We sing Alleluia refrains year round. The Prayer Book revives the Jewish dialogue format, which the Byzantine blessing has lost, and supplies variant blessings for Lent and Easter. Similarly, at evening liturgies we follow the Prayer Book s Order of Worship for the Evening and sing here the Christian evening hymn called PHOS HILA RON, or another suitable Lamplighting Hymn. The Gloria and Phos Hilaron both antedate the Christian seasonal calendar, and we sing them at all seasons, like Alleluias. 36 Incense recalls the Jerusalem temple as the whole synagogue ritual was meant to do and has been promoted and suppressed at various periods in Jewish and Christian history by symbolic arguments.
Churches use flowers for the same reason.
The Prayer Book lectionary provides a reading from the Gospels, with an Old Testament reading whose content is closely linked to it, and a third reading from other New Testament documents called the Epistle, as it usually comes from a New Testament letter. Because the gospels originated as sermons commenting on these older readings, and were only later written down, the Gospel reading traditionally comes last. Today many churches read all three lections, often running them together to save time. But according to Massey Shepherd, who took part in planning both the Roman Catholic and Episcopalian versions, the lectionary s framers intended churches to use two readings, choosing either the Old Testament or the Epistle to accompany the Gospel. At St Gregory s, the Old Testament reading matching the Gospel is usually chosen to precede it.