Pray for the Diocese of Botswana

We hope you will hold the Diocese of Botswana and its bishop, clergy and people in your prayers. Here we present several ways to do that:

• In your personal prayer life
• In the Prayers of the People in your parish
• Through occasional worship using the liturgy of the Diocese of Botswana

IN YOUR PERSONAL PRAYER LIFE

The Rev. Nils Chittenden prepared a prayer for the companion link between the Dioceses of Botswana and North Carolina. You might find it helpful and meaningful:

Almighty God, we the people and parishes of Botswana and North Carolina
pledge our lives to your service.
May we be transformed by your unconditional love,
generously sharing our time and talents,
shining as beacons of unity and bringing hope to this fractured yet beautiful world.
Bless our companionship with the creative power of the Father,
the reconciling power of the Son,
and the encouraging power of the Spirit,
making us joyful travelers together on the Way that leads to you,
the Lord of all. Amen.

Second, the Diocese provides a booklet annually, Gospel-Based Discipleship, also available online. It includes Gospel readings from the Daily Office Lectionary as well as prayers from the diocesan clergy prayer list and diocesan cycle of prayer for each day of the liturgical year. In the clergy cycle of prayer (daily), we offer prayers for the bishops early in December, and usually in November clergy from the Diocese of Botswana are included. In the diocesan cycle of prayer (Sundays), we offer prayers for the Diocese of Botswana in late December.

IN THE PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE IN YOUR PARISH

In our Eucharistic liturgy, the various forms of the Prayers of the People in our Book of Common Prayer provide an opportunity to name “our” bishops. Why not arrange for your parish, each Sunday, to say “our Bishops Michael and Anne, and Hector, Bishop of Costa Rica, and Metlha (pronounced MET-la), Bishop of Botswana”?

THROUGH OCCASIONAL WORSHIP USING THE LITURGY OF THE DIOCESE OF BOTSWANA

Celebrating the Eucharist using the Diocese of Botswana liturgy gives parishioners a taste of how our Batswana companions experience worship. It also draws attention to our companion link. It can even be used as an opportunity to talk about the Book of Common Prayer over the centuries and about the liturgical renewal movement of the last century, which led to these variations around the Anglican Communion.

There is no one date when such worship needs to happen. It can fit into your broader ministry as a parish at any time during the Church Year. However, the Episcopal Church designates the last Sunday in Epiphany as World Mission Sunday, so that might be appropriate. So too is the Sunday in our Diocesan Cycle of Prayer at which we pray especially for the Diocese of Botswana. In 2013 that Sunday was during the Christmas season. See the annual Cycle for the exact date. Finally, the Anglican Communion has an Anglican Cycle of Prayer, which is a daily two-year cycle. The next date for the Diocese of Botswana will probably fall in March 2016.

The liturgy in use in the Anglican Diocese of Botswana is An Anglican Prayer Book (1989) from the Church of the Province of Southern Africa and adopted for use by the Church of the Province of Central Africa. The text of the Eucharist is apparently no longer online, but you can purchase your own copy of An Anglican Prayer Book through Amazon. You could also simply contact Leon Spencer to secure the text. The 2016 and 2018 pilgrims to Botswana also received copies of the Setswana-English liturgies of Eucharist and Daily Office; you may wish to consult them.

In 2014 St. Andrew’s in Greensboro held an Advent service using the Botswana eucharistic liturgy. To see what a service might look like, or to adapt this service, check out the service leaflet.

In 2015, St. Andrew’s also held an Evening Prayer using the Botswana liturgy.

Proper Prefaces in use in southern and central Africa include the following:

• And now we give you thanks because in love you created us, in justice you condemned us, but in mercy you redeemed us.
• And now we give you thanks because today is the first day of the week, when you bid us give you thanks for the resurrection of your Son, whereby sin is overcome and hope restored.
• And now we give you thanks because today you have gathered us together at this Eucharistic feast, so that we may be renewed in love, joy and peace. (An Anglican Prayer Book 1989, p. 139)

If you wish to know the texts of others, contact the Rev. Dr. Leon Spencer.

As we do in the Episcopal Church, the Holy Eucharist liturgy in Botswana provides some choices.

There are three Prayers of the People (A-C), which they call Prayers of the Church. There is a fourth (D), which essentially allows “the Priest or other minister” to offer whatever prayers he or she chooses. There are four Eucharistic Prayers. The first and third Eucharistic Prayers seem to be the most commonly used, but celebrants are free to choose from the four. Finally, it is common to offer the Prayer of Humble Access.

If you wish to give the service a Setswana flavor, when the celebrant and chalice bearers communicate the bread and wine, they could say the simple words in both Setswana and English:

Mmele wa ga Kreste (roughly pronounced “MAY-lay wa ha KRES-tay”)
The body of Christ

Madi a ga Kreste (roughly pronounced “MA-di ah ha KRES-tay”)
The blood of Christ

This, then, should provide the materials and guidance you may desire should you decide to celebrate the Eucharist using the liturgy of the Diocese of Botswana.

In addition, while you may not do the following you may be interested in what is typically done in Botswana.

Given its Anglo-Catholic heritage, the Diocese of Botswana does some things liturgically that may not be especially common in the Diocese of North Carolina. Incense is widely used, as are bells. At the procession, the priest is likely to kiss the altar. The person reading the Gospel may kneel for a blessing from the celebrant before reading, and will bring the Bible back to the celebrant, opened, and the celebrant will kiss it. The preacher may also kneel before the celebrant for a blessing prior to preaching. The pall covers the chalice throughout the Eucharistic Prayer, except when the chalice is lifted or during consecration. Celebrants genuflect. When the Reserved Sacrament is used, a lay leader retrieves it at the appropriate time and processes to the altar with the vessels held high.

The Diocese of Botswana’s African flavor is especially found in its music, and the service music lends itself to popular African choruses. Youth choirs are particularly gifted in this regard. There are also some creative variations at the Peace. Sometimes it just seems chaotic, with clergy and lay leaders randomly joining the congregation in the nave. At other instances, the congregation seems to evolve into a moving circle, with everyone greeting everyone else in the line. Singing accompanies the Peace. Rarely if ever will people simply shake the hand of the person next to them and be done.

At the end of the service, clergy and lay leaders process. Upon leaving the nave, the celebrant leads in prayer, which usually includes a prayer for the departed. They then greet the parishioners, much as we do.

Vestments are much as they are here. Clergy wear albs (which are usually called white cassocks) and stoles but without a cincture. Celebrants wear chasubles. Lay leaders and acolytes wear white cassocks but with cinctures.

Worship is overwhelmingly in the Setswana language. Even so, a Setswana service may include a number of places where English is used instead, apparently not to accommodate those who do not know Setswana, but, well, “just because.” Similarly, in English services some music, especially choruses, will be in Setswana. (Interestingly, instead of being called “English services,” they are sometimes called “international services.”) Patterns are complicated by the fact that some clergy in the Diocese of Botswana come from other countries in the region and do not know Setswana, or do not know it well. Sermon translation is common. And while many Batswana are bilingual, especially in rural areas Batswana speak only Setswana or much prefer it. That preference is seen in worship.

The Diocese of Botswana follows the Revised Common Lectionary, as do we.

We hope you will give a Botswana liturgy a try. Contact us if you need further guidance.