explore his web page and search in You Tube or purchase a CD.
- Sons of Korah for a more contemporary version of the Psalms
If printing hymn or song lyrics, you will need a licence and you will need to put the licence number on the sheet and send an annual return. The following cover many licences:
- CCLI (Christian Copyright Licencing International) OUP, Thankyou Music, Stainer & Bell, many Anglican hymns
- Calamus Licence – Taize and hymns not covered by CCLI especially modern Catholic songs
Personal Prayer – maintaining your own prayer life
- CofE Common Worship Daily prayer app.
- Pray as you go – Ignatian style daily prayer app
- New Pilgrim Path – resources for contemplative prayer
- Creating your own Rhythm of Life (from Exploring Worship Course)
Schools Work
- Worship Workshop – how to plan a worship slot
Reflecting on Scripture in the Sermon slot
The following resources are Diocesan approved for use in the reflection slot. You should confirm your use with your incumbent or designated contact:
- Ely Diocese Sunday resources – a short homily for the day suitable for reading out by LWAs and churchwardens.
- Ignatian Style Meditations on a biblical passage are available from Soul Shepherding (PDFs) and from pray as you go (15 mins audio)
- Lectio Divina Meditations on a biblical passage are available from Soul Shepherding (PDFs) and from Pray as you go (8-10 min audio)
- Working Preacher.org may help with a reflection you can read out.
Different Styles of Service
- Cafe Church The diocese is launching a Cafe Church Hub.
- Messy Church see especially the resources page and the Church of England Holy Communion page.
- Oremus: An international liturgical website.
Worldwide Anglican Resources
- Anglican Communion Website
- Society of Archbishop Justus hosts Anglican sites and resources around the world. It includes CW Sunday Services
- Anglicans Online – an American independent Anglican site
Further Reading
- Bibliography of relevant books and resources is available below
- Davies, J. ‘The Role of Poetry in Worship‘ Anvil (2000) academic but interesting
Diocesan Resources
The Diocesan documents for LWAs are available on the Lay Worship Assistant’s page and the training course is Exploring Worship. You can find some of the handouts from the course available to download at the bottom of this page and a sample LWA commissioning.
Please suggest further links or resources you have found useful to Elizabeth Harper, so that she can add them to the LPA Hub. Please, also, notify her of any broken links that you find.