This book is intended as a supplement to Common Worship Pastoral Services which provides liturgies for use in ministry to the sick – distribution of communion, emergency baptism, laying on of hands and anointing. Many hospital chaplains find their services are needed in other acute situations and often by people who have no church connection or knowledge of religious language. Here chaplains need to improvise. This practical volume draws on the experience of numerous clergy and chaplains and provides tried and tested liturgies in accessible language for a wider range of occasions. Prayers are included for - occasions surrounding birth: thanksgiving, baby blessing and naming, emergency baptism, prayers for a stillborn child - healing rites: communion, anointing, laying on of hands, confession and reconciliation - marriage in hospital, blessing of a civil union, affirmation of a relationship - prayers for every stage of a hospital stay – on receiving a diagnosis, before an operation, when life support is withdrawn - occasions surrounding the death of infants, children and adults

From the pen of a hospital chaplain, here are prayers and liturgies for use in ministry to the sick, covering scenarios with no current official provision.

Tess Ward

Alternative Pastoral Prayers

Copyright information

Dedication

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. BABY CEREMONIES

1. Baby Blessing and Naming

2. Baby Blessing and Naming (Earth)

3. Baptism of Original Blessing

4. A Celtic Baptism

2. CEREMONIES FOR OCCASIONS WHERE A BABY HAS DIED OR IS DYING

5. Emergency Baptism

6. Baby Naming and Blessing after Death

7. Funeral of Babies at the Graveside

8. Funeral of a Baby (Conventional)

9. Funeral of a Baby (Earth)

10. Prayer for Grandparents

11. Liturgy for a Burial after Miscarriage (Earth)

3. FUNERAL OF A CHILD

12. Funeral of a Child (Conventional)

13. Funeral of a Child (Earth)

4. LITURGIES AND PRAYERS OF HEALING AND OTHER LITURGIES FROM THE HOSPITAL

14. A Service of Holy Communion for Use with the Sick

15. A Service of Holy Communion with Reserved Sacrament for Use with the Sick

16. A Celtic Communion for Use with the Sick

17. Liturgies of Anointing and Laying On of Hands

18. The Ministry of Reconciliation

19. A Hospital Psalter

20. Prayers for those with Mental Health Problems

21. Prayer in the Morning

22. Prayer at Night

23. Morning Prayer in Hospital

24. Midday Prayer in Hospital

25. Prayer at the Close of Day in Hospital

26. Liturgy for the Closing of a Ward

27. Liturgy for the Blessing of a Ward

5. WEDDINGS, BLESSINGS, CIVIL PARTNERSHIPS AND SEPARATION CEREMONIES

28. Wedding Blessing (Earth)

29. Blessing of a Civil Partnership (Christian)

30. Blessing of a Civil Partnership (Earth)

31. The Blessing of a Second Marriage

32. The Renewal of Wedding Vows

33. The Renewal of Wedding Vows as Reconciliation

34. Psalm for the Breakdown of a Relationship

35. Private Blessing for One after Separation

6. BLESSINGS OF TRANSITION

36. Blessing for Coming of Age

37. Blessing for Moving to a New Area

38. Blessing for Retirement

39. Celtic Mezuzah Blessing

40. House Blessing Liturgy

7. LITURGIES OF DEATH AND DYING

41. Anointing at the End of Life and Prayers and Blessings for the Dying

42. Ministry at the Time of Dying (Conventional)

43. Ministry at the Time of Dying (Celtic)

44. Ministry at the Time of Dying (Earth)

45. Last Prayers (Conventional)

46. Last Prayers (Celtic)

47. last prayers (earth)

48. Last Prayers in the Face of Tragic Death

49. Funeral (Conventional)

50. Funeral (Earth)

51. Funeral of a Young Adult (Conventional)

52. Funeral of a Young Adult (Earth)

53. Burial of Ashes (Conventional)

54. Burial of Ashes (Earth)

55. Scattering of Ashes on Water (Earth)

56. Two Prayers for Families in Grief

Commonly Used Bible Readings

This book is intended as a supplement to Common Worship Pastoral Services which provides liturgies for use in ministry to the sick – distribution of communion, emergency baptism, laying on of hands and anointing. Many hospital chaplains find their services are needed in other acute situations and often by people who have no church connection or knowledge of religious language. Here chaplains need to improvise. This practical volume draws on the experience of numerous clergy and chaplains and provides tried and tested liturgies in accessible language for a wider range of occasions.  
   
Prayers are included for   
\- occasions surrounding birth: thanksgiving, baby blessing and naming, emergency baptism, prayers for a stillborn child  
\- healing rites: communion, anointing, laying on of hands, confession and reconciliation   
\- marriage in hospital, blessing of a civil union, affirmation of a relationship   
\- prayers for every stage of a hospital stay – on receiving a diagnosis, before an operation, when life support is withdrawn  
\- occasions surrounding the death of infants, children and adults

This book is intended as a supplement to Common Worship Pastoral Services which provides liturgies for use in ministry to the sick - distribution of communion, emergency baptism, laying on of hands and anointing. Many hospital chaplains find their services are needed in other acute situations and often by people who have no church connection or knowledge of religious language. Here chaplains need to improvise. This practical volume draws on the experience of numerous clergy and chaplains and provides tried and tested liturgies in accessible language for a wider range of occasions. Prayers are included for - occasions surrounding birth: thanksgiving, baby blessing and naming, emergency baptism, prayers for a stillborn child - healing rites: communion, anointing, laying on of hands, confession and reconciliation - marriage in hospital, blessing of a civil union, affirmation of a relationship - prayers for every stage of a hospital stay - on receiving a diagnosis, before an operation, when life support is withdrawn - occasions surrounding the death of infants, children and adults

Tess Ward is an Anglican hospital chaplain in Oxford. Prior to ordination she worked as a nurse and a counsellor.

Dee Yeadon

I used to have to adapt traditional liturgies to make them more meaningful in the various ordinary and complicated pastoral situations I found myself. This book puts deep things in simple and beautiful words. A great buy. Recommended by my chaplain colleagues at the hospital.

Deep and beautiful.

The Good Book Stall

This intriguing and imaginative book is the fruit of the author’s work as a hospital and hospice chaplain but also a freelance celebrant who was ordained into the Anglican priesthood but now draws on a wider range of traditions, especially those connected with the earth and the broadly Celtic tradition. The author offers the book as a companion to Common Worship and other official service-books, and it is a rich tapestry of liturgy for life-event ceremonies of all sorts. Tess Ward describes herself as a liturgical magpie and this is very much ‘her’ book, and it is probably best used as a springboard for our own creativity, rather than a supplemental set of fixed forms.  
The presentation of the book in the same format as some other Canterbury Press titles which are quasi-official such as Exciting Holiness could mislead an unwary minister if used unreflectively. Tess is an explorer of the edges, and while the newer denominational liturgies allow for substantial adaptation and creativity, a good deal of the material in this book goes beyond what a minister could legally use when offering public worship in the name of the Church of England. An obvious case in point is that liturgies of Blessing of a Civil Partnership are provided, but there are also more general questions about when liturgy that eschews all explicit reference to Christ can be properly used.  
So – a book that can help me stay fresh, but not one that I could easily have in my hand when leading a liturgy as a public minister of the Church of England.

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