NASHVILLE, Tenn. Nov. 24, 2014 /Discipleship Ministries/ – Many worship elements included in The United Methodist Book of Worship are now available online at no cost for use by congregations and other worshiping or church-related educational communities.
The resources are being provided by Discipleship Ministries under a special arrangement with The United Methodist Publishing House (UMPH), said Taylor Burton-Edwards, Director of Worship Resources at Discipleship Ministries.
“This makes significant elements of the ritual of the church more easily available at no additional cost to United Methodist congregations and ministries around the world,” Burton-Edwards said. “These resources are made available on the Discipleship Ministries website as a result of the apportionment giving by local churches across the connection.”
Downloads of the resources are available at www.gbod.org/worship/book-of-worship. The resource collection is divided by these categories:
• General Services
• The Christian Year
• Special Sundays and Other Special Days
• General Acts of Worship
• Daily Praise and Prayer
• Occasional Services
• Healing Services and Prayers
• Services Related to Congregations and Buildings
• Consecrations and Ordinations
• Other Annual Conference and District Services
• General Church Services
The free online resources have generated an enthusiastic response around the connection, Burton-Edwards said.
“Folks have just been overjoyed to be able to have access to this online, anywhere and in a way that makes it far easier to do simple cut and paste editing work as they may need to in their local context,” he said.
The current edition of The United Methodist Book of Worship was first published in 1992. It replaced two previous liturgical books, both titled The Book of Worship for Church and Home, which were published in 1945 and 1965.
The resources are owned by UMPH and are used on the Discipleship Ministries website under a written agreement with the publishing house. Under the agreement, congregations and other worshiping or church-related educational communities are free to reproduce the resources for worship and educational purposes provided the copyright statement included at the end of each piece is included in its entirety.