"Amen, Amen, and Amen." The church in Indiana where I have my charge conference membership is a multicultural congregation with a strong African American heritage. We use this phrase — "Amen, Amen, and Amen" — all the time in our worship — as a concluding act of a time of congregational or pastoral prayer, at the close of a sermon, at a time of testimony, and at the benediction. In the phrase, each of the "Amens" seems to strengthen the previous, to build its intensity into a crescendo of assent that involves not just the person who says it, but almost always the entire congregation. This is not the plagal "Amen" chanted perfunctorily at the end of a hymn, or the three-fold "Amen" sung quietly by a choir after some particularly reverent moment. This is the voice of the Spirit of God witnessing in and through our spirits that we are the children of God, and as children, heirs of God's promise. With the "Amens," we claim God's promise with confidence and joy. At New Hope United Methodist Church in Anderson, Indiana, and — I imagine — at many churches with many kinds of ethnic and cultural backgrounds, the "Amens" are alive and thriving!

My colleague, Dean McIntyre, has written two enlightening essays on the diminished use of the "Amen" as a musical form across our churches, and he offers some commonsense guidance on when, where, and how to reintroduce it in appropriate ways. (See "Let the 'Amen' Sound from the People Again" and "Why Don't We Sing Amens Anymore?") I have to agree with him that — in terms of my experience in our churches — the sung plagal "Amen" after hymns is dead, even in places where adding it (or SOME kind of sung "Amen") seems to make perfect sense. We sing it at New Hope in response to the doxology and the dedicatory song "All Things Come of Thee, O Lord," but there's no real energy in it, no life behind it. Musically, in many of our settings, the "Amen" is dead, or deadly!

But as in the spoken (or shouted!) "Amen, Amen, and Amen," the use of the "Amen" as a vital ritual response in worship is far from dead, even musically. At New Hope, for example, we not only say "Amen, Amen, and Amen" at the end of the benediction, we sing it as we're leaving with the musical call "Let the church say…"; and the rousing response, in full harmony, "Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen," often with clapping and swaying, as we process out toward our life of ministry in the world.

And of course, that's not all. Preaching doesn't happen in some traditions without "Amens" throughout. Sometimes the preacher says "Amen" in a rising tone, bidding the response. More often it's spontaneous, as the preacher makes a point with conviction that touches the hearts and minds of people so that they have to say it. And sometimes it's not "Amen" that is spoken, but another response with a similar, if slightly differently nuanced, meaning — "Say it!" or "Well!" or "Yes, preacher!" In other traditions, the "Amen" may be spoken at the end of the sermon, a quiet, confident affirmation by the preacher that may be observably, if not audibly, shared in the eyes and nods of the congregation.

There is one more context for the "Amen" that I've seen explored less frequently among us — at Holy Communion and baptism. There is a Trinitarian doxology at the end of the Great Thanksgiving that concludes with an "Amen" to be said or sung by the congregation. This "Amen" has come to be called, in liturgical studies, "The Great Amen"; and it is intended to be the most jubilant, most confident, most rousing "Amen" in the entire service of worship on a given Sunday. The congregation with its presider has just offered thanks to God for the greatest gift we have all received, the gift of salvation, and has asked for the Spirit to transform the gifts we bring — bread, wine, and ourselves — to be the living presence of the body and blood of Christ among us and in the world. There is no way that an "Amen" after such prayer can be overdone! Congregations using the musical responses for our services, whether from The United Methodist Hymnal, The Faith We Sing, The Upper Room Worshipbook (the first or the brand new second edition), or other resources, may experience a glimpse of what this "Amen" can be and do. Those who simply say it and move on to the Lord's Prayer may be missing an opportunity to help the congregation offer its fullest, most creative, powerful and lavish assent to the church's most vital and regular ritual prayer.

Our baptismal ritual, built like its counterparts in many other denominations on the structure of the Great Thanksgiving, contains a similar "Great Amen" moment. After seeking the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the gift of water that it may become an agent of transformation, cleansing, and new birth for those who receive it, we again give thanks to our Triune God for every divine action that has made possible our salvation, new birth, and covenant in God. "All praise to you Eternal Father through your Son Jesus Christ, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns forever. Amen." Again, the sung responses in The United Methodist Hymnal and other resources highlight and help congregations express somewhat the depth of this "Amen." But since our congregations of all cultures seem to use the musical resources for baptism far less frequently than they do for Holy Communion, the opportunity to experience and fully express the power of the "Great Amen" here may not yet have been offered to many of us. We can do better! Amen? Amen!

Holy Communion. Baptism. Preaching. Prayer. Hymnody. Responses. Blessings. Benedictions — All these have been and are opportunities for our spirits to bear witness with the Spirit of God alive and moving among us. All these are opportunities for us to join the ancient, joyous Hebrew affirmation, "Amen!"

The "Amens" are sounding from God's people called United Methodist. May they continue to resound from our hearts, our voices, our songs, our gestures, our hands clapping, our bodies swaying, and our feet dancing, even more! And all God's people said…

Taylor Burton-Edwards (tburtonedwards@gbod.org) is the Director of Worship Resources for the General Board of Discipleship of The United Methodist Church.

Liturgical Musing #13 Copyright © 2006 The General Board of Discipleship of The United Methodist Church, PO Box 340003, Nashville TN 37203-0003. Worship website: www.umcworship.org. This article may be reprinted and used for nonprofit local church and educational use with the inclusion of the complete copyright citation plus the words "Used by permission." It may not be sold, republished, altered, used for profit, or placed on another website.

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