Sunday, January 15, 2023

All the company of Heaven

In church this season, we're using liturgical language from Enriching our Worship, a supplement to the Book of Common Prayer approved in 1997 which offers feminist theological alternatives to masculinist language. The celebrant leads into the Sanctus with these words:

All thanks and praise are yours at all times and in all places, our true and loving God; through Jesus Christ, your eternal Word, the Wisdom from on high by whom you created all things. You laid the foundations of the world and enclosed the sea when it burst out from the womb; You brought forth all creatures of the earth and gave breath to humankind. Wondrous are you, Holy One of Blessing, all that you create is a sign of hope for our journey; And so as the morning stars sing your praises we join the heavenly beings and all creation as we shout with joy: ...

This takes the place of the by comparison rather staid Rite II.

It is right, and a good and joyful thing, always and everywhere to give thanks to you, Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth. Therefore we praise you, joining our voices with Angels and Archangels and with all the company of heaven, who for ever sing this hymn to proclaim the glory of your Name: ...

It's more than a restatement! Not only do we abstract from "Angels and Archangels"; creation involves aa birth! But I found myself confused by the syntax today. Is it the sea or the world that "burst forth from the womb," and, in either case, whose?