In a Blue Report of nearly 42,000 words, the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music (SCLM) has proposed prayers and rites for many of life’s major transitions, including birth, betrothal, and death. All of these prayers and rites are supplemental to what appears in the Book of Common Prayer. Deputies and bishops to General Convention will discuss, revise, and vote on the prayers at the 75th legislative session in June.

These are excerpts from some of the prayers proposed by the SCLM:

• Becoming a big brother or sister. “Through the birth of a baby to his mother and father, N. has become a big brother. Help him to be patient and gentle with himself and the baby as he learns to share his home, his parent(s), and his toys.”

• Going on a pilgrimage. “Holy One, your Spirit leads us through the journey of our lives as we walk, run, dance, crawl, stumble, leap, and fly. You never abandon us, but always beckon: Come! Go! Follow! Return!”

• For godly expression of one’s sexuality. “This young person, N., is opening his heart to learn the wideness of love. As he strives to discover who he is, whose he is, and the person he is given to love, may he be guided, protected, and encouraged by you, O Love Incarnate.”

• A proposed rite for blessing an engaged couple “initiates interesting possibilities,” the report says. “A betrothal rite at a regularly scheduled Sunday Eucharist allows us to move from the traditional contractual model of matrimony to a more theologically sound form of forging a covenant.”

An SCLM committee has drafted prayers to help women mourn reproductive loss experienced through miscarriage, abortion, or other trauma. The commission says this draft “needs additional development and, in places, rewriting,” and proposes doing those revisions in the next three years.

Other supplemental services, which the SCLM calls Rites of Passage, include a service to celebrate “graduation from elementary school, entrance into middle school, or turning 13”; another for a person choosing a new name; and another for commissioning an elder.

Many of the rites include a presentation or examination similar to that of a baptism or ordination.

The SCLM proposes a “renewal of ministry” rite that emphasizes the ministry shared between a new rector and a congregation.

The report also proposes new burial rites that would accommodate home vigils, wakes, and other gatherings before and after burial.

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