High Church Lutheran Devotions

[The Red Death]

hi everyone I come from the Eastern Orthodox and Anglican traditions (1 parent was orthodox and 1 was Anglican) and Im planning on converting to the Lutheran Faith.

alot of Lutheranism is fairly low church in Australia but my own personal devotions are more in line with High Church practises.

I have experiences in High Church Anglicanism but these doesnt seem to be much information on devotions within the High Church Lutheran movement, probably because High Lutheranism is more common in non-English speaking countries.

Some resources Ive read say that High Lutherans say the Angelus like High Anglicans do...however Ive yet to see any corroborating evidence.

is anyone familiar with devotions and prayers from a High church Lutheran perspective?

 

[BreadAlone]

"High church" is really part of an Anglican dichotomy. There are certainly strands claiming the Lutheran moniker that pride themselves in romish ceremony, but I'm not sure that's representative of our Evangelical Tradition.

All that being said...for a liturgically and historically Lutheran resource, one need look no farther than the Divine Office. The Brotherhood Prayer Book is probably about what you're looking for: The Brotherhood Prayer Book: Second Revised Edition ...emmanuelpress.us › books › the-brotherhood-prayer-b...

 

[Daniel9v9]

While I agree with the above post in that Low and High church is perhaps more characteristic of Anglicanism in that the Anglican system is very broad and unionistic in its theology. Saying that, there are certainly Low and High Lutheran churches in the sense of divine service contents, style and adiaphora, even if they both hold to the same confessions (Though even this can get complicated).

That is, some Lutheran churches are contemporary or minimal in ritual - for example, many free Lutheran churches and those with strong pietist inheritance tend to feel somewhat casual. But most orthodox or confessional Lutheran bodies are in effect High church - though the level of formalism and symbols varies. (Though, again, there are confessional Lutheran churches - at least on paper - who have embraced contemporary worship and have become more or less indistinguishable from Hillsong in style. But that's not the norm for orthodox Lutheranism)

Unfortunately, I don't know much about the Lutheran terrain in Australia, so I wouldn't be able to make any good recommendations for churches where there's a real sense of reverence and orthodox liturgy. However, I do know of an outstanding Australian orthodox Lutheran - Rev. Dr. John Kleinig. I believe the body he belongs to is in fellowship with the LCMS in America.

For prayer and devotionals, I can recommend CPH's Treasuries of Daily Prayer. It's a great resource! It follows the Church year and it comes with some liturgies, catechesis and confessional writings. It's a fairly comprehensive all-in-one devotional. There's also the Lutheran Book of Prayer, which is a lighter devotional prayer book, but also good. And there's the Portals of Prayer, which also comes as an app.
These are all from CPH (LCMS), but I'm sure there are other great devotionals from other confessional Lutheran bodies.

 

[MarkRohfrietsch]

While I agree with the above post in that Low and High church is perhaps more characteristic of Anglicanism in that the Anglican system is very broad and unionistic in its theology. Saying that, there are certainly Low and High Lutheran churches in the sense of divine service contents, style and adiaphora, even if they both hold to the same confessions (Though even this can get complicated).

That is, some Lutheran churches are contemporary or minimal in ritual - for example, many free Lutheran churches and those with strong pietist inheritance tend to feel somewhat casual. But most orthodox or confessional Lutheran bodies are in effect High church - though the level of formalism and symbols varies. (Though, again, there are confessional Lutheran churches - at least on paper - who have embraced contemporary worship and have become more or less indistinguishable from Hillsong in style. But that's not the norm for orthodox Lutheranism)

Unfortunately, I don't know much about the Lutheran terrain in Australia, so I wouldn't be able to make any good recommendations for churches where there's a real sense of reverence and orthodox liturgy. However, I do know of an outstanding Australian orthodox Lutheran - Rev. Dr. John Kleinig. I believe the body he belongs to is in fellowship with the LCMS in America.

For prayer and devotionals, I can recommend CPH's Treasuries of Daily Prayer. It's a great resource! It follows the Church year and it comes with some liturgies, catechesis and confessional writings. It's a fairly comprehensive all-in-one devotional. There's also the Lutheran Book of Prayer, which is a lighter devotional prayer book, but also good. And there's the Portals of Prayer, which also comes as an app.
These are all from CPH (LCMS), but I'm sure there are other great devotionals from other confessional Lutheran bodies.

Actually, I too have the TDP, but I have discontinued it's use as it follows the calendar year, not the Liturgical year. I find this distracting. The Brotherhood Prayer book is much better, but cumbersome to navigate; equally cumbersome to navigate is what I am using currently. It is simply entitled "The Monastic Diurnal", it is a reprint of Oxford Presses Book; drawn from the BCP, and reprinted by Lancelot Andrewes Press (Western Rite Eastern Orthodox). This was given to me by my Lutheran Pastor. When it calls for the Hail Mary, I substitute "pray with us sinners" rather than "pray for us sinners", and in place of the Marian Hymns, I insert Luther's "Evangelical Praise of Mary".

It's weakness is the absence of Gospel readings; and it puts a bit more emphasis on Saints days than we Lutherans are comfortable with.

As Lutherans, we need to be mindful that the Book of Common Prayer as compiled by Cranmer was translated from the German Lutheran texts that were in common use in the Lutheran University at Tubingen; and it is interesting to note that he married the Lutheran Niece of Andreas Osiander.

Also the 1941 TLH uses the BCP Translation of the German Lutheran Mass, translated from and based on the Pre-Trent Latin Mass.

These are hard come by, but if you can find one, I think it is well suited to someone with affiliation to EO/Anglican/Lutheran.

 

[tampasteve]

I consider myself more "high church". I tend to use a combination of the Bible, BoCP, Concordia's "Reading the Psalms with Luther", the Lutheran Prayer Book, and the Book of Worship (ELCA) for my devotions.