The Synod’s Commission on Worship and Concordia Publishing House (CPH) in late April mailed a comprehensive 40-page booklet about Lutheran Service Book and its companion editions to all LCMS and Lutheran Church–Canada (LCC) congregations and others.
This is the first of several mailings over the next few months about the new Synod w
The booklet describes each of eight editions that will be available this fall, including sample pages from them, and offers suggestions for fundraising and introducing the hymnal. It concludes with a “Pricing and Ordering” page for the editions.
These include the pew edition (at $18.50), a personal/ gift edition ($40), liturgy accompaniment ($40), hymn accompaniment ($55), an altar book ($65), a three-year lectionary ($35 for each of three volumes), a one-year lectionary ($70), and an agenda ($50).
Several other editions will be available beginning next year, including a pastoral-care companion and a guitar edition.
The booklet also describes Lutheran Service Builder, a disk with software that “transforms service planning and bulletin preparation into simple, manageable, and streamlined tasks.” Among its listed features are a “fully integrated electronic worship planner”; “texts and melody lines of nearly all hymns and services in Lutheran Service Book, including some hymns exclusive to Lutheran Service Builder“; and “customizable bulletin styles and print output.” Pricing is based on the average worship attendance of each congregation or other group using the electronic resource.
The booklet also was mailed to all LCMS district offices, colleges, universities, seminaries, high schools, and Christian day schools.
Dr. Paul Grime, executive director of the Commission on Worship, said that the commission and CPH plan to mail a DVD presentation and CD recording of hymns to all LCMS and LCC congregations in June. He added that these will be followed by a mailing “in late summer” of a congregational kit containing a copy of Lutheran Service Book and another recording of hymns.
The new worship resource has been in preparation since 1998, when the Synod convention that year authorized its development.
Posted April 27, 2006
