My dear Good Samaritans,

Lent is upon us! If you were with us for Ash Wednesday you will have already noticed some of our liturgical changes for Lent as we seek to expand our language for God to be more inclusive.

Each week I want to share with you some history, rationale, and sources for where we have found some of these new texts for worship.

You will likely have noticed the change from “Lord” to “God” in many of our salutations. And, that is a topic I want to discuss in upcoming weeks. But, I wanted to start today with our Psalm text.

On Ash Wednesday we began using a translation of the Psalms from The St. Helena Psalter (psalter is just a fancy word for book of psalms). What makes this particular version so special is that it is based on the Psalter in the Book of Common Prayer that we are used to hearing every week.

The Order of St. Helena is a womens’ religious order in the Episcopal Church. Starting in about the 1980’s the Order of St. Helena began to become increasingly uncomfortable with sexist language for God and humanity that was rampant in the psalms (and in the liturgy as a whole).

Here is how the order explains what unfolded next: “By 1990, the sisters had produced (but not published) a book which was a first step toward using inclusive language in their daily worship. This book was in use in all the St. Helena convents for the next ten years.

About 1998, Sister Linda Julian, working almost alone, began work on a revised Psalter, based on the Book of Common Prayer of 1979. She drew on resources of all kinds, especially studying other efforts to inclusivise the Psalter. Her intent was to eliminate all references to God as ‘he’ and to greatly reduce masculine imagery, even to finding an appropriate substitute for ‘Lord.’ This first step toward the present wording of the Psalter, which was tried in the actual praying of the Office for several months, captured the imagination and won the support of the rest of the sisters. By 1999, the Chapter officially endorsed a full revision of the 1990 book, and a committee to work on it was appointed.

The committee was directed to stay as close to the Prayer Book translation of the Psalter as possible, keeping in mind the importance of being able to continue to sing the psalms in traditional monastic chant. They were well aware of the tension between following strict academic faithfulness to the original texts versus offering a freer translation or interpretation in order to make the prayer both more accessible and also reflective of contemporary worship.

Regarding text changes, the most obvious ones were those that eliminated all references to God as masculine. Wherever possible, a phrase was reworked, either avoiding a masculine pronoun for God or substituting another term, such as ‘Holy One’ or ‘Mighty One,’ or something similar. Sometimes substituting ‘who’ for ‘he,’ or moving from the singular to plural (‘he’ to ‘they’), offered a graceful solution. A few psalms were put into the second person, but that option was followed only as a last resort. The committee chose not to be strict about the distinction between LORD (YAHWEH) and Lord (Adonai) and God (Elohim) because of the felt need for the text to flow poetically as well as to remain singable.

There was also an attempt to eliminate other specifically masculine nouns, for example, substituting ‘sentries’ for ‘watchmen,’ ‘ruler’ for ‘prince,’ and ‘monarch’ or ‘sovereign’ for ‘king’ (except where the king was clearly a reference to David). In addition to removing the masculine references, the committee has used alternate terms for such words as ‘heathen’ or ‘alien’ (which have negative connotations today), using instead ‘nations’ or ‘foreigners.’

The committee’s work did not end with the Psalter, but also included revising the canticles, hymns, antiphons, collects, and the material used to celebrate the saints and seasons of the church year. The initial focus, however, was on the Psalms, which were prayed in their revised form in the Daily Office in every convent for several years before there was general satisfaction with the revisions. These revisions now constitute The Saint Helena Psalter, which the Order of St. Helena is pleased to offer to all who seek a deeper knowledge of God.”

I hope this background, taken from the Preface to The St. Helena Psalter, gives you some more insight into why these changes were needed and important to make the psalms more accessible to people of all backgrounds and experiences. And, I hope in hearing them each week, you will grow in your love and understanding of God.

Peace,

Fr. Chris