04-01-2016, 04:05 PM
(04-01-2016, 03:40 PM)xxlt Wrote: Meaning? In the Catholic Church the Mass is broadly divided into two parts: the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist. The word liturgy means public worship or ritual. The last church I attended had no worship elements and was pretty lean on ritual too, although there was an order of the meeting. I just found the phrase in bold above jumped out at me and wondered if you could delineate what you mean be liturgical and non-liturgical church and give some examples of each.
While technically speaking every worship service is a liturgy, the differentiation between liturgical and non-liturgical churches is something that I grew up with. Liturgical churches would be those with a more formal, ritualized service. Denominations such as Lutheran, Anglican, Catholic, Orthodox, etc. Non-liturgical would be those like the Baptists, Brethren, Quakers, and many of those termed as "evangelical" churches today.
While there is no hard and fast rule for this, things that I was often told growing up identified a liturgical church were: collared clergy, eucharist at each service, adherence to the liturgical year beyond the big 2, veneration of saints, etc.