The table of contents

Includes:

• Introduction
• The Church Year
• Holy Communion (ten musical settings and a Service of the Word)
• Holy Baptism
• Lent and the Three Days
• Life Passages
• Daily Prayer
• Assembly Song (this is where the complete psalter and hymns are)
• Additional Resources

A few remarks on the "Pew Edition"

"Pew Edition" is sort of a misnomer. What about chairs? Is there a "Chair Edition" for those parishes that prefer that seating format?

Well, no matter. Evangelical Lutheran Worshiplog (ELW) suspects that we might take some heat for looking only at the Pew Edition. But here's what we're up to:

• Most people will be using the pew edition, so we are too.
• Usability and readability of the pew edition are important. The pew edition should be clear and easy to use. But this is of lesser import than the book's liturgical and musical.
• Service music and hymn melodies should be able to stand by themselves. The harmonies provided by other editions are unnecessary.

Jumping ahead a little to the Introduction on page 8:

The pew edition stands alongside a leaders edition and a musical accompaniment editions in print, all of which are needed in order for this worship book to be used to its fullest.

And while we might not necessarily disagree with this, we are not really using the book here at ELW. We are just examining it.

We believe that to be understood to its fullest, one need only look to the pew edition of any hymnal.

So, whether it will be used in the pew or the chair, this is the edition we're talking about at ELW.

The title page

The title page includes (all left-justified):

A large Evangelical Lutheran Worship (ELW) logo.

Below this, small "Evangelical Lutheran" in black italic type.

Below this, large "Worship" in black type.

At the bottom of the page, "Published by Augsburg Fortress" in black type.

The verso of this page includes copyright information as well as the notice that ELW "is commended for use in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America."

Apparently, I can't reproduce anything but "brief quotations". And yes, the Evangelical Lutheran Worshiplog is a "critical article or review". We like to think it's both an article and a review.

The copyright page also includes one more important bit of information: my copy is the "Pew Edition". This is important to our little project. More on this next.

The half-title page

The half-title page (page before the real title page) has a red Evangelical Lutheran Worship logo.

To the right of this logo are the words "Evangelical Lutheran", in italics, black type.

Also to the right of the logo and below "Evangelical Lutheran" is a large "Worship", also in black.

The inside cover

The inside cover is blank, as is the facing page.

The cover

It's red.

Are you ready? Evangelical Lutheran Worship (ELW) is here, and we at Evangelical Lutheran Worshiplog have just received our copy.

The front cover is embossed with the ELW logo. The spine has a silver logo with the word "Worship" underneath.

We think this is a better choice than the word "Evangelical", though "Lutheran" may not have been so bad.

The back is just red.