Lutheran Worship

Commissioned by

Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod

Approved for

Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod, Lutheran Church - Canada

Released

1982

Publisher

Concordia Publishing House

← The Lutheran Hymnal

Lutheran Service Book →

Lutheran Worship (LW) is one of the official hymnals of The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod. Published in 1982 by Concordia Publishing House in St. Louis, Missouri, it is the LCMS's third English-language hymnal and was intended to replace The Lutheran Hymnal (TLH) (1941). However, dissatisfaction with various revisions has led numerous congregations to continue using the previous hymnal, and according to a 1999 LCMS Commission on Worship survey, The Lutheran Hymnal is still used by 36% of churches in the Synod as their primary hymnal. The publication of another new hymnal, Lutheran Service Book in 2006, has restored many of the former hymnal's features in the hope that more widespread use can be achieved.

Lutheran Worship is, essentially, a revision of the green-covered Lutheran Book of Worship of 1978 that was the common liturgical book and hymnal of the old Lutheran Church in America, The American Lutheran Church and the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches, which later merged in 1988 to form the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America until 2007. The LCMS began work on the LBW in 1965 as a revision of TLH of 1941 and the other Lutheran churches' book, the Service Book and Hymnal (SBH) of 1958 and invited other Lutheran denominations in North America to participate in the creation of the hymnal. Due to disagreements and compromise with some of the other denominations involved in the project, however, the LBW was published in 1978 without the endorsement of the very church body which initiated its production, when more conservative leaders assumed leadership after 1974 amidst a theological controversy and schism. Following the rejection of the LBW, the LCMS quickly set about revising the new hymnal to remove the objectionable content, and LW was published in 1982. Lutheran Worship includes orders for Holy Communion entitled Divine Service I (a revised and updated version of the old The Common Service liturgy of 1888, which influenced the further development of American Lutheran liturgies and was incorporated in The Common Service Book of 1917, adopted by the old United Lutheran Church in America, a predecessor of the LCA to 1962), Divine Service II (two settings, very similar to liturgies included in the LBW), and Divine Service III (a brief outline of a service based on Martin Luther's German Mass). It also includes orders for Matins, Vespers, and Compline, as well as services for Holy Baptism and Confirmation. There is also Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, the Bidding Prayer, the Litany, the Lectionary, Luther's Small Catechism, Confession (Individual and Corporate), and a collection of Psalms. The bulk of the hymnal consists of 11 canticles and chants, 491 hymns, and 18 spiritual songs.

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