Liturgy and Worship

Worship is what Christians do because they believe in God. It is an act of faith and a response to our Creator. There are many different ways in which people worship God and you will find that variety reflected in the churches of this diocese. There are informal services of prayer and praise, traditional choral evensong and parish communions. Some use traditional words and music, others more contemporary texts and sounds. You may wish to use the church search facility to discover what services are available at churches in your area.

The Diocesan Liturgical Task Group encourages churches to look to develop forms of worship which meet the mission of God's church. We put on a number of workshops and training events, normally in partnership with other organisations both within and outside the Diocese. We also have produced local worship resources to help churches improve the quality of their worshipping life. Please do contact us if we can assist you further

The following ideas link to many useful liturgical and other worship resources which we hope are useful to clergy, readers, musicians and other worship leaders.

Links for Worship Resources

Back to Church Sunday resources

Liturgical material

Common Worship
This is the main Common Worship site with most of the texts of the Common Worship Services available to downlad in different formats: Common Worship web site.

Oremus
Quite simply the longest established and best resourced site for Anglican liturgical resources on the web as well as the place to find forms of daily prayer and an online Bible. Too much to list here but if this link isn't on your favourites list then you are missing out!: www.oremus.org/

Exciting Holiness
This is the online first edition of this invaluable companion to the festivals and commemorations of the Common Worship Calendar. www.excitingholiness.org/first-edition/

Praxis
Organisation within the Church of England to encourage liturgical formation and good practice. Some of the material on this site is for affliates only but Praxis organise events locally (through Praxis North) to which affliates get reduced admission fees.
www.praxisworship.org.uk/

Other sites with worship resources

Christian Aid
This major Christian charity have become a good source for worship resources (inevitably focused on themes such as provert y and trade justice). It is frequently updated, with good seasonal material.
http://www.christianaid.org.uk/

Preaching resources

Well presented lectionary commentary and notes: www.montreal.anglican.org/comments/

One of many RCL based sermons sites for those desparate to help them get started on their sermons: www.rockies.net/~spirit/sermon.html

Music

Royal School of Church Music
Main site of the largest church music organization in Britain. Online shop and some useful online resources. The Diocese of Newcastle is served by the Northumbrian branch.

Copyright Licences

The Church Copyright Licensing International is the place for most information about copyright of texts and music. www.ccli.co.uk/UnitedKingdom.cfm

Not all texts are covered by this scheme. Decani music also adminsters a licensing scheme called Calamus with music mainly but by no means exclusively from the Roman Catholic Tradition. This is the site for permission to copy music from the Taize community. www.decanimusic.co.uk