Congregational Renewal

An Opportunity for United Church Leaders

An Invitation

The United Church of Canada is participating in the Open Source Liturgy Project of The United Methodist Church, U.S.A. The goal of OSLP is to build an online collection of new liturgical texts for use by all congregations in several denominations.

Theological and ecumenical guidelines (“cores”) have been established for baptism, communion, marriage, and funeral services. The new texts will be vetted and tested by congregations chosen by the writing group. After feedback, the new text will be finalized and posted on a dedicated website for all to access.

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The United Church of Canada’s Participation

In December 2009, seven groups of writers were established. Six sites have been chosen for the groups: Saint John, Kingston, London, Barrie, Victoria, and Malaysia. We are looking for a seventh site in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, or Alberta. If you are interested, please e-mail worship.

The convenors’ training will take place March 18–20 in Toronto.

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Anticipated Results

Participants will enjoy the fellowship of other liturgical writers and the satisfaction of contributing to a new source of worship resources. Once on the web your text may be used by any others in the project and our congregations may draw on all the texts in the project for their own uses.

Various groups are already forming across North America and in the Caribbean, intentionally inclusive of many cultures. The contextual voice of each enriches the texts for all, opening a wider vision of the church today.

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Licensing and Permissions

The General Board of Discipleship (GBOD) of The United Methodist Church is responsible for the project. All texts will be protected under a Creative Commons Licence.

For more information, contact the Worship Desk.