Where to place the announcements within a worship service is a question that many congregations grapple with on one occasion or another. Although announcements are not a required part of the Sunday liturgy and may be omitted altogether, there are a variety of appropriate placement options to consider.
What are "the announcements" in your congregation?
There are two types or categories of announcements. "Liturgical announcements" relate to the service for Holy Communion and aid participation in the service. ("The order for Thanksgiving for Baptism is found on page 97.")
The second types of announcements are "general" announcements (hereafter simply called "announcements") that note various congregational concerns, from bake sales and anniversaries to hospitalizations and deaths.
When announcements occur within the liturgy, it is important to place them at transition points, where they will least disrupt the flow or logic of the service. There are three transitional options that may work:
The Opening of the Liturgy
Announcements can occur before the liturgy begins. In some congregations, this is a time for silence or quiet reflection. For others, it is a time for meeting and greeting. Often, this time is concluded with either music or an order for confession and forgiveness.
| Some possible arrangements: |
quiet or active gathering time
announcements
prelude or gathering music
(confession and forgiveness)
entrance hymn |
quiet or active gathering time
prelude or gathering music
announcements
(confession and forgiveness)
entrance hymn |
When announcements are made before the service, they should take on a preparatory character, related to the worship to follow. For example, parish concerns noted prior to the liturgy provide an opportunity to encourage worshipers to remember people or concerns in prayer and appropriately signals to them that these people or concerns will be included in the prayers later.
Announcing such concerns for the first time prior to the liturgy and then praying for them during the prayer of the church is much preferable to making first references to concerns within the prayers. When important concerns or joys are sprung on the people for the first time within the prayers, people will sometimes respond to the prayers like listeners to a newscast, who are often shocked or startled by what is announced. When people are surprised, it is difficult for them to move into the depths of prayer.
The Offering
The time when the offering is received, which includes the movements of ushers or acolytes, the passing of plates, and sometimes an offertory procession of money, bread, and wine, provides a transition point within the order of worship for announcements. Announcements placed within this time frame might reflect the work of the people, and the practical business of being church could be noted.
Announcements can occur before the offering plates are passed, during the passing of the plates (if there is no offering of music), or after the offering plates are passed and before the offertory procession begins.
The Sending
Another transition point for making announcements is during the sending rite. In Evangelical Lutheran Worship, the rubric occurs before the sending and states, "Brief announcements may be made, especially those related to the assembly's participation in God's mission in the world." (page 114)
Announcements set within the sending rite should be set in a missional context, because the focus of this movement in the liturgy is on being sent forth from the liturgy into the world to serve. Some possible arrangements:
| Some possible arrangements: |
Post-communion Prayer
announcements
(Silence)
Benediction
(Hymn)
Dismissal |
Post-communion Prayer
(Silence)
Benediction
(Hymn)
announcements
Dismissal |
No Announcements
When the goal is to omit oral announcements, an effective strategy is to do them outside the liturgy itself, perhaps using other media. Announcements can be:
- printed and inserted into the bulletin or worship folder or distributed by the ushers after worship
- printed and posted on a well-placed bulletin board in the narthex or parish hall
- given after the liturgy, during the coffee hour
- posted as e-mail via a congregational listserv or as a Web page on the congregation’s Web site
- printed in a monthly or weekly parish newsletter and mailed to all members
- projected onto screens before or after services in congregations with this equipment